For those wanting to grow into who God has called them to be, so they can do what God has called them to do. Hosted by Alistair Forman, this is an informal discipleship focused podcast that also acts a front door to a wider community of people growing and encouraging each other in their calling journeys.
Check out our Patreon for options to become part of the community.
www.patreon.com/c/understandingcalling/membership
Ep 17: The Beautiful Relief of Knowing That God’s First Best Destiny For You May Have Nothing To Do With You Reaching ‘The Top’
Click here to send me a Text or a Voicemail - I'd love to hear from you! We can find ourself seeking to go further up the ladder, seeking to be 'at the top' of our profession or ministry and totally miss that we have gone past a place we were called to be. What if being the place and the person God has us destined to be has nothing to do with being the most important person at our workplace, or in our church, or amongst our peers or competition? The bible shows us in the life of Jonatha...
3 Jul 2026
Ep 16: Jay Snyder on Why Your Comes Family Before Your Church Ministry and How God Restores Joy Back into Your Life Where there has Been Shut Down or Burn Out
Click here to send me a Text or a Voicemail - I'd love to hear from you! In this episode I talk to Jay Snyder, a pastor, missionary, Father and friend. Jay along with his wife Peg heads up Passion For Life Ministries (passionforlifeministries.org) a ministry that equips pastors and leaders in churches in America and Central America, plants churches and seeks to show release the love of the Holy Spirit and the Father heart of God. Jay is a man who loves Jesus and his wife and kids and has a we...
26 May 2026
Ep 15: Narcissism, Calling and the Right (and the Wrong) Amount of Thought About Our Place in God’s Plan
Click here to send me a Text or a Voicemail - I'd love to hear from you! How much should we think about our God given calling...and how much is too much? How do we draw the right balance between being intentional and being egotistical? What is God's best for our mindset and perspective on what He's called us to? In this episode we look at: Obedience - Intentionality - Living - Living in the flow of the Spirit - Obsession = Naval Gazing - Vision and Dreams - Our Potential - Stewardship and wha...
30 Apr 2026
Trailer - New Patreon Course: The Calling Quadrant
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Over on Patreon Understanding Calling has a whole other Podcast called "Understanding Calling Extra", that is for courses and series to help with our personal discipleship journey. This trailer is about the new course "The Calling Quadrant" - check it out for free on Patreon or become a monthly supporting member and sow into this ministry to support others who want to grow in their God given c...
23 Apr 2026
Ep 14: Insecurities and Why You Don’t Know What Is In You Until You Get Squeezed...(Waiting In The Wilderness Pt 3)
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? This episode is all about the insecurities God lets us see when we get squeezed by waiting and by the pressure of circumstances on us. Very few things expose the need for control in our lives like a season of prolonged waiting does. In this episode we look at a story from the Old Testament and the New to explore how we end up often looking back with rose tinted glasses to a former life when our curr...
10 Apr 2026
Ep 13: Have You Had A Season of Obscurity and Hiddenness? What Does God Do When It Feels Like You’ve Been Forgotten... (Waiting In The Wilderness Pt 2)
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? In this second part of the Waiting in the Wilderness series, we're looking at Joseph's story and what God does in the life of someone who has been rejected, forgotten, lost a sense of belonging and purpose (multiple times) and yet been used where he was, as he was, and experienced huge redemption in areas of suffering and obscurity. If you have felt forgotten, hidden, in a transition season or...
19 Mar 2026
Ep 12: Are You 'Waiting' or Are You 'Deferring'? (Waiting In The Wilderness Pt 1)
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? We all want to know what God is doing in us and around us as we wait for what He has for us next... However How do we know if we are actually waiting like we think we are? Could it be possible that we might be in danger of deferring, stuck in a holding pattern, kicking the can of what God has put in our hearts down the road? This new mini series "Waiting in the Wilderness" is about discerning what G...
27 Feb 2026
Ep 11: Ken Snyder on Why Nothing is More Important than Obidience to What God is Asking You to Do and Why Humility and a Heart that is Willing to Serve Will Always Keep You in God’s Will
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Ken Snyder, Missionary and Pastor shares authentic stories about living outside of the limelight and from a place of humility and service - and ultimately from a place of trying to be obedient to God in our callings, not ambitious. A very helpful listen to anyone wanting to grow in a real, not impressive looking, godly calling. Also, if you are a pastor of a numerically smaller church - this o...
