Find Your Mission and Focus your Influence

1. Find Your Mission and Focus your Influence Kay Daigle

2. Find Your Mission and Focus Your Influence Defining Mission Focusing Your Influence Finding your God-given Mission Writing a personal mission statement

3. Find Your Mission and Focus Your Influence Defining Mission

4. Mission is God’s overarching unique purpose for your life • It is the big picture of what God has called you to uniquely contribute with the life He has given you. • It is a broad umbrella that covers your entire life, both career and personal. • Some use the term “call” and some use “vision” for the same concept. Read carefully to determine if it is the same.

5. Mission is not • A job • A role, such as wife or mother • Necessarily grand or highly visible • Vision, but you need vision to accomplish it (I am defining vision here as a picture of the future in a particular sphere of life. Vision focuses on results while mission focuses on actions.)

6. Richard Nelson Bolles How to Find Your Mission in Life “As the stone does not always know what ripples it has caused in the pond whose surface it impacts, so neither we nor those who watch our life will always know what we have achieved by our life and by our Mission. It may be that by the grace of God we helped bring about a profound change for the better in the lives of other souls around us, but it also may be that this takes place beyond our sight, or after we have gone on. And we may never know what we have accomplished, until we see him face-to-face after this life is past.”

7. Richard Nelson Bolles How to Find Your Mission in Life Mission means “to exercise that Talent which you particularly came to earth to use—your greatest gift, which you most delight to use, in the place(s) or setting(s) which God has caused to appeal to you the most, and for those purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.”

8. Find Your Mission and Focus Your Influence Defining Mission Focusing Your Influence

9. Focusing Your Influence • Jesus’ example

10. Luke 4:42-44 (NASB) “And when day came, He departed and went to a lonely place; and the multitudes were searching for Him, and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from going away from them. But He said to them, ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.’”

11. Luke 9:51 (NASB) “Now when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set out resolutely to go to Jerusalem.”

12. John 17:4 (NASB) “I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

13. Focusing Your Influence • Jesus’ example • Paul’s example

14. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NASB) “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

15. Focusing Your Influence • Jesus’ example • Paul’s example • Hindrances to focus • Pleasing people • Desire for recognition/ advancement • Guilt

16. Katie Brazeltonin Pathway to Purpose for Women “God’s purpose will cost you your life in the sense that you must choose to die to self and accept his plan. It will cost you your life, too, in that you will be spent and used up in service to God. It will stretch you to such an impossible degree that you will fail without Him.”

17. Assignment Pair up and introduce yourselves if you do not know one another. Talk about hindrances. Which one is most likely to keep you from maximizing your influence? Why?

18. Find Your Mission and Focus Your Influence Defining Mission Focusing Your Influence Finding your God-given Mission

19. Finding Your Unique God-given Mission • Prioritize • The Mission-giver over the mission

20. Richard Nelson Bolles How to Find Your Mission in Life The first of three missions in life: “to seek to stand hour by hour in the conscious presence of God, the One from whom your Mission is derived.”

21. Os Guinness in The Call “We are not primarily called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to Someone. We are not called first to special work but to God. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God Himself.”

22. Finding Your Unique God-given Mission • Prioritize • The Mission-giver over the mission • Being over doing

23. Os Guinness in The Call “Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, in everything should thin speak, live and act entirely for him.”

24. Finding Your Unique God-given Mission • Prioritize • The Mission-giver over the mission • Being over doing • Heal from the past and then move into the present

25. Heb. 12:1-2a(NASB) “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”

26. Finding Your Unique God-given Mission • Prioritize • The Mission-giver over the mission • Being over doing • Heal from the past and then move into the present • Grow in character • Grow in faithfulness & excellence • Grow in love and servanthood

27. Finding Your Unique God-given Mission • Prioritize • Look for the intersection of your divine design, the desires of your heart, and the opportunity Design Desire Opportunity

28. Learn about your Divine Design

29. Arthur F. Miller, Jr.in The Power of Uniqueness “What lies at the heart of a seven-days-a-week faith: It is using one’s endowed giftedness to serve the world with excellence and, through that service, to love and honor God! The calling that fully engages what God has given you is a holy task!”

30. Os Guinness in The Call “The truth is not that God is finding us a place for our gifts but that God has created us and our gifts for a place of his choosing—and we will only be ourselves when we are finally there.”

31. Learn about your Divine Design • Study your spiritual giftedness • What attracts you? • What gifts do others see in me? • Where do I have success? • What gives me joy and purpose? • Try different ministries • Consider what you learn from the past • Map out your preferences, motivations

32. Assignment Share for 2 minutes each with your partner what you know about your divine design. Do you know your spiritual gifts? What things do you like to do? What do others tell you that you do well? What motivates? Are you energized by people or solitude? Do you want to organize others or do it yourself?

33. Consider the desires of your heart • They may seem like passion for • A particular group of people • A cause • A task • A need • They may surface because of a lack • What is bothering you? • What needs to be done? • What is essential?

34. Assignment Share with your partner: What are the desires of your heart? What bothers you? What lack do you see? What draws you? What would you like to fix? What is essential in the church, job?

35. Analyze your opportunity • Is it in line with the way that God has been leading me and working through and with me? • Do I see God already at work? • Does it fit my season in life? • My family situation • My preparation and experience

36. Look for the intersection of your divine design, the desires of your heart, and the opportunity Design Desire Opportunity

37. Assignment Consider the intersection of your divine design, the desires of your heart, and your opportunity. Are you living in that spot now? If not, what is missing? Is it your design? Your desire? Or have you not been given the opportunity that you seek?

38. Find Your Mission and Focus Your Influence Defining Mission Focusing Your Influence Finding your God-given Mission Writing a personal mission statement

39. Writing a mission statement • Is a process • Try to keep it short

40. Laurie Beth Jonesin The Path My mission is to _________, ________, and __________ (fill in with 3 verbs that fit you) __________ (a core value such as serving, justice, mercy, family, creativity, freedom, etc.) to, for, or with __________ (the group or cause that most excites you).

41. Writing a mission statement • Is a process • Try to keep it short • Consider Scriptures or biblical concepts that apply

42. Find Your Mission and Focus your Influence Kay Daigle