Bible Students

this episode we have special guest Natalie lson the dean of women intern at Calvary Chapel Bible college today she’s going to be talking about what living life as a Great Commission Christian looks like for her so Natalie why don’t you begin by talking a bit about your background

um oh gosh sorry this pretty pretty crazy being on a podcast isn’t it no this is just so silly to me not that it’s a no that’s not that’s not what I’m meaning it’s just a sorry sorry okay it’s not funny it’s funny serious

important so why don’t you start off by talking about your background a b okay um I’ve been following the Lord for three and a half years um about six to eight months into my walk with the Lord I came to Calvary Chapel Bible College and then quickly got involved um leading worship at my church um along with serving at my school which was required but I really enjoyed and then I graduated in Spring of

2023 with my diploma in biblical studies after that I served at a Christian Conference Center in Austria for almost three months as the head of the dining department so it was practical Ministry but very self sacrificial there was a lot of me that needed to be given and um also while I was there the church that we were regularly going to I got to lead Worship in um and then I returned back to Calvary Chapel Bible College not as a student but as an intern for the Student Life department so then I was the dean of women intern which looks like leading and participating in um weekly small groups checking dorms discipling the women on campus um specifically the dorm stewards and sometimes enforcing the rules and disciplinary actions but my main role was to be there for the women on campus specifically the students and I’m now finishing that up yeah yeah and I know that when a lot of people look at things like checking dorms uh doing disciplinary it can seem very much like like boring busy work but I mean being the dean of women intern on on campus I mean you’re getting to be like a beacon of responsibility for these students so even though you’re just checking the door like people are seeing you as someone who’s enforcing the responsibility of good Christian stewardship which is awesome it’s super cool um can you tell me more about your time doing leadership okay um the first church I was leading worship at um I was a very new Christian and they threw me in pretty quickly the second they found out that I saying in general um and you know I I enjoyed doing it it taught me a lot about what it meant

