SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (BP) — Sometimes the news you never wanted to hear isn’t the end of something; it’s an invitation to join God’s mission in a new way.

That’s what Holly Pacini discovered when the small Christian school where she worked had to cancel its spring softball program. Coaching had long been a source of joy and ministry for her — a way to invest in young lives and decompress from her administrative duties.

“I thought this was a gift God had given me,” said Pacini, the associate director of athletics at Trinity Classical Academy in Valencia, California, where she has served for the past 11 years. “And suddenly, it was gone. I was crushed.”

Right in the middle of that disappointment, Pacini’s small group at Redeemer Church in Santa Clarita was going through “Leverage Your Life,” a six-week discipleship study from the North American Mission Board (NAMB) that aims to equip believers to live missionally. One early session of the study challenged participants to name the places where they live, work and play. Pacini and her small group found the exercise eye-opening.

“We started talking about dropping pins on a map, just to see where God already has us each week,” she said. “It helped us realize we don’t have to go anywhere new to live on mission. We just have to open our eyes.”

And then, something unexpected happened that made the truth even clearer. A local public school invited her to help its softball team.

Pacini was initially reluctant to step into a new environment and new circle. But the “Leverage Your Life” study and the friends going through the study with her helped her see it as an opportunity.

“At first, I completely missed it,” Pacini said, referring to the coaching opportunity. “I didn’t see that this was a huge open door for the gospel. It’s such a different environment from where I work. But when I talked to my small group about it, I realized this was something God was clearly doing.”

Stories like Pacini’s were exactly what Trevin Wax, Vance Pitman and Clint Clifton had in mind when they met in January 2023 to reshape the values that define Send Network, NAMB’s church-planting arm.

“Clint and Trevin just had this burden that this didn’t need to be just for [church] planters. Every believer needed to understand how they could leverage their life to join the mission and expand the kingdom,” said Pitman, who serves as president of Send Network. “It was Clint and Trevin who really pushed me to do this series. So, at their request, we wrote it as a series for the everyday believer, the everyday follower of Jesus, so they could learn that Jesus has invited them to leverage their life for the sake of His mission.”

Just a few hours after that meeting, Clifton — a longtime church planter and the North American Mission Board’s senior director of research — died in a plane crash.

The study walks participants through five Kingdom priorities: seeking God’s Kingdom above all else, deepening personal devotion, living in gospel community, multiplying disciples and engaging their local context as a mission field.

“We’re to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. That’s from Matthew 6:33,” Pitman said. “For most believers, when you ask them what the kingdom of God is, they think about eternity: Heaven out there, somewhere in the future. But Jesus said the kingdom is here now. It’s meant to be the No. 1 priority in our lives, meaning everything in my life should center on and revolve around the kingdom of God.”

The full Leverage Your Life study, including videos and the participant guide, is available as a free download from NAMB. Printed copies of the guide are available for purchase.

Pitman encourages church leaders not to treat the resource as a one-time group series but as a tool to shape a culture of discipleship.

“This needs to be part of a holistic disciple-making process,” he said, “where people are learning to walk with the Father, live in community and leverage their lives for His mission.”

For Pacini, those five priorities helped her see her coaching role in a new light, not just as a skill to use, but a calling to steward. What once felt like a closed door became an unexpected invitation to live on mission.

Now, as she coaches at the public school, she sees herself differently. Beyond simply being a coach, she now sees God has intentionally placed her in that role. Leverage Your Life didn’t just give her a curriculum; it gave her a new lens to see her calling.

Looking back, Pacini sees God’s fingerprints all over it.

“I wouldn’t have been in that circle,” Pacini said. “I wouldn’t have been in that part of town. I love when the Lord does that. He already knew I’d be walking through this study, and He had this whole plan in place before I even saw it. That just blows my mind.”

Find out more and download the study at leverageyourlifestudy.com.