What if you’re waiting for a call that’s already been placed?
A lot of people are waiting for a dramatic, crystal-clear moment before they take their next step. A sign. A voice. Some undeniable confirmation that this is it. But in this episode of the Daron Earlewine Podcast, Daron sits down with his friend Luke Newton — former worship pastor turned online marketer — and their conversation surfaces a truth that might just unlock something in you: calling isn’t found in a single moment. It’s formed through movement and trust. Luke’s journey spans small-town Texas, a megachurch in Fort Lauderdale, a church plant in Indianapolis, and eventually a full pivot into the online business world alongside his wife Kara. None of it looked like what he expected. And that’s exactly the point.
Calling is less found than it is formed
Luke puts it plainly: “You have to trust the Caller more than you understand the call.” That line hits different when you realize how much of his life he spent trying to force his calling into specific job titles and church roles — and how much of his faith journey was shaped by what happened when those roles fell away. When he left full-time worship ministry after nearly two decades, he didn’t just lose a job. He lost the structure his identity had been built around. The process of rebuilding wasn’t clean or fast. But what came out of it was a deeper, more personal faith — one grounded in following Jesus rather than filling a role. Belief, he says, is intellectual agreement. Faith is actually moving in step with God. That distinction changes how you think about every decision in front of you right now.
The real calling might be the people right in front of you
One of the most grounding moments in this conversation comes near the end, when Luke shares a shift in how he thinks about calling altogether. He spent years focused inward — what’s my calling, what’s my ministry, what’s my next step? What he discovered is that when you stop being consumed by your own calling and start engaging outward, the people you come into contact with become the calling. As Daron adds, echoing Gary Smalley: life is relationships — everything else is just the details. If you’ve been wrestling with what you’re supposed to do next, or if you’re in a season where the path looks nothing like what you planned, this episode is permission to breathe. You’re not behind. You’re not disqualified. You’re on a journey, and the invitation is the same it’s always been — come follow me. Subscribe to the Daron Earlewine Podcast and reach out at daron@daronearlewine.com.
Episode Summary:
What happens when 20 years of ministry end? Luke Newton was a worship pastor for nearly two decades, megachurch stages, church plants, the whole thing. Then the occupation ended and the real journey into calling began. In this conversation, Luke and Daron dig into what it actually means to be called, not just the romantic version, but the real version. The one that shows up when your title disappears, your identity gets rattled, and you’re starting over at ground zero, wondering if any of it still counts.
Key Takeaways:
- Why calling is less “found” and more “formed.”
- The difference between trusting the Caller and understanding the call.
- How the people around you might be the calling you’ve been chasing all along.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Daron: If you’ve ever felt like figuring out God’s call on your life is like a cosmic game of hide and seek — and right now you’re hiding behind some curtain thinking, I don’t know what to do with my life — then this episode may just be for you. I’m sitting down with a good friend, Luke Newton, talking about his journey from traditional worship pastor to online marketer. It’s a wild ride. I think you’re going to be really encouraged. And I think you might just be given some permission to take a breath and follow what Jesus is inviting you into. Let’s get into it.
Daron: Created on purpose and for purpose. Hey, welcome back to the Daron Earlewine Podcast. I’m your host, Daron Earlewine. Stoked to have you back. Let’s start with some gratitude — thank you for downloading this episode. And if you’ve subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever platform you’re on, thank you. It means a lot. The podcast community is growing, and I love hearing from you. You can always email me at daron@daronearlewine.com.
Sitting down today with an old friend to me, a new friend to you — Luke Newton. Welcome to the podcast.
Luke: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Daron: Luke, we’re going to have a stellar conversation. I’m fired up about it. You and I have become pretty close friends over the past year, but our lives have been intersecting for a long time — mostly because of our kids. You’ve got three kids, I’ve got three kids. Your oldest is a year younger than mine, our middles are the same age, and our youngest are the same age.
