Find Your Place: Locating Your Calling Through Your Gifts, Passions, and Story

FOREWORD BY TODD WILSON

We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

—Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Followers of Jesus are made for more. We want the life that Jesus offers, but we fall short of taking hold of the abundant life he made possible, abundance that is found in discovering and engaging the purposes God designed for each of us. Instead of living life to the fullest measure by finding our personal callings, we trod through life, dreaming of better days. Followers of Jesus in America have been conditioned to settle for less.

In Ephesians 2:10, Paul tells us that followers of Jesus are saved for far more than a destination. They are saved to play a part in the grand restoration of God’s kingdom on earth. Christians are recreated in Jesus for a purpose and with inherent significance. These recreated individuals have a hunger to play the part Jesus planned for them, but many if not most will not realize that calling.

The term calling refers to the spiritual summons from God to find our identity in Jesus and to be disciples who make disciples wherever we find ourselves. This common or general calling unites us on a common mission with all other Christians throughout time.

In contrast, our unique calling distinguishes us from all other Christians and equips us to do the good things Jesus planned for each of us to do. Our unique calling finds its significance in the context of our common or general calling to make disciples. God equips each of us with a personal calling to more effectively play our part in making disciples wherever we go in corners of society.

According to Ephesians 2, every follower of Jesus receives this sacred summons. In America, however, this term has been used almost exclusively for pastors, missionaries, or other church leaders in vocational ministry. This tragedy has not simply squelched the potential impact of the church in America, it has put it in a chokehold.

In recent years, a growing number of church leaders are taking a step back and putting their sights on a better path forward. There is a growing sense that something is wrong with our system of volunteerism. Most churches have embraced a we can do it, you can help posture that is vital to running the programs of the church. Unfortunately, this approach tends not to mobilize people within their unique calling.

What we need is a you can do it, we can help posture that seeks to equip and mobilize God’s people to accomplish God’s purposes wherever that leads them. Imagine the impact of a movement of Jesus followers mobilized into all corners of society within the context of their unique callings!

It is now time for followers of Jesus to take the next step. It is time for every follower to pursue, locate, and make the highest possible impact through their personal calling. Sometimes that calling is within the walls of a local church ministry. More and more, however, the aperture of calling potential is being opened up to include every nook and cranny of the world.

Followers of Jesus are being called to engage the fight against loneliness, poverty, and other forms of injustice. Followers of Jesus are influencing enterprise and the marketplace to value their people instead of using them. Jesus is leading more and more of his people into mission where they live, work, study, and play. I believe Jesus has called each of his followers in a way that would meet every need in every community if only they had a way to locate that calling.

If you are sensing God’s summons, if you are hearing Jesus calling you to become more, then this book is for you. Find Your Place provides a helpful language and a clear and proven pathway for you to locate and take a next step in your calling. Find Your Place is filled with stories of people, just like you, who have moved from simply volunteering in a church to joining Jesus in his mission, extending the influence of their churches into their communities and around the world.

Rob Wegner and Brian Phipps have made the pursuit of personal calling practical and attainable. They had you in mind the whole time they were writing this book. Rob and Brian are proven practitioners who have mobilized hundreds and even thousands of people to locate their callings and make the kind of impact for which they were recreated.

I wish this book had been available while I wrestled with my calling.

I was a nuclear engineer with a successful and satisfying career. In many ways, I was living the American dream. But my success fueled a discontent that left me longing for significance. I spent two full years before reluctantly taking a next step, and then another decade journeying to find my place.

My passion for starting healthy new churches continues to increase, and I now spend most of my energy engaged in a wide range of leading-edge and pioneering initiatives aimed at helping catalyze movements of healthy, reproducing churches. Before discovering my calling, I never could have imagined doing what I’m doing now. Discovering our calling opens new and exciting doors into the future.

I cannot imagine what life would be like had Jesus not led me to locate my calling. I cringe at the thought of potentially spending a lifetime pursuing success while missing out on the life Jesus meant for me.

You’re probably reading this book because you want to be a good steward of the life Jesus intends for you to take hold of. Rob and Brian’s book will help you discover and engage your calling. Lean into it. Work through their exercises. Prayerfully anticipate what God will reveal to you as you journey through this gem of a resource.

The Spirit of God—the same Spirit who hovered over the darkness at creation, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, the same Spirit who changed your life—is still hovering over the recreation that is you, waiting to show you the gifts he has deposited in you, waiting to help you see the passions that he has instilled in you, waiting to show you the next step in your story.

As the Spirit’s power enters the depths of your soul, fusing your daily life with your eternal purpose, an awakening will stir within you that will cause you never to settle for less again.