30 Jan 2026
Ep 10: ‘The Four Versions of You’ - The Questions We Ask to Discover Who God Made Us To Be and The One Way We Find Out
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? We all ask ourselves questions about who God made us to be: - Is who I dream I could one day be "The real me"? - Is it the person I am on my worst day? - Is the real me the one that feels like my best days are behind me? - Or is there another way of discovering who God designed me to be? In this episode we explore how our human nature is to try and discover who God made us to be based on the v...
14 Jan 2026
Ep 9: Mark Burlinson on the Effects of the Orphan Spirit and Sonship Revelation on Our Callings, and the Wisdom Found in the Life Languages to Understand How We Were Made to Flourish Wherever We Are
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? This week I am speaking to Mark Burlinson, who along with his wife Jane pastors Catch the Fire Church in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Mark has pastored in numerous denominations and movements, including during the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Toronto in 1994. He has a history in business, coaching and in facilitating the Life Languages profile. Today we talk about what it looks like trying to...
3 Jan 2026
Ep 8: ‘Put a Hand on the Bucket’ - Letting God Empty You As You Start 2026
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? A new year is upon us, but many of us are still full and overflowing with the last year... This shorter episode is an offering for what I am doing this January and might be for those who are still considering what they want to do, with integrity, to position themselves for whatever God's kingdom has for them. God has been emptying me very intentionally for the last year...I'm only just realizing it ...
18 Dec 2025
Ep 7: ‘Seasons...’ What Does God Do Through Them? How Do We Discern Them? How Do We Navigate Them? What Matters Most?
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? One of the most used words in Christendom these days seems to be 'Seasons'. We talk about being in a season, coming out of one and into another, navigating them and contending with what God is teaching us in them. What is the theology, biblical basis, significance, purpose and process with seasons though? How do we tell when we're in one? What do we look for? What does Jesus and the bible say we sho...
4 Dec 2025
Ep 6: Tom Allsop on Embracing Hiddenness, Contentment in a Calling that Fits You and What’s More Important than a ‘Big Calling’
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Tom Allsop is the Pastor of Catch the Fire: Three Rivers Church in Hertfordshire England and this week I get to sit down and talk with him about what a life led by calling looks like. We talk about failure in calling, humility, choosing the low path rather than seeking personal glory and how our ministries and callings need to take their place behind our relationship with God, with our spouses, kids...
18 Nov 2025
Ep 5: The 8 Expressions of Calling (and how anything you do will be Preparation, Gifting, Assignment, Contribution, Legacy, Passion, Destiny or Glory)
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? God calls a life over a lifetime - that means there is more than one thing you and I are called to do with our lives. The bible shows us ways calling in the Kingdom can be expressed, these are not fixed or rigid categories for us to be restricted by. Instead they are useful identifiers so we can get a better understanding of where and how God's Spirit is active in our life and what His priorit...
3 Nov 2025
EP 4: Is Reaching the Potential of Our Gifting, Vision, Prophetic Words and Dreams God’s First Priority For Our Calling?
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Gifts, skills, prophetic words and dreams, vision for our future and the 'what if's' of our younger years - all of these feed into what 'our potential' is. A vital question we need to ask ourselves as we pursue our God given calling is "Is God looking for me to reach and achieve my potential...or are there other things that matter more to Him than how high, big, far and wide I might be able to go?"....
23 Oct 2025
Ep 3: Taking What You Know and the Best from What You've Been Taught About Hearing God’s Voice…and Letting the Rest Go
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Check out our Patreon for ways to become part of the community and our monthly video calls: https://www.patreon.com/c/understandingcalling/membership Ep 3: Here’s a breakdown of what we’re contending with… 1. We all have been made with an innate and personal way of hearing God‘s voice and discerning how He’s leading us. 2. We’ve all been taught things through the denominations, movements...
22 Oct 2025
Pilot: The Unrelenting Mystery of Calling and How God Uses A Life, Over A Lifetime
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Check out our Patreon for ways to become part of the community and our monthly video calls: https://www.patreon.com/c/understandingcalling/membership Pilot Episode: God calls all of us to be something and to something. His calling on our life is complex, but also simple. It's mysterious, yet it can also be staring us in the face. It's about our purpose but it's also not really about us when al...
22 Oct 2025
Ep 2: Identity: Who have You been, Who are You now…and Who are You going to be?
Please get in touch, what’s God doing in your life? What topics would you like me to look at? Check out our Patreon for ways to become part of the community and our monthly video calls: https://www.patreon.com/c/understandingcalling/membership Ep 2: This episode is full of questions for you to consider about who God has created you to be. We're considering all the past 'versions' of you from different stages of your life, what was good and gold about those expressions of who you are and what...
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