Luke: That’s right.
Daron: So we were sitting around each other at all kinds of sports events for years and barely knew each other. It’s strange — our orbits were so close, but we never really connected. I just kind of thought, I think that Luke guy is in ministry somewhere. And then you ended up in my discipleship huddle this year. And what’s funny is how many similarities there are in our stories. It’s kind of uncanny, honestly.
Luke: It is. I wouldn’t have expected it either.
Daron: So let’s get in the time machine. I think part of it is — if you grew up around the church in the eighties, everybody just kind of had the same experience. You get around somebody from that world and suddenly you’re like, okay, you were in Texas, I was in Arizona, this other guy was in Indiana — but we’re in a parallel universe.
Luke: Very much so.
Daron: We bonded over Carmen. PJ, you know Carmen, right?
PJ: Sure. Sure did.
Daron: Darren, you know about Carmen?
Darren Cooper: I mean, come on. The champion. “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s on the way.” “Satan, bite the dust.” Come on.
Daron: For anybody who doesn’t know Carmen — time for a Google search. And rest in peace to the guy. He was actually the real deal. He did free concerts. He was kind of on the front edge of adopting innovative ideas in Christian music. You could argue the likes of DC Talk were a product of the pioneering he did.
Luke: I think that’s fair. He brought it mainstream as far as live concerts and started genre-bending before that was even a thing.
Daron: So let’s fill in the blanks on the Luke Newton story. Texas is the origin?
Luke: Yeah, great. My folks are born and raised Texan. I was born in Abilene, Texas. That’s where all my grandparents were. We actually lived across the street from one set of grandparents, and they had a little farm. What a great childhood — waking up, rolling across the street, riding in the pickup to check on the livestock. Going to school almost felt like a tragedy because I’d gotten so close with my grandfather.
My dad was a Methodist pastor — small denomination, evangelical Methodist. He went to McMurray University in Abilene and then SMU for seminary. The church in Abilene was actually the first church of the denomination, and it expanded nationally from there. My dad had some of the original books from the founding pastor, J.H. Hamblin. That was a big deal to him.
Daron: So you’re in Texas, loving the farm life, hanging out with grandpa. Dad’s pastoring a small church. What did young Luke Newton want to be when he grew up?
Luke: In the early years — basketball. My grandfather set up a basketball goal on the farm and I fell in love with the game. I remember watching March Madness around ’91 or ’92, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley — and getting so inspired I’d run laps around the house just to burn off the energy. Then the Michael Jordan “Come Fly with Me” video came out, and my brothers and I literally destroyed that tape watching it over and over. I just dreamed about basketball.
Daron: Did you actually play in school?
Luke: I did. I was okay. We moved to Odessa when I was in sixth grade — oil country, flat as flat gets. As the saying goes, it’s so flat out there you could watch your dog run away for three whole days.
Daron: That’s a good Texas joke.
Luke: Thank you. I had to get one in. But yeah, I played basketball in high school and enjoyed it.
Daron: So as you’re growing up, you’re obviously the pastor’s kid. Did you enjoy that or was it rough?
Luke: Both, honestly. You’re known by everybody in the church — that gives you instant rapport, which you enjoy, but all the eyes are on you. I’ve got two brothers, John and Mark. Three rambunctious boys in ministry — that was challenging for my parents. And it escalated when my dad became a district superintendent and was traveling to churches across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. We were in the car almost every weekend for the better part of five years. That reputation and expectation just kept growing.
Daron: Looking back at that version of yourself — did you feel like you had authentic faith, or was it more obligation?
Luke: Probably more obligation, if I’m honest. More of a feeling of, I’ve got to toe the line as the pastor’s son. We definitely endured some discipline from my parents based on our behavior. And the traveling every weekend was a lot. We had this station wagon — we called it the silver bullet because it was all silver with tinted windows. My brothers and I would just crash out in the back on those long trips.
