On today's episode, three ways to identify your God-given marketplace assignment. And just real quick as we get started here, if you're a regular listener to the Theology of Business podcast and this show is helping you, please do me a favor and leave a quick rating and review for the podcast. Just take one or two minutes. You can do that on iTunes or Stitcher, wherever you listen to podcasts. It's gonna let me and others know how this show is helping you. I'd really appreciate that. Welcome back to the Theology of Business podcast. I'm your host, Darren Shearer, author of the book Marketing Like Jesus, and the forthcoming book, The Marketplace Christian, a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts in business. And this is a show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with God in business, to transform the marketplace and make an impact in eternity. And just a quick reminder about the Theology of Business book contest that I announced on the show last time on episode number 25. If you have an idea for a book that's gonna help marketplace professionals to do business God's way, to do business according to biblical principles, to do business for the glory of God and represent God in the marketplace. This is a contest you're gonna wanna enter. The prize is gonna be a complimentary book publishing package through my company, High Bridge Books. That package is valued at at least $2,600. And you can go to theology of business.com forward slash book contest for details about the package. The winner of this contest is gonna be interviewed on the Theology of Business podcast and of course have the book uh promoted out to our email list to our community of marketplace Christians. You can uh submit your entry at again theology of business.com forward slash book contest and make sure that your submission includes a summary of the book and also an explanation of how this book is gonna help people to do business God's way. Looking for books in the fields of leadership, marketing, finance, professional growth, the theology of business, the theology of work, and just topics that are related to helping marketplace Christians in particular. The submission deadline is gonna be December the 1st, and we're gonna announce the winner on this show on December the 15th. And just to make sure that you know, the winner's book must be ready for publishing by March the 1st. So don't wait until the announcement of the winner to decide whether or not you're gonna write this book. Go ahead and do it now. It's gonna make an impact on people for the glory of God and help your fellow marketplace Christians to do business for the glory of God. You can email me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com if you have any questions. You can also download the flyer for the contest at theology of business.com forward slash book contest. And now on to this week's episode. As I mentioned a moment ago, we're gonna be talking about today three ways to identify your God-given calling in the marketplace. As marketplace Christians, we're called to help the marketplace to reveal the glory of God. And that begins with ourselves, of course, but also with the industries to which God has called each of us. So you may be wondering to what industry has God called me? Now that we've clarified the primary purpose behind our work in the marketplace, which again is to help the marketplace, to help our industries to reveal the glory of God, let's explore three criteria that we can use to identify the specific industries to which God has assigned each of us. Here's the first criteria. This is gonna be an the industry that God has called you to is gonna be an industry whose mission you're passionate about. When I was in business school, I attempted to start, and I've shared this story on the podcast before, but for those of you that haven't heard it, when I was in business school, I attempted to start a website that would be a a one-stop shop for purchasing fitness services. So things like gym memberships and exercise classes. If you wanted to sign up for a rock climbing gym membership, or you wanted to schedule a tea time for a golf course, this would be sort of the Amazon of fitness, if you will. And I lost $5,000 in the process of trying to get this company started by paying a poorly vetted and untrustworthy web developer to build the first prototype of the website because the investors are not going to uh take a look at your company unless you have a prototype and actually have some users. And as soon as I lost that money, I decided to go ahead and learn how to build a website myself. And as I started to list these various fitness service providers on the website with my newfound uh web development skills, I quickly realized that I wasn't as passionate about the fitness industry as I originally thought I was, or at least I didn't enjoy the industry enough to build a company in it. Although I to this day exercise six days out of most weeks, and I enjoy helping people live healthier lives, and I'd been studying the fitness industry rigorously. I'd been writing papers about it, I'd been doing projects on the fitness industry for business school, had gone to a major fitness conference, but it was only when I started working in the industry that I realized the fitness industry just wasn't the right fit for me. And primed and ready to start a company, I then asked myself, okay, so the fitness industry isn't for me. Which industry's mission am I passionate about? Which industry can I really just dive in and just go all out? And my answer came back almost immediately. And that led me to the publishing industry, whose mission is to help people by sharing literature and information online and offline. So that includes books, uh, it includes music, not in my publishing company, uh, but podcasts, courses. I love books, I love learning and teaching, and so this was an important clue about my God-given industry calling, my my assignment from God in the marketplace. Working with authors and books is wonderfully fulfilling for me, and God wants us to be fulfilled in our work. King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter three, he