Last month, I posted several articles about how to stay encouraged, especially in ministry. I had planned to finish the series before the holidays, but simply ran out of time. As a result, this last part of the series has been on my mind for quite a while.

Perhaps the most practical way to stay encouraged is to find your niche. When you know your purpose, and live accordingly, you experience much more in the area of encouragement than almost anything else can do for you.

We face a tragic crisis in America, and around the world. We are facing a crisis of identity.

Too many of our students are graduating from high school, or even college, and have no idea what they are going to do with their life. In fact, more college graduates have moved back in with their parents than ever before in our history.

These people are going through life without any idea of what their purpose is. And when that happens, it leads to discouragement, to despair, and ultimately, to depression.

But if you know what your purpose is, if you’ve found your niche, then you’ve already taken steps to avoid those downfalls. Finding your niche is one of the most critical things you can do to stay encouraged. And this is applicable at all levels; it fits your individual, personal life just as it fits into the life of a church or other organization.

In fact, I think those are the key areas that you need to look at when identifying your niche. You need to see what your purpose is as an individual, and you need to see how that fits into the greater purpose of your local church, and then into the global church as a whole.

Find A Niche For Yourself

Have you identified your role in life? Have you identified your role as a part of the kingdom of God? If not, then you’ll continually face discouragement because you are trying to do something that perhaps you haven’t been called to do. But when you find your niche, you are functioning where you’re supposed to be, and that provides a sense of fulfillment and encouragement.

That role may not always be the same thing, either. It may change over time. I spent more than two decades doing youth ministry. When I started, I considered myself a “lifer.” I was not one of those guys who would use youth ministry as a stepping stone into the preaching ministry. And when I was a youth minister, I knew I was fulfilling my role, I knew that was my niche.

However, as I grew older, I was increasingly less satisfied with myself, and my role. I could sense that God was doing something different in my life, but I just wasn’t sure what it could be. Soon, however, it became clear that God was pulling me away from youth ministry and into a lead role. I fought that idea for a while, but finally gave in and followed his leading.

Now that I am in the lead role as a preaching minister, I’ve rediscovered a sense of peace, of encouragement, knowing that I’m fulfilling the role God has planned for me.

Find A Niche For Your Church

Just as it is true in your individual life, so it is true in the life of your local church as well. Finding your niche is critical to fulfilling what God has called you to accomplish in your community.

For example, we live in a small, rural community in southern Missouri. Most of the life of our community is centered around our school and its activities. One of the most obvious ways that we can impact our community is to make an impact within our school. Once we identified this, we’ve been able to become more intentional in helping out in any way we can, serving our school, its teachers and administration, and its students.

Making a difference in the lives of these people directly affects our entire community. We’ve found our niche, or at least one aspect of it.

Know Your Niche In The Global Church

Perhaps this goes without saying, but knowing the purpose of the church as a whole goes a long way to finding how we can fit into that design at a local level and a personal level.

Jesus stated it quite clearly in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Knowing my purpose, my church’s purpose, and the goal of the kingdom of God goes a very long way to helping me stay encouraged. And it will help you as well.

Have you found your niche? What is it? What’s your church’s niche? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.