Daron: That’s from the era when you could truly endanger your children by letting them ride unseatbelted in the back of a station wagon.
Luke: Oh, for sure. Those were the days. But to answer your question honestly — there were definitely moments of real, genuine faith for me. And as I got into high school, I started drifting toward worship ministry. A friend of mine — also a pastor’s kid — and I started leading worship for FCA meetings at our school. We started with “See You at the Pole” and it grew from there.
Daron: Had you played guitar before that?
Luke: Barely. I had this guitar — I can’t even remember where I got it, maybe a garage sale or pawn shop. Some of the tuning keys were missing and I had to use pliers to tune it. I learned three or four chords and we started singing some early worship songs. Then we said, let’s just start meeting at your church on Monday nights and call it the Upper Room. We pulled in some better musicians and started a little band called 3000 Plus.
Daron: 3000 Plus. I like it.
Luke: Yeah, by mid-nineties standards, that was pretty forward-thinking.
Daron: So at what point did it click for you — this is God’s call on my life?
Luke: Probably around ’96 or so. There wasn’t a really clear, dramatic moment of, “This is the call.” It was more like, I think this is the direction I need to move in. Leading worship was a lot of fun, came fairly naturally, and it connected to what I’d seen growing up. My mom plays piano, and every time we visited those churches across three states, my parents would sing a special song together. Mom harmonizing, Dad on the melody. People loved it. I didn’t fully appreciate it then, but they were sharing their faith through song. That was something I felt like I could do too.
I ended up majoring in worship leading at Asbury University near Lexington, Kentucky. That’s where I met my wife.
Daron: Where’d you meet her?
Luke: Old Testament class. I got to Asbury in the fall of ’99. My college roommate was staying in contact with his girlfriend back in North Carolina, talking to her every night on the phone. And I started doing what every college freshman does — asking myself, why am I here? What did I just do? I was this close to unenrolling and transferring back to Texas Tech. I had actually started the process.
But some really good friends sat me down and helped me see that my reasoning was based on things that didn’t really exist back home anymore. The relationship I was thinking about going back to — things had already changed. And I finally understood: God had already moved me in a different direction. So I stayed, re-enrolled. Showed up to Old Testament class and Kara looked up and said, “I thought you left.” I sat down next to her — and our story started right there.
[MID-ROLL — ROGUE COLLECTIVE COACHING]
Daron: Hey, sorry for the interruption, but I want to take a moment to invite you into something. If you’ve ever felt stuck — spinning your wheels, thinking there’s got to be more for me — that feeling is right. You do need to discover your purpose. And I want to help.
That’s exactly what we do with Rogue Collective Coaching. If you’re curious, or if you’re past curious and you know it’s time to take action — here’s your next step. Go to RogueCollectiveCoaching.com. Click “Book a Discovery Call.” Jump on a 30-minute conversation with me. We’ll talk about where you are and whether Rogue Collective Coaching is your next step. RogueCollectiveCoaching.com. I can’t wait to chat with you.
Daron: So you get from Texas to Kentucky — and I want to frame this properly for our community, because we talk a lot about being created on purpose and for a purpose. Some people have this transcendent, undeniable moment where they feel God’s call clearly. Other people follow a series of signposts — talent, joy, open doors — and just keep taking steps. From what you’re describing, it sounds like you were more in that second camp?
Luke: That’s put very well. Looking back, I think I assumed at various points that I had to hear some audible direction before I could move. But that’s not really what calling looks like for most people. The story of Abraham comes to mind — he wasn’t given a detailed map. He was just told to go. Leave. And I’ll be with you on the journey. None of the destination was described.
So what I’ve come to believe is that calling is less about a single moment of clarity and more about movement. I’d put it this way: calling is less found than it is formed. It gets formed through trust and action. The act of stepping out is what produces and surfaces the calling in your life.
Daron: That’s really good, Luke.
