John Stanko

May 18th is my spiritual anniversary. It was 35 years ago that I walked forward in a public meeting and gave my life to the Lord. I can remember waking up the next day to a presence in my bedroom that had been there many times before -- it was the Lord, but I didn't realize it until that day. He spoke to me that morning. People get all hung up on God speaking, but He is a great communicator. He speaks every language, speaks through people -- some who know Him and some who don't -- speaks through circumstances, through His Word and even through a donkey as we learn in the Old Testament. If God wants us to do His will, and of course He does, then He must let us know that that will is. He cannot hold us accountable for what we don't know.

On that morning after, I heard three things: 1) I would leave the church in which I was raised; 2) I would go into ministry; 3) I would give my life to His service. All those things have come to pass and it's not all been easy, but it's all been good.

I am sitting at my upstairs temporary office desk until our basement is finished. The sun is shining as I look out the window, and I can see for miles. I see trees, traffic and trains (I can hear the trains groaning as they pull their loads east and west, even though they are two miles away). I am reflecting on the last 35 years and how I got here, doing what I'm doing, living where I'm living. I am launching a new website soon and I hope it will be the economic engine driving my business that I have designed it to be so I can stay home and be more strategic in my travels. I am working on my radio launch scheduled for this Wednesday, I have 21 books to read for my next two doctoral classes in August, I am launching a new book in July and working on my next book release, scheduled for December.

I know that this too shall pass -- this season, this time at home, this time of producing and creating. For right now, however, I plan on enjoying every minute while I thank God for His mercies these last 35 years. I don't know how many years I have left, so I want to make the most of them, which means enjoying every day as the gift of God that it is.

Are you enjoying your days? If not, what can yo do to position yourself to do so? I am no one special; this is the gift that God has for everyone. This is the conclusion that the writer of Ecclesiastes came to and I could not agree more:

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:24-28).

So thank you, Lord, for these last 35 years. I commit the rest of them to You, and vow to go where You want me to go and do what You want me to do. Amen!

Just a reminder that I am assembling a new PurposeQuest website and I need some testimonies. I need some stories in two or three sentences max about

1. How the purpose message has impacted you life.
2. How the former website helped you.
3. How hearing me speak has helped you in your PurposeQuest.
4. How a one-on-one or coaching session has helped as well.

If you could also send a high resolution picture of yourself with the testimony, I could include it on the site, along with your name, city and country where you live. The picture should be high resolution, at least 300 dbi in jpeg or tiff format.

This is your chance to be famous and to help encourage others around the world to pursue their purpose.

The deadline is yesterday, so please write as soon as possible, with a picture if possible.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I am assembling a new PurposeQuest website and I need some testimonies.  I need some stories in two or three sentences max about:

1. How the purpose message has impacted you life.
2. How the former website helped you.
3. How hearing me speak has helped you in your PurposeQuest.
4. How a one-on-one or coaching session has helped as well.

If you could also send a high resolution picture of yourself with the testimony, I could include it on the site, along with your name, city and country where you live.  The picture should be high resolution, at least 300 dbi in jpeg or tiff format.

This is your chance to be famous and to help encourage others around the world to pursue their purpose. 

The deadline is yesterday, so please write as soon as possible, with a picture if you have a good one.

Thanks in advance for your help.

1 When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.

2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
"The Lord has done great things for them."

3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy (Psalm 126:1-3).

More than two years ago, my wife and I moved out of our home and into a small apartment (or flat as my British friends like to call them). We did this for a number of reasons. One was that we had a severe water drainage problem in our backyard and had someone who wanted to buy our house. We thought we had better go while the getting was possible. Then we had to address our financial situation. We downsized and cut way back, actually running our business from our flat. In many ways, we were living in our offices rather than having our offices in our home.

We thought we would be in the apartment for six months, but ended up there for two and a half years. But we paid off all our debt, took a close and hard look at where we wanted to buy and trusted the Lord. Fortunately, my wife and I get along well, because living in such close quarters as we did can present all kinds of relational challenges. You have no where to run and hide if you have a disagreement!

Yesterday, we moved into a beautiful new home in Monroeville, about 15 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh. As I type, I am looking out over the beautiful valley that we can see from our window. We went to bed last night and got up this morning in awe, like people living a dream, a good dream indeed. The landscapers are outside planting trees. They come to finish our huge basement next week and we will run our entire PurposeQuest operation from there. I depart for the UK tomorrow, but I would almost rather stay home (notice I said "almost") and enjoy the newness of it all.

Moving in yesterday was the culmination of a long, hard road that began seven years ago when we started our business. So we are grateful to the Lord for HIs help and guidance and we truly feel like those described in Psalm 126, since we are filled with joy and thanksgiving at this special occasion. It was difficult and confusing at times, but now we see that it was all worth it! The Lord had a plan! God has been and is good to us and we feel a renewed sense of purpose, but right now our purpose is to unpack some of the things we had in storage for the last two and a half years.

Feel free to comment on this entry on the site where it is posted.

