Every entrepreneur is custom-created for a purpose. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells his readers that God “creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing” (Eph 2:10 MSG). 

Paul doesn’t leave it at that. He then tells them to “get out there and walk – better yet, run! – on the road God called you to travel” (Eph 4:1 MSG). How, though, in a world so full of noise and distraction, and with our broken humanity so prone to following our will and succumbing to fear, do we go about staying on (or getting on – let’s be honest) the road we’re called to travel? How can we approach getting in position so God can use us for the work he has for us to do? 

God can use you. But sometimes, we need to examine ourselves before we see progress in the area of calling.

Most working Christians spend the majority of their waking hours in a for-profit business setting. Yet many marketplace Christians are unaware that the Holy Spirit has given them spiritual gifts to be used primarily in the marketplace—not only in the context of a local church or charity.

Sadly, many marketplace Christians are unaware of the spiritual gifts entrusted to them for fulfilling the disciple-making and world-transforming mission of the church. In local churches that help marketplace Christians to identify their spiritual gifts, the typical “spiritual gifts assessment” is being used almost entirely for the purpose of assigning these believers as volunteers to serve in their various in-house programs.

It’s been almost two decades since the release of Pastor Rick Warren’s landmark book, The Purpose Driven Life, and the purpose movement is deeply indebted to Pastor Rick for shifting the conversation, grounding it in scripture, and bringing it to our collective consciousness.

But people are still struggling to understand and live their purpose, and the purpose movement has continued to unfold over the last 20 years.