Join me in the journey that is living on mission with Jesus through your calling. Enjoy this book and enjoy the ride.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to so many for their meaningful contributions to Find Your Place. We are grateful for Bruce Bugby and Network Ministries for their foundational work in raising the awareness of personal calling in the church. We are grateful for Rick Warren and Saddleback Church’s Class 301 (S.H.A.P.E.), which helped us see how personal calling is a critical part of making disciples. Both of these resources shaped how we led in our ministry settings.

We are grateful for the thousands of people who have been the beneficiaries of our disciple-making efforts over the years. Our investment in each other has resulted in this book, which will impact not simply the readers of this book but also the thousands of people in their circles as they serve through their personal callings. Thank you for growing with us!

We are grateful for Michelle Wicker, Kelly Maxwell, and Amy Dmyterko, who helped us shape the GPS assessment and process from which this book evolved. We are grateful for Shelly Arnold, Breanna Wiebe, and Joe Klassen (the rest of the Next Steps team!) for helping us develop the personal callings of hundreds of people at Westside Family Church. Most of the stories in this book, and much of the insights shared in it, emerged from the experience of making disciples with this team. We are grateful for Kelly Maxwell, who helped us early on with editing the initial manuscript.

We are grateful for our families too. They have put up with us as we bounced our ideas of developing personal calling off of them. They were the guinea pigs, taking the early, middle, and late versions of the online GPS assessment. They were patient with us as we spent time away writing. We are grateful!

INTRODUCTION

Three years ago, my family and I set out on a journey. (Cue high-pitched singing: Follow the yellow brick road!)

After twenty years of living in South Bend, Indiana, we left what was safe and predictable, launching out to relocate in Kansas. Some saw it as a hairbrained adventure. Our two oldest daughters, Maddie and Whitney, were transitioning into high school, and it was not a good time to uproot them. They led a pitchfork uprising over the move! On top of that, my wife, Michelle, is a freelance writer, and she had just hustled her way into writing positions for three successful regional magazines. This had not been easy, and it was not something she was ready to walk away from. Our youngest, Belle, was the only one in the family ready to make the trip!

I had no reason to leave either. I was on staff at one of the most influential churches in America, surrounded by people we loved and had shared our lives with for a long time. Many in the congregation likely assumed that in a few years, I would be the lead pastor. If vocational ministry were simply a career path to be managed, staying in my pastoral role would have been a no-brainer.

Yet here we were, with our house in South Bend unsold, on the yellow brick road (otherwise known as I-72), headed west to begin a new life in Kansas City. Michelle was driving our yellow jeep, accompanied by our two dogs, Mori and Ellie. I was stuffed in the minivan with the rest of our gang, a couple miles ahead of Michelle. We had never made this drive before and didn’t know the way, but we had our map app open on our phones and were following the directions and prompts as the GPS tracked our progress and guided us to our new home.

In my rearview mirror, I noticed a big, black SUV approaching at high speed. As the driver flew by me, I saw he was looking down at his lap. He was tussling with an old-school paper map, trying to read it while driving! The map was draped over his steering wheel and pushed up onto the windshield.

I was stunned.

What in the world? Who pays fifty thousand dollars for a vehicle, and another several hundred for a smartphone with GPS, and then risks his life (and ours) by using a paper map? My first thought was, Get out of the Stone Age, dude.

Not more than two minutes later, my phone rang. It was Michelle. I could hear her breathing heavy, her voice filled with fear.

Rob, I almost just died. I was cut off by this guy who came swerving over into my lane, and I had to slam on the brakes. We spun around, and I ended up in the ditch. I don’t think he even saw me. He was wrestling a huge map and didn’t have his eyes on the road.

Map-man had almost killed my wife.

To say I was furious would be an understatement. So I headed after Map-man in hot pursuit. Our minivan hit speeds it had never seen before. Unfortunately, Map-man’s vehicle was faster—and more important, my road rage abated and clear thinking prevailed. At the next exit, I turned around to check on Michelle. We found her several miles back, scared but okay. After some hugs and a few deep breaths, we were back on the road, grateful for the gift of life—and thankful for our GPS.

We knew God had a clear direction for us. We weren’t turning back.

Now, I don’t know Map-man. I’m not sure why he was in such a hurry. And I have no idea why he was using a paper map on the interstate. But here’s a general observation. Men are notorious for not wanting to ask for directions. If a guy is lost, to ask for directions or let the GPS tell him where to go means admitting defeat. Most guys I know can recall a time when they tried to find their way, only to end up in