to use that as a Ministry when before my view on it was just singing in front of a bunch of people and I think that the ministry of worship like specifically in song at church or really anywhere um got stewarded way better at the Bible College because I was leading worship there a lot more um and I was given a lot more Direction there in the sense of like how it should be done um how we should honor the Lord in that and um Steward it well as we’re guiding the congregation into a place of worship in terms of like choosing songs and where our heart posture should be and um you know committing it to the Lord before and not leaning on Talent OR self um but you know leaning on what the Lord had given us and returning it back to him as an act of worship yeah absolutely um tell me more about your time at rival College what was it like um how did you get to serve the students like as a student yeah as a student uh serving other fellow students or or doing dorm stewarding or anything like that okay well like I said earlier um it’s not the case anymore but for my first two in two to one and a half to two years of Bible College we were put in a program called m199 where we were required for credit to serve one another which was awesome and I think very beneficial and um you know that was like the majority of me being a student the way I served others um but then the last bit was me being a dorm Steward but for the first part it was practical service I I was in the AV department for my first two semesters and then in the media Department um and you know it was it was fun work but at the same time like I would have to wake up early for the early morning classes and set things up and get things going and I didn’t necessarily enjoy that part but I also really enjoyed like being able to sit in on the classes and talk to the students and um get to that um and you know it was like we were trained to provide a resource for the students who maybe missed class or a resource for the professors to be heard um to the entire class um along with like during chapels we would do soundcheck and um set up the stage and it was a lot of fun it taught me skills and it was the beginning stage of me really learning like practical Ministry rather than like you know what I thought was Ministry which was just the spiritual discipleship intense side of ministry I guess the whole beginning of me being in Bible College and even still now like I was just learning what it even meant to follow the lord and be involved in the body of Christ and specifically in the local church so when I became a dorm Steward for my last semester as a student in Bible College um that that’s when it was no longer practical Ministry but it became more discipleship centered Ministry and I was in charge of two dorms which was a little bit overwhelming because it was my first time um and I I didn’t really know what I was doing but the Lord guided me there and so I just trusted in him um and it was a blessing I loved it um it took up a lot of time where like I was meeting with someone new every single day because of how many girls I was stewarding um it was a blessing I loved getting to know them I loved hearing about what’s going on in their life the good and the bad and the boring stuff like I love being able to just be there um pray for them to point them to the Lord to just sit and listen to them um hear their testimonies and you know in our door meetings on I think it was Sunday nights at the time just having all of us together um and having that sweet time of fellowship with a group of people that just wouldn’t naturally hang out with each other because someone else chose who they were living with and seeing them laugh together and cry together and pray for one another it was a blessing to be able to Steward that environment and um also have personal relationships with each of them so yeah it was was definitely a blessing and that really um encouraged my desire to apply for the G of women internship later on so definitely tell me about your time in Austria what was that like it was trying it was difficult um it was my first time out of the country and what I chose for my first time out of the country was to live there for almost three months um which I knew would be difficult and yeah um that type of practical Ministry was different than what I done before um in the sense that it was 40 hours a week I was well I had a manager position and I am managing like I think it was like eight 16 to 20 year olds that were the majority of them not from this country like America or Austria um and I had to schedule them and run all the shifts and make sure they were in proper uniform and had their hair tied back and wering on their phones and were serving the guests of many different cultures um and it was very trying um but in that time like I was separated from my home and even the comfort of being in my own country and my own culture and I was given a a pretty like big responsibility because you’re serving these people food and that people take food fairly seriously um not just in America but at least in other countries in Europe um I didn’t have great Community there because I had this like Authority position I think a lot of the people that was serving alongside kind of saw me as a um type of authority over them and um unfortunately I did have to do some disciplinary stuff there as well because you know it was just a bit very adventurous group of young people and they like to do adventurous things that unfortunately broke rules so anyways because of that you know I just I didn’t have great community and um the Lord became my community very quickly um which he had been before but I think being in Austria doing this practical Ministry not having great Community but be feeling very overworked and overexerted all the time um my only Refuge was in my room um in the word and in prayer for hours every single day um and it was awesome I remember I would call my dad every now and then and um I would tell him like I had never felt so close to the Lord in my life like not even in Bible College where I was studying his word every single day um just spending time with him in his word but just being in his presence um and seeking him and knowing him and allowing him to have control over my emotions rather