If you’re mentoring a college student or twenty-something, there’s a good chance you’ve had the classic conversation. 

They’re sitting across from you, coffee in hand, eyes wide, brain spinning, saying something like: “I feel like God might be calling me overseas, but am I ready for something like that?” 

You have just stepped into the discernment zone! 

Discerning a missional calling, especially one that involves crossing cultures and oceans, is rarely a lightning-bolt moment. It’s a slow burn process with holy curiosity, potential fears, and a long list of random Google searches. And this is where you come in.

Why Your Role Matters More Than You Realize

At GoCorps, we believe God uses community to clarify calling. While young adults can be deeply committed to Jesus, they’re still learning how to listen, both to God and to themselves. Mentors help translate those thoughts for them. They put it out on the table for the student to see their potential! 

You hold a unique position in their life because you’re not grading them. You’re not trying to recruit them. AND you’re not their peer who’s also spiraling about the future.

You’re a steady, trusted voice who can help them slow down, notice things, and discern what God might be doing beneath the excitement and the anxiety.

No pressure! Okay, maybe a little bit, but it’s very holy work! 

Discernment Is Less About Answers and More About Paying Attention

One of the biggest gifts you can give a young adult is permission to linger. You’re allowing them to be curious. To pay attention rather than rush to conclusions.

You’re encouraging them to notice what consistently stirs their compassion? Where do they see God already using them? What types of people and places keep showing up in their prayers and conversations? What feedback have they received from others who know them well?

Story Time: When I was in my senior year, I knew I wanted to do mission work, but I had no idea where or in what capacity. I had a mentor who was meeting with me one day and she knew that I was passionate about pregnancy and walking with mamas, but I never thought I could make it into a career. I wasn’t a nursing major or really didn’t have any sort of experience in that world. But she sat me down and simply said, “You’d make a great doula,” and that’s hugely what led me to serve pregnant refugees in the Middle East in my 2- year GoCorps placement! 

Mentors help zoom out so students can see the bigger picture God may be painting. This happens over time through deep knowing and meaningful relationship! 

Ask Better Questions (You Don’t Need Better Advice)

Good news: you don’t have to have all the answers. 

Your superpower is asking thoughtful, Spirit-led questions:

• “What do you feel most alive doing?”
• “What fears come up when you imagine going overseas?”
• “How can you use your time, talents, and treasures given to you by God to further His purposes on earth?”
• “How has God equipped, experienced, and gifted you?”
• “What compels you towards an opportunity like this? What internal motivators are you experiencing? What external motivators are you experiencing?”

Questions like these invite reflection instead of pressure, and reflection is where discernment flourishes.

Normalize the Tension (Because It’s Real)

Many young adults assume that if God is calling them overseas, they should feel 100% confident, fearless, and spiritually mature at all times.

Nope. That is not how it works. 

Doubt, excitement, resistance, and deep longing often coexist in the discernment process. A missional calling tends to stretch us long before we ever feel settled in it. Helping young adults name that tension, and giving them permission to linger in it with curiosity rather than fear, is often one of the most helpful things we can do.

In Tithe Your Career, written by two GoCorps leaders, Paul Van Der Werf and Katy White, the authors describe the process of discerning calling this way:

“Discerning your calling is so much more about the journey, not the destination. I believe God invites us to dig into his Word, seek out his commands, study his intentional design for his world and his people, wrestle with the truths of his character, search our motivations, surrender our doubts and fears, and apply all these things to the specific outworkings of our life. We will miss out on so much of what we can learn about God and about ourselves when we expect an unquestionable level of certainty instead of entering into the wrestling that he has designed for us to endure.”

Dive deeper into this idea alongside the young adult in your life by watching our one-hour Calling Workshop that helps participants map out what calling truly is and how to discern it for themselves.

As someone speaking life and truth into their lives, you have an important role to play. Encourage them to see the truth of their worth rather than getting stuck in doubt and self-questioning. As Katy puts it:

“Calling is not meant to hold the weight of those feelings of unworthiness. God—your creator, your redeemer, your master, your comforter, your friend—desires for you to bring those feelings of unworthiness to him so he can speak into those lies.”

You have the opportunity to create space for young adults to face those lies honestly, and to speak truth and hope into the discernment process as they learn to trust God with their calling.

Offer Tools, Not Timelines

Instead of pushing for a decision, help them engage in practices that clarify calling. Encourage prayer rhythms that create space to slow down and listen more deeply to what the Lord is saying. Motivate the need for journaling their thoughts to put on paper or sharing their thoughts with those who have gone overseas before. Be a connector for them to learn more about cross-cultural opportunities through community or exposure to other cross-cultural ministries. 

Your Presence Is the Biggest Gift

Ultimately, discernment isn’t something you do to a young adult. It’s something you walk through with them. The space you’ll make for their curiosity is the greatest gift you can give them as a mentor.

The space you’ll make for their curiosity is the greatest gift you can give them as a mentor. 

Your consistency, encouragement, and willingness to listen may be one of the primary ways God confirms or refines their calling. That’s no small thing. That’s SUPER exciting if you ask me. What a gift to them, but also what a gift to YOU! 

So keep showing up. Keep asking questions. Keep reminding them that God is faithful, patient, and far more creative than any five-year plan they could make up. 

And when they finally say, “I think God might be calling me overseas,” you can smile and feel equipped and ready to say, “Let’s talk about that.”