From the Desk of Pastor Brandon
Good morning, Reader,
What are you called by God to do in life?
This is a question most of us wrestle with at some point in our lives, and for some of us, we wrestle with it throughout our lives.
Is this a question you wrestle with?
Do you have clarity on your God given mission and purpose in life, Reader?
Over the years, I have met many amazing people of various ages and stages in life who have asked me, "How do I know God's calling on my life?"
In my 4 Levers of Church Growth framework, there is an exercise I use to help people discover the calling God has on their lives, and today I want to take you through a brief version of it to help you if you are struggling with having direction in your life and clarity around what you should be doing to make an impact on the world.
This exercise assumes a couple of things. First, that God has created you in His image, and that He wants you to live your best life.
If that is the case, then when He created you, He infused certain raw materials within you that would lead you to your calling. Think of mining iron ore out of the earth. It isn't refined iron that can be used to build anything, but it is the raw material with the potential to be used to build something.
The primary raw materials that God has placed in you are your natural talents and your deep passions.
What are your raw talents that you are naturally better than average at? What things come easily to you that most people seem to struggle with or are unable to grasp easily? What, if developed, could you be excellent at, maybe world-class? Those are your raw talents.
Next, what are your deep passions? What are the things you could talk about for hours with anyone and never get tired of? What are the causes, situations, circumstances, or scenarios that emotionally move you? What are the problems that keep you up at night or you find yourself returning to over and over again to try and fix?
When you have identified your primary passions and natural talents, begin to prioritize them by importance or intensity. Begin with your best talent and your deepest passion. In the cross section of those two things, there is likely your calling.
For myself, I am passionate about helping pastors live healthy ministry lives for the long haul. I am talented at teaching and making complex things seem simple to understand.
At the cross section lies my calling: training and coaching pastors how to build healthy churches that grow.
If you feel as though your life is off somehow, or like you are missing what you were made to do, then I want to encourage you go through this exercise and discover what is at the cross section of your talents and passions, and you may have a lightbulb moment where your calling from God reveals itself.
Have an amazing day, Reader,
