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If you are serious, as an individual or as a church, about finding and pursuing your God-given purpose in His kingdom, perhaps this book can give you some guidance. The author is founder and president of Network Ministries International. His Network program has helped equip over a million people. He has worked with some of the largest churches and most well known Christian leaders in the country.
In this book, he sets out to explain that absolutely everyone has a purpose, a calling, and a mission. They have been ordained by God to perform a specific function in the body of Christ, inside and/or outside the church walls. The biggest thing hindering Christians from fulfilling their purpose is lack of knowledge of just what that purpose is and lack of direction finding it. How can one identify their reason for being? That's what this book sets out to help you accomplish.
Many are frustrated with their Christian walk because they feel they aren't making much of a difference in this world. Bruce Bugbee sets out to encourage you to think outside your comfort zone because, just maybe, your calling is beyond what you normally think. He, basically, breaks down your journey of finding your purpose into three categories; finding your spiritual gift, understanding your personal style, and identifying your passion. By discovering these three areas, you can begin pinpointing what it is you're supposed to be doing.
Finding our spiritual gift will allow us to excel in the areas where we are spiritually gifted and avoid the areas where we're not. Understanding your personal style (the way you prefer to relate to the world around you) helps you to serve to the best of your ability. Identifying your passion gives you direction as to where you should place your energies. It makes no sense to strive to do something about which you care little.
The book closes each chapter with a prayer and questions for reflection. It contains worksheets, charts, and questionnaires. It will require you to spend some time in prayer and thought as you journey toward your goal of realizing your mission. Along with this book, I also read "discover your spiritual gifts the network way" by the same author. It, too, is useful and somewhat similar to the above book, although much more of a workbook.
I suspect that these books would be very useful to the serious seeker of purpose but I'd be surprised if the casual seeker would want to put forth the effort laid out in the book. Still, even the casual seeker of purpose may be stirred by reading the book. It would be a good book to study and work through as a group as well as individually. I'd recommend it to anyone and any church that wants to be all they can be in Christ.
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