In today’s episode, Catherine Boyle shares about a new project Key Ministry has underway, designed to help you discover God’s ministry purpose for your life.
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Quick Links:
Finding God’s Ministry Purpose for Your Life Webinar
Do You See What I See? by Catherine Boyle
Transcript:
Welcome to the Key Ministry podcast! I’m this week’s host, Catherine Boyle. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about a new project we have underway, designed to help you find God’s ministry purpose for your life. Be sure to hit subscribe to this podcast, so you never miss one of our weekly episodes, delivered right to your device’s podcasting app.
Almost twenty years ago, around the time I completed the first spiritually significant ministry assignment God had given me, I was invited to become a speaker for Stonecroft Ministries.
The year before, I had publicly shared my testimony of coming to faith in Christ for the first time, at my church’s annual women’s retreat. That weekend, several people told me I had a speaking ministry. Writing ministry? Yes, I could understand that. But I had never really connected the dots of “passion for writing” to a speaking ministry.
Shortly before receiving this invitation to join the Stonecroft Ministries speaker circuit, I had pressed into God in prayer, asking what He would have me do next.
His answer came in that familiar whisper in my spirit: tell your story.
I knew my tendency was to get out ahead of God’s timetable, so I prayed and waited. Within a few weeks, I learned that a friend in my church had a friend involved with a women’s ministry, so I told her about this leading from God. She enthusiastically connected me to her contact, who made another connection, and within a few more weeks, I was a Stonecroft speaker.
I ended up speaking for Stonecroft at their monthly women’s events for about seven years. At the end of each event, I would greet the women as they left. And from that very first week, I began to get this question from the women who heard my story, a question that has nagged at me, all these years:
“How do I know God’s will for my life?”
I can give a Sunday School answer as good as anyone else. But I realized, from that very first woman, who spoke to me with a look of earnest desperation, that she and the many other women like her were seeking something important and deeply personal to each of them.
I don’t remember how I answered. No doubt it was a fumbling, ‘pray and read your Bible’ kind of response. I’m sure my non-answer answer left her as unsatisfied as I was saying it.
I ended up speaking more than 20 times a year to these groups, and other opportunities began coming my way, too. But this one question nagged at me. I realized that I understood how I’d come to find God’s purpose and will for me - in several discrete chunks over time - but how could I properly explain this to others, to apply to their lives?
Fast forward to working with Key Ministry. As I came to know the writing team and the other members of the disability ministry community, I’ve observed a beautiful spirit of humility and service, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Over time, it became clear that it’s because the people who work in the ministries that Key Ministry interacts with and the people who start ministries like this have been absolutely flattened in some way; many of them have had to cling to God because God is or has been all that they’ve had.
The question posed to me in November 2003 continued to nag at me: how can people know God’s will for their lives?
A few years ago, pre-COVID, I had some conversations with some ministry friends about the possibility of writing a book on this topic. Needless to say, the pandemic upended everything in my life, just like your life, and the plans we had for Key Ministry changed overnight. Now, we’re ready to move forward with this project in several ways.
This project, “Finding God’s Ministry Purpose for Your Life” is what I referred to in my recent blog post, “Do You See What I See?”, published on our Church 4 Every Child blog on June 21. Here’s how we see the project unfolding:
First, we’ll be having a series of webinars, featuring some of the people that we’ve worked with, to show how God led others into their ministry purpose. I’m a very visual person, so if I can see how God has led another person into their purpose, and maybe it’s something that I also feel drawn to, I can see how God’s leading might be expressed in my life, too.
We’ve identified seven ‘keys’ or principles that have been revealed in the lives of many ministry leaders. These principles might just be hidden in plain sight in your life, too.
Next, in addition to the series of webinars, we’ll also be having some blog posts and more podcasts showcasing how God answered the question “How do I know God’s will for my life?” from the lives of other ministry leaders. Each of these new blog posts, podcasts and other original content will be centered around the 7 principles or keys that we’ve identified.
At the end of this project, we plan on publishing a Key Ministry branded e-book, so you can have all the materials we discuss in one place, as well as more interviews and resources than we can easily cover in short blog posts, podcasts and webinars.
As you probably know, I’m the mental health ministry director for Key Ministry. You might be thinking that this project doesn’t have anything to do with mental health. And you’re right, in a way. But think about this: following God’s will, living your life in step with His Word and how He reveals Himself to you through your own experiences as His disciple, should have a positive impact on anyone’s mental health.
If He made you and equipped you for a specific purpose, that may make sense for you and only you, then finding and living out this purpose - that has your name on it - is going to be satisfying and generate incredible peace in Your life, even in the midst of the challenges that often go along with living out your purpose. I contend that finding the purpose for which you were created is the ultimate mental health support.
And after the Key Ministry ebook is published, my personal goal is to publish a memoir of how God worked these principles in my own life.
I firmly believe that God sometimes gives a “peek behind the curtain,” or jaw-dropping miracles - not just for those who receive the miracles, but to inspire others, to show people He is real and active in ways that are so improbable that it will take all of eternity to understand. There are some things He has done in my life personally that I will never get over - and I believe He does things to let Christ-followers and others know He is real, and He is present with us even in our hardest circumstances. He is very active in the lives of all of His followers, and our stories are meant to encourage and inspire others to action.
Our first webinar in this series is later this month, on July 27 at noon eastern, with Tom and Julie Meekins.
So subscribe to this podcast and our YouTube channel, and prepare to be challenged to pursue what He has uniquely called and equipped you to do - and get ready to hear some amazing stories, too. After all, God is the best storyteller.
Thank you for listening to today’s episode. To learn more about the work of Key Ministry, visit key ministry.org. Sign up for both in-person and online events on our Events page, sign up for our weekly blog digest or monthly newsletter “KeyNotes,” and find our social media links at the bottom of every page. For the Key Ministry team, I’m Catherine Boyle. Thanks for listening to the Key Ministry podcast! And be sure to share this episode and podcast with your friends.