than me because I absolutely would not have gotten through that summer without him they ministering to me on the level that I was ministered to by him um but it was a blessing and um through that I was able to do some discipleship Ministry there were a few girls who just needed guidance they had a lot of questions and um never were given answers and weren’t treated very well and uh the Lord brought that information to me and I was able to you know Steward their their questions and their availability and their desire to be guided and um Point them to the Lord and point them to scripture rather than maybe what the internet is saying or um a bunch of different articles without true like substance to them were saying um and so being able to do that I feel like even prepared me for for the next internship that I was stepping into immediately after which was being the intern for the dean of women at the RB college so tell me about that okay um so that was a hard transition at first because I did about 20 hours of travel from Austria to Italy to Georgia to California and then I got to sleep One Night in a bed and then I woke up and I moved straight to the Bible College completely jetlagged and very burnt out from the summer i’ had had now the Lord definitely ministered to me like so immensely in that summer but I did feel very burnt out worn down um mostly physically at that point um but I just jumped straight in and I started that internship um planning the retreat where we kind of raise up the dorm stewards that are about to start that semester um and so I got to you know just get to know important to the dorm stewards that were coming in for that semester and got to um get to know my new at the time supervisor Kayla Peterson and um get settled back into being in America and yeah it was I I don’t I just loved it but I was very tired um but then you know over time the Lord really just restored um all of that everything that I was in every way that I felt worn down like the Lord restored that for me which was a blessing and so gracious of him but so that was the start of it and then the students came and you know it was tempting to get overwhelmed and not want to do it anymore when you see all of the girls that you’re potentially going to be um you feel this burden to protect them and to Steward them and nurture them spiritually when and I think that’s that’s what I felt right away like when I’m meeting all of them at the front desk and hearing their names and trying to remember and um seeing the rooms that they’re going in and hearing their dorm Steward’s hearts for them you know it was a blessing but it did feel overwhelming at first and um from there the Lord really taught me to lean on him in a new way rather than how I did in Austria with not having community and not um feeling physically equipped or mentally equipped I didn’t feel like I was ready for the position I was going into it just felt intimidating um in a whole different way especially spiritually I just um I had to learn that like this is a whole new Arena of like surrender I need to like give to the Lord like or I guess I just need to surrender it to the Lord um because there are many times in that where I would be meeting with a dorm stward and they would be in need of some sort of advice whether it was relational or disciplinary or um you know if there was a conflict in their room and sometimes I would give them viice just in my own knowledge and strength because I was like oh I got this and I’d give it to them and I think I spent probably a week or two doing that without realizing it um this was probably like in the middle point of my first semester doing this and I after that was a wreck like struggling with extreme mental fatigue um and spiritual fatigue and emotional fatigue and I was like what is going on with me like I didn’t understand what was happening and so I was meeting with my supervisor and um another woman I meet with who is the dean of students wife Katie and cheda and they were like well you sound like you’re burnt out and then I I started to think through like what I’d been doing that week and I realized like oh I have not been like giving time to the Lord I’ve been giving time to these girls I’ve been giving time to my internship but I had not been giving time to the Lord I hadn’t even been inviting him into the meetings I was having and that was a very humbling and sobering moment for me because I thought that like I was nailing it because I was like pouring into these girls and like I totally wasn’t cuz God wasn’t in it like sure he still could have used me um but I didn’t let him I didn’t invite him into it and so being humbled in that way was kind of intense but then like so redeeming um in the end because the Lord so gently guided me into um just inviting him into every meeting every conversation um which obviously means praying before but even as a girl coming to me with her problems um there’s been a ridiculous amount of times where I’m like thinking to myself like Lord I have absolutely no words for this girl so please give me the words to say and it just became a regular thing where it was like even if I do have words to say like Lord give me them like speak through me um and I would pray that even before because I didn’t want any girls to even even get the idea that I think I know what I’m doing in My Own Strength because I don’t um and yeah it got better I started to get in the groove of things more and it wasn’t easy it’s a it’s a difficult job bearing the burdens of girls um with them is very taxing um but also super rewarding because you get to minister to them and point them to the Point them to scripture um and yeah I think that the Lord has ministered to me so so heavily just through the women because not only did I get to disciple and support them but like there were so many times where like I would meet with a dorm Steward and just be frank with them and tell them like I do not really have anything to give you right now and they would pray for me they would sit with me they would hear what I’m dealing with um and they ministered to me the Lord definitely spoke through them to me so many times and you I was so blessed by them and I was so I’ve been so blessed by Kayla my supervisor and um it’s been a very good time that I’ve

