2. Look back at the “I remember when …” moments. I recently interviewed William Vanderbloemen, founder and leader of a national search firm for church leaders. At six years old, William polished his grandmother’s silverware, and she paid him for it. Recognizing a potential opportunity, he asked her if she had any friends with silverware and started a little business.
“I always had a job,” he says. “I have always been wired up to go start something and try and build it. “
At an early age, William connected the dots of opportunities, which is exactly what he does now as the CEO of the search firm. In fact, he articulates his calling: “I serve the kingdom by creating connections.”
3. Check out assessment tools. I always recommend to leaders that they start at Ephesians 4:11 and look at the fivefold giftings: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. StrengthsFinder is also a good assessment tool.
We also can learn more about our unique identity from other clues, such as previous and even current positions that were or aren’t a good fit. Ask yourself, What did I dread about this job? What did I love? What about this position didn’t fit my personality? If you’re in a bad job or fit and all you do is say, “I want to get away from this bad fit,” you learn nothing about your unique calling and are even at risk to repeat the same scenario.
The Value of Assessing and Reassessing
Recently, one of the editors I work with told me about a church planter she had interviewed. The pastor recalled a time when he was under an enormous amount of internal and external scrutiny and as a result, the church was struggling to stay afloat. Needless to say, he was discouraged.
Fortunately, he knew enough about personal calling to reassess and then reaffirm his unique calling. Reassessment strengthened his resolve to stay in it. This young pastor knew who he was uniquely created to be and what God had called him to do. He knew he could stay faithful to his calling and let God handle the results. In many ways, reassessment can be a powerful defense against discouragement, especially in specific seasons of life.
Granted, we’ll always have times when our do (unique mission) and go (unique position) don’t align—when we’re discontent with what we’re doing or restless in the place where we are. This reality is especially true for young leaders who are often tasked with responsibilities that don’t really allow them to work in their sweet spot. Here’s the good news. If you have clarity on your be (unique identity), you can adjust the way you see your job and look for direct or indirect ways to infuse your gifting into what you’re doing and where you are. If we take ownership of our be, we can work to leverage it in any job and context.
Finally, being clear about your unique identity and mission gives you a tool for filtering opportunities for you and your church. If someone contacts me about serving on a board, I run it through my filter: Does this opportunity allow my entrepreneurial gifting (identity) to envisage opportunity (mission)? If the answer is “no,” I know I’ll be frustrated. It’s an easy “no” for me.
We would all do well to weigh out every opportunity that comes our way. I like what Larry Osborne, teaching pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, California, says about this: “Fulfill your calling, not your potential. There are lots of good things and important needs we must say ‘no’ to in order to focus on what God has called us to be and do.”
Carrying the Fullness of Jesus
What would our world look like if the body of Christ was truly activated and engaged in joining God’s work in the way he designed?
As leaders we are called to mobilize our church for each person to discover their personal calling and engage. Look at the implied command to leaders in Ephesians 4:11-12: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip his people for works of service, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (italics mine). Too many times, we read about the fivefold giftings and stop there (verse 11). But verse 12 is key to seeing the bigger picture—until we all reach the unity in the full measure of the fullness of Christ. Unless every believer in the church is engaging his or her giftedness, we will not reach the “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Couple that with Ephesians 1:23, which tells us that the purpose of the church is to carry the fullness of Jesus into every crack and crevice of society, and you start to realize the profound role you have as a leader. You have the huge opportunity to lead your church to become an incubator of calling, creating environments where discipleship flows naturally.
The consequences and the significance of us not getting this calling thing right go way beyond our personal fulfillment and satisfaction. We must embrace the truth of what the church can and should be.
Ultimately, God’s call is all about bringing life to us and through us. When we see carrying the fullness of Jesus as our mission, we stop focusing on our individual achievements and worldly success. Instead, we define our personal success in terms of eternity and as the church, we serve as a channel for carrying God’s fullness to a world in desperate need of living water.
Todd Wilson is founder and director of Exponential and author of the new book More: Find Your Personal Calling and Live Life to the Fullest Measure (Zondervan). A serial entrepreneur certified in several personal discovery tools, including life planning and coaching, Todd is passionate about equipping the church to discover and release the latent capacity of their unique personal calling. To learn more about calling, go to PersonalCalling.org and listen to Wilson’s new podcast, “Find Your Calling,” featuring interviews with church leaders such as Francis Chan, Os Guiness, Carey Nieuwhof, Jenni Catron, Thom Rainer and more.