Archive: Can Somebody Find a Way to Clone This Guy?

By Dierdra DeVries Moran

If we had more people like Gus Gustafson, the Church would have fewer problems.

“I’ll be a preacher! I’ll be a boy preacher! Why, I’ll start right now!” said a teenaged Gus Gustafson, the man they now call Mr. UM Layman in north Georgia. He wanted to drop out of high school and go to Bible school when he met the Lord at 15. “How can I get this good news out to more people?” he wondered. He didn’t expect a call to be a layman.

That’s okay, though. He didn’t expect to get pneumonia one Christmas either, and that was probably one of the best things that has happened to the United Methodist Church in recent years.

“I was getting up at midnight, one o’clock, two o’clock …. It was a horrifying experience for me. One of those nights I just prayed, ‘Lord, if I have to wake up, help me to turn this to something worthwhile. Let me turn it to You some way.”

Apparently, God had been waiting for just such a request. Gus would make notes each time he woke up, and when he’d begin to wear out, he’d just push away the pencil and paper and go back to sleep. Out of those wee hours Discover God’s Call, the organization for laypeople searching for God’s call on their lives, was born.

It all began on a farm in Nebraska years ago. Gus’ parents were committed Christians with one heart’s desire: to lead each of their six children to Jesus Christ. “It still makes my backbone tingle when I try to repeat it,” says Gus about the day he met the Lord. He was sitting in the rear of his church cutting up with a group of boys when the Swedish evangelist who was preaching pointed his finger at them and said “Young men, stop that noise back there and hear what God has to say to you. This may be your last chance.” When the invitation came Gus crawled over the other boys’ knees and went to the altar. “That’s where I met the Lord, and it was the real thing.” His voice cracks as he repeats, “It was the real thing.”

After an energetic attempt at going into the ministry Gus settled down to hear the still, small voice of God tell him, “I want you to serve me in everyday life—where the temptations are the toughest.”

And face tough temptations he did. Gus signed on with a national advertising agency (and a group of partying coworkers) as a copywriter. “I stayed away from their cocktail parties,” he said, “and was just trying to learn to survive.” Next, Gus joined the army. He served overseas for some years and came out with five battle stars. Upon returning to the states Gus embarked on a long career selling prefabricated houses, first for a large company in Toledo, then in Mississippi, then in Alabama and finally in Georgia. It was there that he and his wife, Estelle, opened their own business. About 15 years later he sold his company, and it was then, when most men would spend their well-earned retirement days on the golf course, that Gus really began to take off.

‘The day I got the check [for the sale of his company] I went home and started writing a book, I Was Called to Be A Layman.”

A short time later Gus remembered the notes he had made while suffering from pneumonia and shared them with a few friends. “This is just what our church needs!” said an excited Charles Kinder, head of the Foundation for Evangelism. Gus’ friend Ross Freeman (then secretary of the Southeastern Jurisdiction) confirmed it: “You need to go back and have more pneumonia!”

He was probably, as always, wearing a bow tie and an enormous smile when, a few weeks later at a Discipleship Celebration weekend at his church, Gus felt the Lord tug at his heart. ‘The Lord has spoken to me,” Gus told a roomful of people. “I’m going to do what it’s going to take to do it.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Just ask Gus.

“It’s been one miracle after another,” he says. Discover God’s Call is “setting revival fires all over the place.” When asked what his dream for the organization is, Gus quickly responds “One sentence. To bring renewal to the United Methodist Church.” You wait for him to say more, but he means it. Next question.

Gus rattles off story after story of what God has done in the lives of people who have attended the Discover retreats. For example, a woman quite critical of her church’s Sunday school program went to a Discover God’s Call weekend and returned to her church with a call to be a teacher. The Sunday school (as well as the church) hasn’t stopped growing.

A skycap in a black church in Atlanta went to a Discover God’s Call weekend and received a call to do a lay witness mission in his church (unheard-of in black churches in that area). The church’s attendance (mostly professionals—CPAs, upper-level management, etc.) has doubled. Gus emphasizes, “And here’s this skycap leading the church!”

That’s what happens, Gus says. “When the Lord takes hold of someone and they have a call, it’s amazing what they can do. It’s amazing.”

The program is sponsored by the Foundation for Evangelism and done in consultation with the General Board of Discipleship. The Discover God’s Call experience starts at home, where, for 26 days, the “discoverers” spend 30 minutes each day with the resources provided by the program (including a search book, Gus’ book I Was Called to Be A Layman, and the Bible). At the end of those 26 days the discoverers meet for a weekend retreat. There they meet as a group and later break off into smaller “search groups” of four people and one leader. The discoverers also spend time alone meditating on what the Lord is saying to them. By the end of the weekend each person will know what God’s call on his or her life is.

The plan is lay renewal. “You can’t pick up a book on renewal that doesn’t say the same thing,” says Gus. “Renewal has to come from the laity.

“The Lord has called us,” says Gus. “He’s put us on stage. Discover God’s Call is one of the things that God has put into the United Methodist Church today for bringing renewal. It’s powerful. In it are the seeds for renewal.” Gus and his wife, Estelle, have been married for 47 years. “She has worked right alongside of me,” he says, “and she’s my best critic.”

Gus has been the national director for Discover God’s Call, and Estelle has been the treasurer and registrar. They will soon be handing the baton to Chuck and Fern Davis of Wheaton, Illinois. He and Estelle will spend a good deal of their time doing fundraising for Discover God’s Call. (The ministry is financed entirely by donations.)

One of the keys to Gus’ success is prayer. Through it Gus found God, received his call to be a layman (though he had dreamed of being a preacher), authored several books, raised four children and founded Discover God’s Call. (Not to mention the little “day-to-days” that Gus regularly brings to the Lord on his knees.) Others notice Gus’ dependence on prayer: “He takes prayer seriously,” says one UM pastor. “He often calls me with an idea, and it’s usually an idea that has come out of a time of prayer.”

The other key to Gus’ success is his love for people. “He’s Mr. Warmth,” said our photographer after having spent an evening with Gus and Estelle. For a few shots Gus donned a bow tie and told Greg, “My bow tie is my trademark.” But even when he’s not wearing a bow tie, he is wearing an ear-to-ear smile. That’s probably more truly his trademark.

“If there were more big-hearted people like Gus in the UM Church, we would have no more problems,” said an active UM layman. With a gleam in his eye he continued, “Could somebody find a way to clone this guy?”

Discover God’s Call has seen people from 19 different states participate. Of course, Gus hopes that one day the program will reach into all 50 states. “Our 1000th person will go through in our next retreat,” says Gus excitedly. “I praise the Lord that He has gotten Discover God’s Call started. It’s powerful, and we haven’t even seen the full dimensions of it yet.”

Maybe not, but it’s easy to see the dimensions of what God can do with a man willing to answer when He calls. Just take a look at Gus Gustafson.

Dierdra D. Moran is assistant editor of Good News