5 Steps in a Leader’s Journey Toward God’s Call

Every journey begins with a step, and for Greg Wukasch, each step toward God’s call has brought him closer to the inexpressible joy he has in bringing people closer to Jesus, not just through his church where he is a bi-vocational pastor in San Antonio, Texas but also in missional communities across the country and in South America.

But it started with a step—a realization, obedience, conviction, action and continued growth. God’s whispers have been in the conversations, Summit talks and living rooms throughout Greg’s life. When Greg opened up to His voice, his journey became an adventure. The story that unfolds through each step that he took has changed eternities forever.

1. Step One – Realization
   “We don’t GO to the church – we ARE the church!” When Greg heard those words at Grace Point Church in San Antonio a number of years ago, they rocked his world. Even though he had gone to church his whole life, he had never heard of such a concept. “That ‘Acts 2’ truth resonated so deeply with me that I began sensing this would be my calling someday,” Greg shares.

2. Step Two – Obedience
   While volunteering at the Summit in 2006, Greg stood in the back of the room and suddenly heard God’s voice, Open up your home and I will send them. “Surprisingly, I wasn’t afraid or confused. I was actually overjoyed and very peaceful,” Greg explained. “In October of that year, my wife and I decided to open up our home one Friday evening. At the time, Grace Point Church did not have a small group ministry, so we were not really sure what to expect. After much prayer, and very little advertisement, more than 40 people packed into our living room on the first night.” An Acts 2 ministry was born because Greg said ‘yes’ to God.

   As the ministry grew, Greg began to sense that God wanted to do more. “It scared me to death,” Greg said. “After all, everything was going great, right? The ministry was gaining in numbers and making an impact in our city. I was being obedient to Jesus. Why would He want to mess with that?”

3. Step Three – Conviction and More Obedience
   In 2008, a mentor expressed his belief that Greg was going to become a pastor someday. And though he initially brushed it off, he continued to feel that God was trying to get his attention. “I tried to ignore it as much as possible, because I felt that this would interrupt my plans for my family and my career,” Greg explained. “Soon after this conversation, I was invited to an ordination ceremony at Grace Point Church. I sat in the back of the room crying for almost an hour – feeling the weight of my disobedience to God.“You see, I had known for quite some time in my spirit that God wanted me to transition our Acts 2 group into a new church plant, and I was being called to shepherd it. But I continued to say no because of my fear about what others would say, because of the insecurity I felt about my own leadership ability and because of what this might mean to my plans and my career.“By the time I attended the Summit in 2008, I was primed by God to break. In the first hour of the second day of the Summit, after I listened to Craig Groeschel’s story about his first church meeting in a garage, I broke and wrote in my Summit notebook, ‘it is time for me to listen, obey and start this new church.’“After the Summit was over, I sheepishly approached Jeff Harris and Mike Sharrow—two Grace Point Pastors—and told them of my decision to plant a new church. They responded with, “It’s about time.”   

4. Step Four – Big Action
   Through Greg’s leadership, the Act 2 community became Intersection Church. They’ve witnessed people who were nominal followers turn into passionate pursuers of Jesus, taking steps out in faith and loving their communities. As a result, new ministries and missional communities have been birthed across the globe.“I don’t want to get in His way as He is building the church. I want to see where He is working and then join Him there,” Greg says. “Neil Cole once said to go and plant Jesus and then let Jesus plant the church. That is what Intersection is all about—Talking to people about Jesus, loving on people like Jesus and seeing people fall in love with Jesus. And then watching as those same people plant Jesus. As we say in our church, Intersection exists wherever we find ourselves at any given moment.”“Had I not said yes to God, I would not have had the inexpressible joy of watching Jesus planted and God build these communities. I get to lead a growing number of passionate missionaries in what I believe to be the most important work on our planet.”

5. Step Five – Continued GrowthThrough the Summit, Greg has not only heard whispers from God, but he has grown and developed in his personal leadership skills to lead his church and be a missionary in the workplace. “When I heard ‘A Vision to Die For talk, I thought —This is the work I want to give the rest of my life to!”“God always knows how to use the Summit right when I need it the most,” Greg explains. “Just when I am the most burned out and frustrated, the Summit comes along to inspire and motivate me to keep moving. It is the conference I most look forward to every year! In many ways, I believe that God has purposefully used the Summit as a catalyst to get me off the bench and onto the hardwood—and it is indeed hard.“But the Summit is more to me than just a conference — it has become family. I have journals filled with inspirations, quotes and ‘whispers’ that have been stoked and shaped because of the Summit. The Summit also continues to fill me daily through blogs that I follow (because of the Summit) and books that I read (because of the Summit) and films that I watch (because of the Summit).“Perhaps the most exciting thing to me is that I have been able to multiply the effects of the Summit by introducing friends to the Summit, and, more importantly, influencing those around me with what I have gained from the Summit. It’s truly a gift that keeps giving.”

Greg challenges leaders to take a step in their journey, and attend the Leadership Summit. “I don’t know that God will use the Summit to impact you the same way He has used it to change me,” Greg shares. “But what I do know is that if you just give it a chance, say yes to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, show up surrendered to what He might want to do in you, arrive expecting that God will truly meet you there, allow your heart to be broken and your emotions to be played with and listen intently to God speaking through the leaders who have been selected as faculty, you will walk away with something—something that you might not understand in the moment but something that God will use for His glory.

“Just be prepared!”

Register for the Global Leadership Summit at www.willowcreek.com/summit
and come prepared!