He Was Ready to Retire. Then God Redirected His Life. | John Rennie on Sunday SoulDay (S4 E18)

Sunday SoulDay

John Rennie shares his journey of stepping away from a highly successful four-decade software career after feeling divine redirection in 2015, ultimately founding Brushfires Ministry to help believers uncover

Key takeaways

• John Rennie spent nearly 40 years building a software company before God redirected him in 2015/2016 to launch Brushfires Ministry.
• Corporate competencies like team leadership and organizational disruption are intentionally repurposed by God for ministry rather than discarded.

Main topics

• Career redirection and divine calling
• Identity beyond professional titles

Notable quotes

"God didn't waste a single thing in my corporate identity. He's just brought it to the ministry."

Conclusion

Listeners receive a practical framework for recognizing how past exper

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Welcome back for another episode of Sunday Soul Day, fueling your mind, body and soul with soulful conversations and life changing insights. Today, I'm joined by John Rennie, founder of Brushfires Ministry. After nearly four decades, building a successful software company, John thought retirement was the next chapter. But in 2015, he felt God redirecting him towards an entirely different purpose, helping others discover their God-given design, strength, and calling. We're talking about that unexpected redirection, identity beyond what we do, and what it means to recognize and live the purpose that may have been within us all along. Let's welcome him to the show. Welcome to Sunday Speaker 1 (0:47) Soul Day, Speaker 2 (0:48) John. Speaker 1 (0:49) Oh, thank you, Demetria. I'm really looking forward to our conversation. We have similar concerns, so this is going to be fun. Speaker 2 (0:58) Yes, we do. And I could not wait to talk to you. I love what you're doing and would just love to take the audience back a little bit because you spent nearly four decades building a successful software company before God redirected you in 2015. Tell me a little bit about that because, you know, my background is in tech and I spent, you know, many, many years scaling early and growth stage startups before I was really launched into my purpose. And I have to say, like, I was actually doing my purpose even before I stepped fully into it, but I'm serving on a larger scale. Speaker 1 (1:35) Yeah, so the things that are in us that make us successful in this world are not by accident. They're planted in us by God. And so think of your time in the corporate world or my time in Speaker 2 (1:47) the Speaker 1 (1:47) corporate world developing those skills. So what was I doing? Well, I was working and building a company, so hiring people, getting the best out of them, motivating them, keeping them engaged. Our business was about implementing new software at existing companies. So it's one of the most disruptive things that you can do to a business is change their business accounting software because it impacts everything about them. It impacts their accounting department, sales, inventory control, and it's a big change, and it can be really disruptive, and in some cases can almost put a company out of business. And yet somehow we were able to figure out how to do it. Well, then God says in 2016, I got a change for you. I did not accept the change in a very happy way. I was very unhappy with God. I look back at it now as the most important thing that he's ever done in my life. Short of my wife, who we've been married to for 46 years, it is the most significant, important thing that he's ever done in my life. And what I found was, guess what? I'm still putting together teams. I am going into churches or Christian organizations and giving them information and insight, which is completely disruptive to the way that they're used to doing things. Not in a bad way, but in an inspiring way for them to begin to achieve what the church was created for. God didn't waste a single thing in my corporate identity. He's just brought it to the ministry. Speaker 2 (3:26) Yes. Oh, I love that you said that. And it is so accurate because I think all of those imprints, because that's really what our life is. It's these imprints and experiences, and they're all working together for our larger good. Speaker 2 (3:45) giving us the ability to serve in a way that if we didn't have those imprints, we wouldn't be able to fully serve. And so I see my kind of process, you know, it's like I was training, you know, like I was constantly taking in information and data and learning and making mistakes and, you know, stumbling and completely not listening to God in certain cases, you know. And so I love that you touched on that because it doesn't always come easy, you know, when you're stepping into something completely different. You know, for me... I did not, I was very much comfortable being behind the scenes, you know, and that's not what God wanted. He was like, I need you to come to the forefront. I need you to step more into your light. And I was not prepared for that. And so I had to do it one step at a time. And so even before I started the podcast, you know, I'm like, people see me today and they're like, oh, yeah, this podcast is doing really well. I'm like, yeah, but I started just doing lives on Instagram, you know. Because I wasn't quite ready, but I did trust. And I think that is the big thing is I was