Have you ever wanted to do something great for God…

But you just didn’t fit the ministry mold?

That was me.

I knew God had called me to ministry — I felt it at eleven years old at youth camp.

But as I grew older, I never quite fit the traditional path.

I served as a youth pastor, a media pastor, an associate pastor…

but I could never shake the sense that God was preparing me for something different.

And honestly, that was frustrating.

Because I wanted to give my life to ministry —

I just didn’t know how.

Then one day, a mentor looked at me and said,

“Justin, you’d be a fine lead pastor.

But I think your greatest impact won’t come from a pulpit…

it’ll come through business.”

That conversation changed everything.

Suddenly, all the conversations I’d had with pastors made sense.

They were tired, stretched thin, and desperate for help —

but without the budget or the team to get it.

I started to see the gap.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

What if I could build something that helped pastors do ministry better?

It felt too big — too expensive — so I put it in the back of my mind.

Then one day, halfway around the world in Madagascar,

I FaceTimed my wife’s first ultrasound appointment

and heard my son’s heartbeat for the first time.

That sound sparked urgency.

I thought, If I’m going to be a dad, I have to launch this vision before he’s born.

I raised money from family and friends.

And I’ll never forget when a local business leader heard the vision —

and offered to personally loan me $35,000 to make it happen.

That’s when I realized other people could see what I was seeing.

On October 7, 2014, we launched Ministry Pass.

That day, we even trended on Twitter —

above Ebola, of all things.

It felt like God was saying, “I’m in this.”

And looking back now,

my pastor was right.

God was going to use me for ministry

in ways far bigger than I imagined —

but He was going to do it through business, not pastoring.

That’s the story of Ministry Pass:

God taking an ordinary idea —

from an ordinary guy —

and turning it into something extraordinary.

I’ve come to realize that’s what God does best.

He takes extraordinarily average people

and uses them to make an impact far bigger than they ever imagined.

Because His call doesn’t always look like the mold you expect.

Sometimes it’s bigger, broader, and different than you imagined.

He can take your unique gifts —

in business, creativity, or technology —

and use them to build His Kingdom in ways you never dreamed.

Today, more than 181,000 pastors around the world have used Ministry Pass.

That’s millions of downloads, hundreds of thousands of sermons preached,

and countless lives changed — all because God’s call doesn’t have to look traditional.