Luke: You can absolutely have moments with God — I’ve had some of those. The Chariots of Fire image comes to mind, Eric Liddell feeling God’s pleasure when he runs. That sense that God takes joy in moving through you — whether it’s music, teaching, construction work, whatever it is. If you can sense that God is finding joy moving through your life, you’re in your calling.
Daron: I think there’s a real freedom in that. I think what makes it hard for a lot of people is the belief that God’s plan is this fixed, narrow, linear path — and if you veer too far right or left, you’ve ruined everything. That picture creates anxiety, guilt, and fear. What you’re describing is movement, a journey. The more important thing isn’t a crystal-clear map — it’s responding to the invitations.
Luke: Exactly. And I did follow that path, right? I responded to those invitations, graduated, and wound up at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale around 2003. At the time they had about 20,000 weekly attenders. Four weekend services, two Wednesday nights.
Daron: That was your first real gig — after 3000 Plus?
Luke: After 3000 Plus, yes. Don’t sell 3000 Plus short. But yeah — I went from 20 people in my dad’s church to 20,000. Make of that what you will.
Daron: You had to be pretty good.
Luke: I was pretty good. I got to lead alongside phenomenal musicians there. Donna Summer’s sister, Mary Bernard, was on the worship team. The pool of talent was extraordinary. My wife Kara was on staff in family ministry. It was a really wonderful season.
Daron: In your twenties, landing at a megachurch right out of college — you’re using your degree, the gifts are clicking, your wife is on staff alongside you. You had to feel invincible.
Luke: I felt completely invincible. I felt like I could do anything. But what you don’t see at that age is all the factors and relationships that got you there. I ran worship auditions there early on — the standard was very high. It was lost on me a little bit how much had been done for me. A friendship with the executive pastor had opened doors that others had tried to get through for years. I was grateful for the talent God had given me, and I was happy to be using it. But I didn’t fully see the whole picture.
Daron: That season ran from about ’03 to ’08?
Luke: Roughly, yeah.
Daron: Then what?
Luke: We moved to Northwest Indiana. It was my in-laws’ church — the one job we’d said we’d take if it ever opened up. It was a rough situation from the start. A lot of turmoil within the staff. After ten months, I decided it was time to move on. And that was a really hard season — questioning my calling, questioning my direction, even questioning myself. Am I cut out for this?
To give you more color — the entire staff was basically let go after we left and the church dissolved. It was pretty tragic. But even now, there’s a new church in that space that’s growing and doing real work in the community.
Daron: It almost seems like the timing was providential — like he moved you before everything collapsed. It didn’t spare you from the pain, but there’s something there.
Luke: It certainly felt that way at the time. Like, I was caught off guard. But clearly, He wasn’t.
Daron: And then Indianapolis?
Luke: May of 2008. We helped plant Harvest Bible Chapel North Indianapolis. We started meeting at Carmel High School — portable church. We did that for about ten years before getting into a building.
And around that time, I found myself in my mid-thirties, which is kind of the age-out point for worship leaders. You’re no longer the cool young guy. There are much younger people with the same skill set, and you start to ask, what am I doing? Those questions surfaced again.
So I transitioned out of that and moved into tech — a mobile app company here in Fishers. It was really fun and challenging and a total pivot out of ministry. The apps we worked with served churches, tourist destinations, eventually corporations for employee engagement. I got exposure to a lot of markets, and it was genuinely fruitful. Around that same time, my wife Kara was starting to build a real following on social media.
Daron: Hold on — we’re not evil-knieveling over that canyon. Let’s go back. Because here’s what I hear in that story: you grew up a pastor’s kid, you’ve been doing church your whole life, you spend almost twenty years in professional worship ministry — identity wrapped up in it, gifting built around it, legacy, family. And then you stopped. And I’m guessing it was more than just, “I’m the older guy, time to let younger people in.”
