Carey Nieuwhof joins us for the next episode of the Find Your Calling Podcast. Carey shares how he fell backwards into his ministry calling, going from law school graduate poised to work in a top firm, to a student pastor among three area churches, one of which had 16 people.

Since age 12, Carey has been passionate about reaching unchurched people. He always dreamed about starting a church his unchurched friends would like. As founder and teaching pastor of Connexus Church near Toronto, Canada, Carey has seen that dream become reality. Over the last several years, he has become known for his insights and focus on serving leaders, regularly writing and speaking to Christian leaders. In the podcast excerpt below, Cary talks about the impact of pursuing our calling even when we don’t have full clarity on it.

“A lot of people get paralyzed by calling. The one thing I think is true over these last 30-plus years is that even when I was confused, I never stopped. I think if you take what you believe in faith is the next right step, God’s a pretty good chess player and He will out move you. If you’re going in the wrong direction, He’ll counter you. He’ll check you and bring you back to the right path. There is a beautiful sovereignty of God thing in calling.”

Check out Carey Nieuwhof’s web site www.careynieuwhof.com.

Carey Nieuwhof is the founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada. As part of his passion to come alongside leaders, he regularly writes one of today’s most widely read Christian leadership blogs, hosts a leadership podcast, and is the author of several best-selling books, including Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow (rethink Group, Inc.). Carey is husband to Toni, and dad to two sons and a daughter-in-law.

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William Vanderbloemen joins us for the next episode of the Find Your Calling Podcast. In it, William offers suggestions for finding and following our personal calling, such as why unlocking our past offers us clues into our calling, as well as discovering what does—and what doesn’t—evoke in us a white-hot passion.

Since age six, William has been connecting dots of opportunities—exactly what he does now as the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, one of the largest leadership search firms for churches. He articulates his personal calling clearly and succinctly: “I serve the Kingdom by creating connections.” In the podcast excerpt below, William talks about the first time he really understood what it felt like to not be working in his sweet spot.

“After pastoring three churches for a total of 15 years, I went to work in human resources in a large company. It was the first day in my life that I ever understood what people were talking about when they said, ‘It’s hump day’ [the week’s almost over!]. It was also the first time I ever maxed out my vacation. When that misfit starts to happen, we have to just start asking ourselves the question, ‘Why is this such an energy drain for me?’ Can you identify the things that are not fitting so that you know what would fit?

My son is a senior in college. Just in talking to him, I came up with four questions to ask yourself when you’re looking for or considering a job.

Can you find something that:

1. you’re good at?
2. the world needs?
3. improves the world before you—leaving the world better than you found it?
4. something you enjoy giving your energy to?

If these four things align, you’ll be well on your way to moving into a job that will be part of your call. Just keep going back to those four questions.”

Check out William Vanderbloemen’s web site www.vanderbloemen.com/blog.

Combining 15 years of ministry experience as a senior pastor with the best practices of leadership search and recruitment, William Vanderbloemen serves as president and CEO of The Vanderbloemen Search Group. In that role, he speaks across the United States in both churches and at leadership conferences. He is also the author of Next: Pastoral Succession That Works (Baker Books). Besides helping connect churches with key staff and preaching, William spends a whole lot of time with family and connecting with people. He, his wife Adrienne, their seven children and their poodle Moses live in Houston.

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Mark Batterson joins us for the next episode of the Find Your Calling Podcast. An author, pastor and personal friend, Mark shares some of his backstory that ultimately led him to preach and write, including what he calls his “summer of seeking” and the moment that brought him to Washington, D.C., where he and his wife, Lora, would eventually plant National Community Church.

Mark has pursued his entrepreneurial calling in diverse ways, including church planting and writing. A New York Times best-selling author, he has influenced thousands of people worldwide, and in the podcast excerpt below, Mark tells us how people have influenced his calling—those who spoke into his life at a certain point and in hindsight were there in the right place at the right time.

“I remember my grandfather when I was five years old (he died when I was six) kneeling next to his bed, taking out his hearing aid, and praying for me by name. He couldn’t hear himself but everyone in the house could. That’ll shape you. I remember a Bible study minister I never met. When I was a sophomore in high school, I gave a speech that was really more like a salvation sermon. My mom sent a copy of the speech to my grandma who sent it to her Bible study teacher who asked the question, ‘Has Mark ever thought about ministry?’ I remember my father-in-law who passed 18 years ago, but I wouldn’t be in ministry if it weren’t for him. I try to preach the way he preached and lead the way he led. And then I’ve had the privilege of having a spiritual father or mentor for 20 years who has really taken me under his wing. A former pastor and former college president, he and his wife were two of the 19 people our first week at National Community. Without the influence [of these people] in my life, I know I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today.”

Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. One church with 20 locations, NCC focuses on reaching emerging generations and meets in movie theaters throughout the D.C. metro area. Mark is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including The Circle Maker, If, The Grave Robber and many others. He and his wife, Lora, live on Capitol Hill with their three children, Parker, Summer, and Josiah.

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Brad Lomenick joins us for the next episode of the Find Your Calling Podcast. Brad shares his journey and storyline that have revealed his unique calling as an influencer of influencers.

For 10 years, Brad led the four-day Catalyst conference, working with leaders from all walks of life to encourage, empower and challenge young leaders nationwide. Today, he serves a variety of organizations as a freelance consultant and leadership strategist. In the podcast excerpt below, Brad talks about why knowing who we were uniquely created to be (our unique calling) can help us navigate uncharted waters—even when we don’t have full clarity on what the next season will look like.

“The thing I have always seen in each of my seasons or assignments is that I was never ready for the next one. I never stepped off the diving board and thought, I’ve practiced this dive so many times that I’m going to nail it. So many times, I stepped off wondering if there was water below. When it comes to calling, the best place to be is where you’re looking at the next season, saying to yourself, This scares me to death. I’ve felt that at every season. But I think that’s a good place to be as long as you’re in your lane, and you’re building on the bedrock of your calling. If you’re not in your lane, you end up being schizophrenic, jumping from thing to thing looking for that place where you start to feel like there’s a connection point. I may be scared about the next season, but I know it lines up with where I’ve been so far.

“I didn’t have clarity when I was leaving Catalyst. I had clarity it was time to move out of that seat. But I didn’t know what seat I would be moving into. That part was the hardest and the riskiest—the ‘what’s next?’ I had always thought that you didn’t move away from a season until you knew what the next season would look like. But for this decision, I wasn’t sure what the next season would look like. I just knew that season was done and that I needed to hand off the baton and be able to say, ‘You guys run with it!’”

Check out Brad Lomenick’s web site www.bradlomenick.com.

Brad Lomenick is a leadership consultant, speaker, founder of BLINC and author of The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker (Thomas Nelson) and his latest book, H3 Leadership: Be Humble, Stay Hungry, Always Hustle (Thomas Nelson). He writes regularly about numerous leadership topics, including the next generation, creativity, innovation, social media, teamwork and personal growth.

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Pete Richardson joins us for the next episode of the Find Your Calling Podcast. In this conversation, Pete shares how discovering and following his true calling of “map maker” has led to true clarity for his life.

For eight years years, Pete served on the leadership team for the national movement Promise Keepers, helping steer the organization until 2000. It was there that Pete met Tom Paterson from the Paterson Center who introduced him to what would become his future path of life planning—helping individuals and organizations figure out where they are, where God wants them to go and then creating maps for moving them in that direction. Since 1993, Richardson has done 800+ LifePlans. Today, he is a partner and lead trainer at the Paterson Center. In the podcast excerpt below, Pete talks about the importance of understanding and grasping our core identity—the “be” part of the personal calling framework I write about in my book, More.

“I call the ‘be’ component the Intel chip. The desire from God for us as human beings, as His creations, is that our Intel chip would be defined by how He thinks and feels about us. In life planning, we call that our core identity—if how I really think and feel about myself is aligned with how God thinks and feels about me. I find with Christians, we may mentally know the biblical answers to the question [How does God think and feel about me?], but we haven’t really let that truth seep deep into the soul. Are we operating out of a core identity that really believes and impacts how we think, live, and relate in our lives? And is that identity aligned with God’s? So if there’s a big gap between how God feels and thinks about me and how I feel and think about me, we’ve got to start there. Out of that Intel chip comes everything—how you relate to people, how you navigate life, how you make decisions, how you respond to fear, how you take risks, how you follow your calling.”

Check out Pete Richardson’s web site www.convergenceplanning.com.

Pete Richardson is a partner and lead trainer at the Paterson Center and a facilitator of both StratOps and LifePlans. He has taken hundreds of individuals and organizations through the StrapOp process, most notably Otterbox. Pete was the fifth employee hired at Promise Keepers and stayed with the company until 2000, serving as vice president of communications and creative services. He then worked with a law firm and literary agency, where he worked with top-selling authors to develop their content and publishing plans. Pete has been married to his best friend, Janet, since 1985 and they have two children, Jordan and Pearce. The Richardsons live in Louisville, Colorado.

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