had yeah definitely so looking back over all that time what are some of the best lessons that you’ve learned

um like or guess let me let me phrase it a different way um think back to the successes that you had with discipleship with organizing uh musical events with doing dorm meetings with the dorm stewards and and other things like that think of the successes that you’ve had in those things and and oh the successes okay um

well I I don’t know if I’ve done enough like worship Ministry to have like seen any successes I guess that I that have stuck with me I mean obviously the Lord like in any time could could do that I don’t know um so specifically for like worship Ministry I I’m not really sure but like as a dorm Steward I think um a big thing was like just seeing like the Lord work in some of these girls’ lives um like watching the gears turn in their mind as they start to realize God’s character more I think that um obviously like all I would do is sit and listen and point them to the Lord and and um you know there were times where like I would just be able to watch the Lord like Shepherd them right in front of me um which was a huge blessing because you know like I said like it’s it’s absolutely impossible for me to do it in my own strength and that’s going to fail and um so I think that was those were always big successes I I don’t think I can think of like a specific scenario right now but you know it’s definitely something I remember experiencing is just like watching the Lord minister to the women I was a dorm Steward over like right in front of me was was always a huge blessing and watching them grow over the four months that I got to Steward them and um yeah after that definitely since that was for dorm stting and

um successes that I got to see like some that really stuck out to me um in my internship here at the Bible College is after I had shared my testimony um to a group of girls I’d Shar my testimony a few times to girls um and every time like someone would come to me and like be sharing something with me that like I don’t think they had actually ever shared with anyone before um or they like very much wanted to keep it to themselves or weren’t sure if they were even able to talk about it and so watching the Lord like redeem you know a like my life in sin for his glory to minister to these girls now is like that was such a blessing um and yeah I think that was like the biggest thing that like blessed me so much is like seeing like because another time that the Lord was actively working in their minds and in their hearts right in front of my eyes um yeah that that is so awesome to experience and um as I was in Austria I think the biggest success I had was just the Lord ministering to me I think because I genuinely didn’t think I would get through being there it was a hard season but God God really revealed his faithfulness to me in that time even through trials yeah now tell me about some of the hard Seasons tell me some of the failures that you’ve been able to go through where you’ve been able to to learn lessons

Okay

um well I mean even starting out with with Austria tell me about that okay okay yeah yeah well being in Austria I think there was a lot of times that like being in it was specifically dealing with difficult people I found myself like really struggling to actively love them in that moment um yeah I think that I I definitely could have reflected Christ better in those times and um learning

that we like Christ’s love for us and for the world it surpasses how they’re like how he was treated and how they treated him and I think that was like very humbling for me because I didn’t learn that till after I had been there that like we’re expected to love in that way I I guess I always assumed that it was too extreme for me to ever accomplish that which of course we can never meet like that um same level that Christ loved because he was God he is God and he’s perfect and um but because of that I was like well that’s not going to happen for me ever I think I just didn’t even hold myself to any standard on that level and so um yeah frustrating people and people who are you know at times just outwardly disrespectful it it can be difficult to live and I definitely could have loved the people there better um

and I think that I guess that was that was a big one there were some very people and in the end I think that another thing is like I did struggle being there but I could have like let the Lord give me more joy I think I I sat in my own misery for too long and I could have enjoyed it more if I had let myself and let the Lord like minister to me and that way like yeah I found joy in him I found comfort in him but he definitely like wants to give us the grace to enjoy like what we’re doing and where he’s placed us um and yeah I I think that in my selfishness in my desire to complain in need like in the need for Comfort I could have I limited what God wanted to do for me because of course he can’t do anything but I didn’t even invite him into that you know I I just let myself be more miserable than I think I could have been those were two big things I learned after being in

AUST so as the dean of women intern right what does discipleship look like to you I mean what is what is good discipleship what’s an example of of poor discipleship