Luke: You nailed it. And I hadn’t thought about it quite that clearly. But that’s exactly it. There was so much wrapped up in it. As you were articulating that, I realized — I put all of my emphasis on those roles. My calling? It has to live inside these specific things. I have to make it work here because this is where the calling is. This is my heritage. This is my family’s legacy.
And I didn’t see until now how much of the work was me trying to force my calling onto all of those things — defining it by those jobs.
What I’d say now is that calling is more about sensing the presence of Jesus in my own spirit and moving out from that together with Him. It gets confused by all those other things.
Daron: Did that shift create some turbulence in your own faith? Like — I’ve had to do church every Sunday because I worked there. I’ve done Jesus stuff my whole life because it’s all I’ve ever known. You make one occupational decision and suddenly you’re unplugged from everything you’ve always had to do.
Luke: You want the real answer?
Daron: I want the real answer.
Luke: Yes. It was messy. Convoluted. Unclear. Within my own heart and mind — my sense of who I was, who God was — I spent a lot of years processing through it. And unfortunately, we don’t get to pause life, figure it all out, and then press play. We’ve got to earn, raise families, show up every day while we’re still sorting through it.
My family are the saints in that equation, honestly. And what I didn’t fully understand at the time is that the transition was hitting them too. I was so focused on my own internal journey, I missed how much they were going through the same shift. My kids — one day they were the worship leader’s kids. Then they weren’t. And what does that mean in their social world? In their identity?
Daron: That resonates. When I left local church work in 2012, those next couple of years weren’t my best. I lost the office, the team, the pulpit, the platform, the sense of, I am responding to God’s call by being in full-time ministry. It took me a while to get my hands around: does it still count if it doesn’t look like this?
What would you have said to that version of me back then?
Luke: A lot, actually. Here’s what strikes me — our stories started in almost identical places but crisscrossed somewhere around the calling question. You had a clear transcendent moment at 16 at a camp altar. God, I’m responding to a call to ministry. Your only imagination for that was: local church. For me, there was never that single moment, but my whole life path pointed the same direction. It just made sense.
And now we both have very different lives than we imagined at 21 or 22.
What I would say to you — and to myself back then — is this:
The call of God is not you responding to a specific location or a specific occupation. It could be contained in that — God can be that specific. But I think for most people, what God is actually after is your trust. Not your perfect interpretation of the assignment. Just, come on. Let’s go. I’ll be with you.
And what I’ve come to believe is: you have to trust the Caller more than you understand the call.
Daron: That’s it right there.
Luke: That’s what I’ve gained in these years. Especially this last year — really drilling down on who Jesus Christ is and how I truly sense His Spirit in me. Not just believing it as a concept, but actually knowing it. There’s a difference between belief and faith. Belief is intellectual assent to stated things. Faith is acting with trust that you’re moving in step with God.
Daron: That’s really good.
Luke: And that’s the process — God was always trying to get me there. Not to the right job. Not to the right church. But to trust. Dave Gibbons put it this way: in the kingdom, everything is response, not initiative. Not me figuring out the call and executing it. Response. And I would tell myself back then: just respond. You don’t know where you’re going. That’s okay. It counts. Whatever season you’re in, it counts.
Daron: Well, and what I think we’ve done a disservice on in the church world is we only speak of calling in the context of ministry. If you’re going into full-time ministry, you’re called. If you have a career — that’s important, you’ve got to earn, but it’s not holy. And I think that’s completely wrong.
Luke: Completely wrong. I love the idea of the holiness of everyday life. Why does a cathedral feel like a cathedral when you’re standing in the middle of a beautiful natural space? Because God is in it. He loves the beauty He created. Even your most ordinary Monday morning is sacred if God is in it.
And here’s something that hit me just recently — God has never aged. We age; God hasn’t. So His enthusiasm for each experience — what feels to us like a mundane day, a routine job, just getting up and doing it again — to God, it’s like: do it again. Let me see you do it again. His infancy of enthusiasm never fades.