There is a great article by my friend Jannette in Texas entitled Where Will You Spend the Holidays? If you or anyone you know has gone or is going through a divorce with children, this is a must read.

I thought I would share with you a few pictures from my recent travels that are special to me.  The first is the marquis from the church in Grand Junction where I worked and ministered last week.  I profiled 40 people in six days, spoke on purpose in the Sunday service and met with the church staff.  I guess I really was the purpose doctor while I was there!

Then there's the picture from the recent Celebration Church choir tour.  Celebration Church Harare meets in a facility that they named Celebration Centre.  While I was driving in central Kansas, I ran across another facility by the same name!  They even spelled "centre" in the British manner, ending the word in -re. It's a small world indeed.

Finally, we had the privilege of celebrating my mother's 91st birthday before I left for the choir tour.  My mother is an amazing woman.  She lives alone and has since my father passed away 11 years ago.  She cooks for herself and has her family or friends over every now and then for a meal or dessert.  My mother is the one who taught me that organization is a key to success in life and I love her dearly.  She is one of my biggest fans.

It's nice to have my technology world back together. As I wrote the other day, both my Apple computer and my handheld Treo went down this week. I felt like a man on crutches who had his crutches taken away from him! It seems that everything is fixed and back to normal, and just in time. I depart tomorrow for Kansas City and then I am off to Kenya next Wednesday and Zimbabwe after that.

I finished up my Christ in the Gospels class last week. This week I have sat under Dr. Dennis Prutow for The Renewal of Preaching class. Both weeks have been outstanding, although the days do get a bit long. We start at 8 AM and go until 5 PM. That's a long time to listen to a lecture. At the same time, what a privilege to sit and study the Scriptures! I have learned so much. Today I have a "trial" sermon as part of the class requirements. I have been assigned Hebrews 11:21, so I will be talking about Jacob, applying the new concepts I have learned this week. I am looking forward to it.

These two weeks have represented a major investment of time and money, but it's all been well spent. I have quite a bit of work to do between now and my next class week in February. This week I was wondering whether this school effort was worth it and the Lord reminded me of Tiger Woods, who totally "remade" his swing a few years. He was already a great golfer but he wanted to be even better. So he relearned some things and developed some new things and today he is just that: better than ever. That is a model that I would not mind emulating.

I have enjoyed my two weeks at home and hate to see them come to an end. It's time to move on, however, so I will be packing tonight and hitting the road tomorrow. I will keep you posted of my adventures from the road.

I had an interesting experience last Sunday. I set out for church at my usual time, which is enough time to arrive early. There is a massive repaving project going on in Pittsburgh, however, and all the roads that I use were closed, which meant I had to take several routes that took more time. That made me late for church.

In all my adult life, I cannot remember ever being late for church. So what was my response? I was uptight! Can you imagine? I arrived to church just as the opening call to worship was being read. My point is that I get tense over things that aren't worth getting tense over.

I wonder how many other things I get uptight about that aren't worth the energy? I think I will pay more attention to what those things may be in the coming week. Care to join me in this exercise?

Did you ever notice that you are almost always having a conversation--with yourself! I didn't realize this until I sat for my training at The Pacific Institute. After that, I "listened" to myself talk to me. When I would make a wrong turn, I would think (or say), "You idiot!" When I would make a mistake, I would "ask," "How could you have been so stupid?" As the founder pointed out, if I had a friend who talked to me the way I talked to me, that person would no longer be my friend!

I can see this principle in the Bible as well. The psalmist wrote:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar (Psalm 42:5-6).

He was talking to himself when he was downcast. What he said was important, for it could either pull him out of his funk or push him deeper into it.

How do you "talk" to yourself? If not too well, could this be where you need to work to "renew your mind" as we are commanded to do in Romans 12:1-2? I've had to work hard over the last two years to improve the conversation I have with myself. In other words, I've had to change the way I think.

So listen how you talk to yourself. Could that be the source of some of your discouragement and, if you improve it, could it be a new source of inner strength? It has been for me.

Technorati Tags: The Pacific Institute

I just finished celebrating my 57th birthday. It was a nice day, and I heard from all my family. I was a bit preoccupied since I'm busy getting ready for a nine-week trip abroad. As you can imagine, there are a lot of things to wrap up before I go.

This last year was one of the best of my life. As PurposeQuest the business entered its sixth year, the seeds we had sown in the early years began to bear fruit. My training at The Pacific Institute made a profound difference in my life, giving me a systematic, common-sense program to enable me to renew my mind and change. I am enjoying my work more than ever. I have heard athletes say that at some point they stop trying to make things happen and let the game come to them. I think I understand now what they mean. The purpose message is alive and well, and I have been its student for 16 years. That must count for something.

I have more energy than I've ever had to do what I do best. I still haven't figured out how to pack "lightly"; maybe that will come with more time and travel. I have a lot of goals for the year ahead of me and I am optimistic.

So there you have it. I enter my 58th year with new nations to visit and new insights to share. I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

Technorati Tags: PurposeQuest, The Pacific Institute