well I mean we are like as we’re all called to be disciples you know in the Great Commission like you said and I think that discipleship isn’t just a position to have it isn’t just a circumstance I think that it is we’re commissioned to have that as a lifestyle as followers of Christ and now I was blessed to have it be my job not a job that paid me but you know something I was responsible over and I think that it means um continuing and walking in like the gospel by living with these people and living your life with these people and recognizing your shortcomings with them and um pointing to them to the gospel every single day and allowing the gospel to be spoken to you you every single day and um yeah we don’t it doesn’t stop when we just accept Christ into our lives it’s it’s the rest of our lives on Earth is to glorify the Lord and to spread his word um and so I think that discipleship can go wrong when someone puts it in a box and maybe makes it one specific thing rather than something we’re all actually mission to do as Believers and as the body of Christ um and I think that you know usually there’s a role where one person is discipling the other person but I don’t think that the person discipling cannot also be discipled by the one receiving it um and um that there should be vulnerability on both ends that there should be openness on both ends of Brokenness and of the good as well and I don’t know I think in the church today we tend to put discipleship in a box and I I feel like the Lord has developed a strong conviction for discipleship in my heart as I’ve been in Bible College as a student and as an intern too take it seriously as the lifestyle of a Believer rather than just a position to have or a season I think we should always be doing discipleship together as a body yeah so discipling people as a part of of the Christian’s regular life and um being co- discipled by people what does that look like for you uh both as just an individual and as the deing wome um I feel like the two kind of go together right now in this season as an individual and as a dean of women inter um because there is like different like levels of responsibility at our school than the Student Life Department which I’m very thankful for and so I have a supervisor who is Kayla like I’ve mentioned and her and the dean of students wife Katie have poured into me and discipled me in such an amazing way um this semester and last semester and it’s it’s been really great to like be poured into not just by God’s word but through people who are older and wiser and um then to be able to pour out um because I do have regular meetings with dorm stewards and with students and when I have my own stuff going on I don’t need to burden um someone who I’m pouring into with that like someone else is able to pour into me and I don’t think that that should always be the case I think that there like there’s plenty of opportunity for me to share like a struggle or a like something going on in my life with someone I am also pouring into I think that that’s important but um being able to have someone just directly pouring into me in the position I’m in and also just as an individual has been a blessing and I think has been very crucial for um the quality of my internship and my sanity and yeah but in the end like we’re Disciples of the Lord and if that’s not happening then it just doesn’t doesn’t make sense so of course like the priority is time with the Lord and stewarding that which is not easy with the busyness of this internship but is crucial and I did have to learn that the hard way so definitely you know it was said by the dean of men David Diaz that discipleship is more about being available than it is about a specific program or anything like that have you found that to be true as well yeah definitely um because you can have whatever title whatever like regular meetings um and anything set up but if you have not shown that you care and that you are available it’s very very difficult to make an impact on someone else’s life because they won’t let you um and to force that is it’s not healthy and I think that that availability it just allows the Lord to work in ways that our finite Minds could structure ever um and so a big thing for me that um I don’t know how I even came up with this but it started very early on in my internship I started hosting dorm meetings and so a different dorm would be in my room um on Monday nights after chapel and every time before the door meeting started I let them know why I was doing those door meetings which was to let them know where my room was that they’re always welcome that there’s always snacks and tea and coffee available for them that it’s a comfortable space and that my door is 100% always open for them I don’t have to be in the room I could be in the main building I could be um at work I I really let them know that like I am available and I am interruptable and I got to see fruit from that which was such a blessing and so you know it was it’s good to have structure but I don’t think that’s the only way to do it I think that yeah availability is amazing because the Lord will will use that in ways that we don’t expect because like I said our finite Minds cannot imagine what’s going on in other people’s lives like we can add as much structure as we want to discipleship but in the end like it is a lifestyle and yeah it does take availability so absolutely so as the person who is helping to disciple the female Dome stewards on campus how have you been able to empower them to do discipleship for other people um mostly by pointing them to the Lord and and praying for them because they’re honestly nailing it they’re doing a great job and you know I sit with them and I ask them about every single one of their dorm girls just to get a little pulse check on how all of them are doing and sometimes it brings up a conflict or something going on or something they’re kind of struggling with and um that’s when I kind of like am able to step in and either encourage