BiblicalPurpose.com
Develop Your Calling, Career Path, and Credentials
…we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling [for you], and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
The most effective life planning often begins with listening to sermons about our Lord's divine purpose and His call. The quest to discover and fulfill a personal purpose often begins with taking assessment tests to clarify your passions, skills, abilities and talents. People that know you and know God can help you prayerfully refine the results of the tests into a statement of calling. Godly mentors that know you and know your proposed career path can help you define a primary vocation (reflecting passions) and secondary vocation (generating profits). The mentors can also help you establish priorities that you translate into SMART goals. Ideally, priorities should be defined with enough clarity so that prayer partners can articulate your Specific, Measurable (quantified), Attainable, Ranked, and Time-bound goals for your primary and secondary vocations.
 
S.A.C.R.E.D. PROCESS S.A.C.R.E.D. PURPOSE

Skills Enhancement

Grow, Improve, and Build

Resources to Leverage Strengths

 S Skills

You should develop your skills in the areas where you have the most passion. You should have a clear vision for using your skills to complete activities with mastery

Abilities/Talents

Learn from Teachers/Mentors

Education/ Knowledge

 A

Abilities/ Talents

Your natural thoughts, emotions, gifts, and proclivities that you must be developed
           
Calling

Prayerfully Reflect

 Discipleship (Mentoring) C Calling

A focused purpose that you pursue to lead the most meaingful life
R Resources

Your emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, professional, social, and finanical resources

E

Education/Knowledge

Facts or ideas that you acquire. Education (knoweldge), when combined with talents (abilities) and skills, will develop your strengths.
D Discipleship (Mentoring)

Refining a purpose statement requires guidance from a wise elder who works with other wise counselors who know God, know you, and know how to help you use your strengths to take advantage of marketplace opportunities. Such discipleship should focus on helping you, a) cultivate a deep knowledge about your unique calling, b) pursue respected credentials through an educational plan, and c) work with a mentor to enjoy growing prosperity along your career path.

Passions are refined into a calling with help from prayer partners with spiritual insights, intellectual capacity, etc.
Calling is enhanced and refined into a purpose statement through development of skills, abilities, and talents. A calling is different from a job, as explained at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZbDZK3JAs
A purpose statement is leveraged with resources developed through discipleship and broader education. The learn more about purpose and education based on calling, see www.covenant.net/Calling
Purpose matures into a mission and vision with guidance from prayer partners, which may include models, mentors, ministers, and a mate.
A mentor should help choose models. This process involves taking assessment tests to clarify the skills, abilities, and calling of the person being mentored. Results from the assessment tests should be organized into an outline showing a primary vocation (reflecting passions) and secondary vocation (generating profits). The mentor can refer to Scripture, biographies, and real world examples to help identify models who pursue the primary and secondary vocations successfully; the mentor can then help conceptualize a hybrid model that incorporates aspects of the models most relevant to the person being discipled. As a hybrid model is more clearly envisioned, the mentors and ministers can help establish steps toward realization of the ideals reflected by the model. A mate can offer valuable prayer support in this process.
The career path should reflect the passion, calling, purpose, prayerful process, and vocational mentoring described in the above five steps. Ideally, the career should culminate with an eductional credential indicating mastery of the skills and abilities needed to pursue a calling that makes full use of available resources. Discipleship relationships can help balance objectives on the career path with other life goals.

The educational credentialing process should focus on help you serve Christ through His institutions: the family, the church, and the government.  These institutions oversee courts, businesses, schools, and other organizations that can empower an individual in realizing his or her purpose while questing along a career path that glorifies God.

Note: For information about assessments tests and qualfied mentors, email info@vfos.com