Finding the Next Step

By Fletcher F. Maynard III

At 29, I just left my career as a C.P.A at Ernst & Young, LLP where I have spent the last four years of my life in their assurance and advisory business services division. I am beginning the next chapter of my life this fall at Columbia International University’s seminary and school of missions.

As one might imagine, a career shift like this typically doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The fact that I sit here today is the culmination of many influences. However, it was my experience in Comas, Peru this past May with 14 of my wild-eyed Inversion friends that really started to accelerate this reality. While the “So What?” of that trip would inevitably mean different things for each of us who went, we all knew that our lives could not possibly be the same after that week in South America.

God didn’t show me the rest of my life—He just showed me the next step. I think that’s how He works much of the time. For me personally it meant getting my application finalized for a particular missions training institute with a least-reached church-planting group known as Christar. At this training institute I spent two intensive weeks learning about other world religions. The next step? Columbia International University. Their seminary and school of missions is highly regarded, and they offered a great degree for somebody with a secular background like myself.

I’m of the conviction that God uses short-term experiences like Peru, for instance, to open our eyes, to break and grip our hearts, and to even show us the next step. For some, that may mean shifting careers. For many others, it may mean just a renewed vision of how big God is and what He’s doing in other places around the world.