comfortable stepping out on faith. Because even though I knew I could step forward, I didn't know that the ground, you know, I had faith that the ground would be there, but I didn't know what was in front of me. I had no clue. Speaker 1 (4:58) Yeah, change is hard. That's why I think God used our business to get me accustomed to it, because we didn't lose a single. client during the conversion process. Even though we were constantly changing data and converting the data from one database to another and then retraining completely new tools of their entire company, every one of those transitions was successful. There's a thing called disequilibrium. And disequilibrium says, I like things the way they are, even if they suck. See, In 2015, I was burned out. I was just like, I just can't do another sales presentation. I'm just all the joy of the business. The money was good. Six-figure incomes are nice. I like that part of it. But the actual doing the same thing over and over again, I was exhausted. So when I went through this conversion in 2016 from... corporate to ministry, it was rough. It was really rough because a lot of my identity was connected to that old version of me. It was especially, and this is really true for guys more than ladies, our identity is connected to what we bring in, especially as husbands or fathers. What do you bring into, how are you contributing? And that was really, really rough. And so even though I was burned out and so tired, I was comfortable with that tired. I was operating under duty, responsibility, and obligation, and it was sucking me dry and killing me from within, but it's the now that I knew. And then God says, yeah, I got something better for you. It's going to be a little rough for you. I got you. And then He delivered me to this ministry where I help people discover their purpose and completely change their lives and then guide them through that process. So, yeah. It's rough, but you have to have faith and trust in who it is that's leading you through the process. Speaker 2 (7:03) It's like, you know, the ground is there, but this may not be visible. And that's what I was saying earlier. It's like, I knew the ground was there because I trust God. He's got me, you know, no matter, even in the darkest moments, he's always there. I did not know what the step was like. It was going to be a small step, a big step, you know? So I think that's where you having just blind faith really comes in. I love that you touched on something that I think is a really great call out for the audience is just men and their identity being tied to what they do, you know, what they bring to the table. And that's so true. And I think a lot of times men will suffer in silence. Oh, Speaker 1 (7:42) yeah, yeah. We are conditioned. At young ages, we're conditioned not to show emotion, not to show weakness, because it gets pounced on in the playground and you get pummeled. And then also, the thing about your identity, here's the really weird thing. So the software company is still going. I mean, I stopped taking a paycheck in January 2016 so that my clients would be able to get support and my employees could still... get a salary and be compensated. And the software company is still going. I still own it. But in 2016, because I wasn't operating in that identity, because I wasn't actively selling or making sales or doing that sort of stuff, when I introduced myself to a new guy, I literally could not say I owned a software company. I couldn't say that I was a programmer. Why? technically it's true. I was, I still can program just because I wasn't doing doesn't mean I wasn't that. And I still owned a hundred percent of the company. I couldn't claim that identity because it wasn't what I was doing. And that's how entrenched it was in me is that that's who I am. And God said, no, that's not who you are. You are my son. You are a son of the most high God. I got you, and I'm delivering you to a place that is going to be so much more fulfilling for you. Speaker 2 (9:13) I love that. Thank you for that. This gave me goosebumps. Talk to us a little bit about brush fire ministry. Like, how did you even come up with that? Speaker 1 (9:24) So at the end of 2016, as God got my attention, an acquaintance came up to me and says, I teach the psychometric assessments training on how to interpret them. I think you'd be great for it. Now, what he was really saying is, I charge a lot of money for this training process, and you've got time on your hands. You should do this. There was no altruistic intent on his part. And so after going nine to 10 months without a paycheck, and cutting all expenses, I was like, no, this makes no sense. This is not going to put food on my table. This is not going to pay any bills. So I told him no, and I left. Speaker 1 (10:04) Got home. Holy Spirit, do it. what do you mean do it? At this point, God had beaten me down. I was very in tune with Him. I was really listening and looking for direction. I go, God, this makes no sense. What is psychometric assessments in the first place? Do it. All right. So I called the guy back up. I renegotiated better terms. Businessman is still there. That didn't go anyway. And I signed myself and my wife up. And all of a sudden, I saw these. Now, by the way, these assessments are not your typical ones like DISC or Myers-Briggs. I found out later that they were created in private practice by a born-again believer. I've become friends with a man who