Daron: That’s so good. Do it again.
Luke: And I’ve been the one saying, I can’t do this day again. I’ve got to make a change. And meanwhile, God’s like: do it again.
Daron: I’m going to marinate on that one. That’s really good, Luke.
The simplicity of Jesus’s first and ever-present call is just: come follow me. That’s it. Sometimes you’ll get specific direction. Sometimes you won’t. Use your gifts, your strengths, who He created you to be to help guide you — but know He could call a massive audible at any time. And if your identity is wrapped up entirely in the job, in the title, in the occupation, that audible is going to be devastating. But if your identity is in following Him — you’ll be okay.
Luke: That’s exactly it. It’s the commitment to following, the trust in it, that fixes your gaze. Not a destination — I’ve made it if I get there. But more like: I get to go on this journey with Christ as my guide through the wilderness. We’re together. I don’t know where it’s headed, but we’re together.
And the comparison trap — I’ve fallen into that hard. Wishing I had someone else’s particular expression of ministry or faith work. Or thinking, if I just had more money, I’d be happy. If I got that one good job, I’d have arrived. That game never ends. And you never win it.
Daron: Let’s land the plane. Fill in the blanks on the story real quick. You leave that season, your wife Kara has a viral moment on the internet, builds an incredible platform as an influencer — strong partnerships, great reach — and my wife buys all kinds of stuff from her.
Luke: We appreciate that.
Daron: You’re basically paying our mortgage in fuzzy blankets over here.
Luke: That’s fair.
Daron: You’ve been running the back end of that business together for almost a decade now. It’s blessed your family, created real impact. We should do a whole episode on what it means to partner in business with your spouse. But where are you now? What’s the job title?
Luke: We’re online marketers. I build marketing automations, manage the back-end systems, handle finance, and I’m the pool boy — except we don’t have a pool, we have a hot tub. That’s about as accurate a title as I can give you right now.
Daron: You need a better name tag. Is there any sense of what the next invitation might look like from Jesus?
Luke: I think it’ll be in a similar direction, unless something changes. But what I’d add is this — what shifted for me is where I put the focus. I used to view calling almost entirely internally: this is my calling, this is my ministry, this is my job. And what I’ve started to see is that when you shift the direction, when you stop being so focused on your own calling and start engaging outward — the people you come in contact with become the calling.
We’ve talked about this in our group, Daron — the idea of people of peace. The disciples went out, looked for people of peace, spent time with them, encouraged them, strengthened them. If someone was antagonistic or indifferent, they moved on. No drama. And some of those ideas have really shifted things for me. I was so inward-focused that even the smallest thing would shake my sense of calling. And I’d miss the real joy — it’s the people you’re with. They’re the calling.
Daron: That makes me think of Gary Smalley’s line I’ve probably said on every episode: life is relationships, everything else is just the details. I think what you’re saying is that calling is relationships — everything else is just the details.
Luke: I’m going to steal that.
Daron: It’s called curating. Makes you feel better about it. Luke, thank you so much for being here, man. I’m genuinely glad you’re in my life. This has been a great conversation. We’ll have you back — maybe bring Kara along next time and get her side of the story too.
Luke: I’d love that. And honestly, Daron — it’s been a joy watching what God is doing with your ministry and seeing all the different areas you’re stepping into. That’s on purpose. I’ve loved having a front-row seat to that. Keep pressing on.
Daron: Hey, thanks for downloading this episode. If you’ve got questions for me or for Luke, email me at daron@daronearlewine.com. And until we talk again — remember these three things: God’s for you, not against you. He’s near you, not far away. And He’s created you on purpose and for a purpose. Thanks for being part of the Daron Earlewine Podcast.of the Daron Earlewine Podcast. Until we do, remember this: God’s for you, not against you. He’s near you, not far away. And He has created you on purpose and for purpose.