said, I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. What's the mission of the industry you're working in currently? I want to encourage you to get clear about that. In the publishing industry, it would be foolish for a uh a printer to assume that printing is the primary mission of the publishing industry. No, it's about publishing information which increasingly is happening digitally rather than through print, as many newspapers and magazines and uh book publishing companies are finding out the hard way that are not adapting to the changes in the digital age. Once you've identified the mission of your industry, then ask yourself Am I passionate about this mission? So here's an example. If you work for an airline company, you're in the transportation industry whose mission is to move people and things where they need to go. Are you passionate about improving people's lives by providing this type of service, by helping to move people and things where they need to go? If not, you're probably in the wrong industry. So it's critical that you're passionate about the mission of the industry that you're in. And that's going to lead you to discovering the industry that God has called you to be in. The second criteria for identifying your God-given marketplace assignment, the industry that you're called to, is that it's going to be an industry that you have experience in. Discovering my calling to the publishing industry came through reflecting on my past professional experiences. I considered that as I began to look back over my life, that I had already published a book, I had majored in English in college, I taught writing at the university level, I had edited several doctoral dissertations, you know, many of these things that would just make many of your eyes glaze over. And I had also served as a marketing director. So stuff that would bore other people, it just really excited me. I mean, grammar excites me. I know how crazy that might sound. And with these experiences, I was prepared to make an impact in an industry that was focused on publishing and marketing information. But back when I was majoring in English in college, I had no idea how to answer people when they would ask me, so what are you gonna do with that English degree? As many of you have been asked the same question about your college degree, but now I realize that God was using that experience as an English major to prepare me to start a publishing company, and specifically in the area of book publishing. In many cases, God has allowed us to have these past experiences to equip us for and lead us into the industry to which he has called us. The Bible says in Romans 8 28, and many of you know this passage, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And this all things, it includes all of our past professional experiences, even the experiences that you thought were a waste of time. God is going to use that, and he's probably already using it to prepare you for what he has for you. And what industries do you have experience? And as I discovered, the only way to verify that you're truly passionate about the mission of a particular industry is to gain experience in that industry. If you think God might be prompting you to explore a new industry, it could be the next step toward identifying the industry that He's called you to transform for His glory. Here's a third criteria for identifying your God-given assignment in the marketplace. This is going to be an industry in which you can create economic value and get paid for it. Because when you're creating economic value, you're going to be getting money for it. You're going to be getting compensated for it. Our unique abilities to create economic value are linked to our God-given spiritual gifts, which have been given for accomplishing not just our work in the marketplace so that we can make money to do things that are actually ministry, but no, this is our ministry for doing the work of the church in the marketplace. And on October the 21st, just coming up in a few weeks, I'm gonna release a book titled The Marketplace Christian: a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts in business. And this is gonna include a spiritual gifts assessment as well as twenty three examples of marketplace Christians who've applied each of these twenty-three spiritual gifts that I describe in the book. And two of my top three spiritual gifts are knowledge and teaching. And the books published by my company, Hybridge Books, are inherently teaching and knowledge tools that people pay money for. And the primary way that I use my gifts of teaching and knowledge is through coaching authors and helping these authors to craft and to spread their messages in the most effective ways possible. My spiritual gifts certainly are in great demand in the publishing industry, which enables me to create economic value, to make money, and make an eternal impact daily. And I have no doubt that your spiritual gifts are also in demand in the industry to which God has assigned you. So here's our discussion and application for this week. What industry has God called you to transform for his glory? And what are some ways that you can make money in the industry so that you can do more of that in that industry? And and again, that's gonna be an industry whose mission you're passionate about, and also an industry that you have experience in. And it's gonna be an industry in which you can create economic value. You can comment at theology of business.com. Any other thoughts that you have on today's topic, look forward to hearing from you. That's all for this week. Hope you've enjoyed this episode and hope to hear your feedback at theology of business.com. Also, again, if you could leave a rating and review for the podcast, I would be most grateful. You can learn more about marketplace ministry, spiritual gifts in the marketplace, marketing like Jesus, and Christ-centered leadership and entrepreneurship at the website theology of business.com. And anytime feel free to email me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com if you have any questions or comments related to the Theology of Business or any of our resources, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.