them um or just give them guidance but for the most part like I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen that they they’ve needed is just encouragement and to be pointed to the Lord and to be prayed for um because yeah all of the pouring out of being a dorm Steward like I think it’s good to have a person to pour into to you as well and um so being able to do that for them and to just sit and listen sometimes or to hang out and and do something that isn’t super intense and emotional or super intense and spiritual or anything like that and um I think that that’s been you know a blessing for me but I’ve I’ve seen that that’s how that’s how I’ve been able to kind of help po into them as they’re they’re pouring out yeah um and like what you were talking about you’re going to be pouring out to someone else you have to be being poured into so what is your experience with self-care self care things like spiritual disciplines taking sabbaths making sure that that you are filled up important into you before you’re able to corrupt other people yeah so it definitely just starts with time with the Lord I have not nailed the waking up and spending time with the Lord first thing in the morning it’s always um if it’s first thing in the morning that’s awesome but it usually tends to be at random times in the day as long as I can get in the word and get in prayer like that’s that’s been a blessing for me to have that sometimes very like little snippet of time but just to like nurture that time and cling to it um has been huge um because there will be times where like I will have just read something and then someone will come to me and it’s like oh that’s actually completely relevant for what is fresh on my mind and I can point them to that or you know just the Lord being able to minister to me as his daughter um not as someone who’s just serving others but he’s definitely nurtured my relationship with him in this time as I’ve um you know cared for my spiritual well being by seeking him and nurturing my relationship with him um when it comes to Sabbath I have not nailed that absolutely not um still learning that one the Sabbath I get is the time in the word um and if Kayla starts to see that I’m I’m getting a little burnt out she’ll give me a forced day off um but yeah this like this past year of interning I have not done the Sabbath well and which is interesting because I think that the Lord is like put things in front of my face to like teach me the importance of the Sabbath like whether it’s a chapel or a conversation I have or listening to a different teaching um I’m think I’m you know picking up what he’s putting down right in front of my face is that Sabbath is important especially just seeing it in myself like that I’m I’m in need of rest and yeah I I think that I like in my time of being in Bible College and then being in Austria and then turn um interning at the Bible College the Lord’s definitely been like teaching me the importance of the Sabbath but I need to practice it and I I haven’t done that and I haven’t learned how to do that so yeah um so what I’m hearing you talk about is basically that discipleship is a process of pointing other people to Jesus it’s not necessarily about the uh the way that you do it but it is about your availability like being able to spend time with these people and and with that like it’s not uh not as much about the position of being over these girls for you it seems like it’s more about you’re in a place where you’re able to be available for them and so it’s it’s not that you’re like higher than them but it’s that you are more available so you are able to be pouring into them and also be poured in by them does that that sound about right yeah okay um so knowing that having these views that you have now um and knowing what direction that you want to you want to go with that if you were to start over before Bible College before any of this what would you want to do differently what would you want to know back the you know that’s a hard question for m because everything that I had done whether it was it felt like a mistake or it was sinful um the Lord used and and I’m now thankful for it um oh but you know what as I’m kind of thinking back on when I first came to Bible College and kind of what I’m learning right now is not holding as much weight to people’s words I think when I first came to Bible College I was intimidated by the culture of deep theological conversation and debate and you know it was a lot of hotti attitudes and how much theological and biblical knowledge people had and that with that being very foreign to me I was terrified and actually pretty frustrated um but also I felt this need to like please those people because it was like the culture that was stewarded at the Bible College and I don’t think that’s the case now um but it was kind of the culture at the time and you know some I had been going to and I got saved in an extremely charismatic church and it was definitely spoken out again at the college um charismatic churches were not accepted by a lot of people at the Bible College at the time and I think I held way too much weight in what they were saying um but you know I had to learn later on like will the Lord minister to me and like reached me in that and um yeah I I had to learn like that what other people were thinking like was not going to be like the end all be all of my reputation or my worth um you know as a baby Christian that’s something that just takes learning and so even if I had just I don’t know how I would have learned that or known that right off the bat but it was something that that definitely harmed me um a lot was like putting a lot of weight on man I had I had fear of man very heavily and I think that that was that was very harmful to me and more harmful to me than I think others at the school so yeah well I don’t have any more questions do you have anything else you’d like to say all right well man thank you so much for doing this interview really appreciate it you