“I feel like a cog in a machine.”

That’s what I blurted out in my very first ministry position out of college. I was 22, the energetic and overly dramatic middle school youth director, confessing my angst to the Senior Pastor.

His reply? “Well, that’s what ministry is. You are a cog in the machine.”

That answer didn’t sit right with me then, and it still doesn’t now.

Over time I realized what I was bumping up against: I didn’t fit the box they were trying to put me in. Ministry isn’t one-size-fits-all. God builds some leaders to manage and sustain the institution—to do the same faithful work over and over again. Those leaders matter. We need them.

But there are also leaders God designs for the edges—for the frontier. They don’t fit neatly inside the box. They are starters, explorers, experimenters. Trying to contain them doesn’t work because they were built to move.

In those early days, I didn’t want to become a pastor because I assumed that meant squeezing into the wrong box. What I didn’t realize yet was that my calling was real—it just looked different. Later I came to see that part of my role is to help the next wave of leaders imagine a bigger vision for how God can use them – so they don’t have to wait to figure it out on their own.

A Movement, Not Just an Institution

The Church was never meant to be a rigid system. At its best, it’s a movement with institutions—dynamic and Spirit-led.

Paul paints this picture in Ephesians 4:

“And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.”

The Body of Christ needs multiple nutrients to grow into the fullness of Jesus. It takes teachers who guide us into truth, prophetic leaders who call us back to faithfulness, evangelists who carry the message outward, apostolic leaders who mobilize and pioneer, and shepherds who care deeply for people.

Imagine a superhero team where every member has the exact same power. Four different people—but all of them just stretch like Mister Fantastic. That’s not much of a team.

The Church is stronger when we live into our God-given diversity of callings.

Discovering Your Place in the Movement

I once told a friend, “Maybe you should be a pastor.” He quickly shot back, “Absolutely not.”

But when I asked what he felt called to, he said, “I want to reach people in my sphere and shepherd them.”

Now—he may never stand on a stage and preach a sermon. But does that sound like a shepherd’s heart? Absolutely. The problem isn’t that he lacked a calling. The problem was that he thought “pastor” only meant fitting into a box we’ve created, so he sat on the sidelines.

That’s why we started a rising leaders cohort at the ministry I lead called Plant 616—to help people discover their place in God’s movement.

We believe there are restless disciples in every church—faithful volunteers who feel there’s something more they were made to do. That “something more” often can’t be contained in a program. It usually looks like a burden for the unreached, a gap that needs filling, or a deeply relational calling.

And those callings are as diverse as the people themselves:

• “I’m called to reach the people in my sphere and shepherd them.”
• “I’m called to be a servant.”
• “I’m called to start something new and fill this gap.”
• “I’m called to listen to people’s pain and to love them.”

When people articulate their unique calling, it doesn’t usually begin with a bang. It begins with a small, faithful step. A spark of imagination. The courage to move.

A Farm Team for the Future

At Plant 616, we want to grow a farm team of rising leaders. Not leaders who have to wait until they fit the box of someone on a stage—but leaders who are ready to take their next adventurous step into the movement Jesus started.

Don’t wait til you fit into the box.

God made you for something.

Do that.