Bio of John Stayskal
Pursue the World: The active and creative pursuit of God’s passion for the world…
God is using John Stayskal’s challenging message and personal testimony to motivate the body of Christ to the active and creative pursuit of His passion for the world. John has already challenged hundreds of youth and adults to find a place of significance in God. His message to find your purpose and be a part of something bigger than yourself has changed the lives of many who have captured a God-sized vision of their own. John’s desire is to see these people respond to the call of God and step out in faith to “pursue the world” with a purpose and passion.

His ministry has caught the attention of the national media including Focus on the Family (BRIO, Breakaway, and Life on the Edge) and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (Decision Today, Passageway.org).

John Stayskal is an ordained minister who has been in full time ministry for 20 years, having served three different churches as youth pastor. Since 1995, he has been the founder and executive director of Ultimate Goal Ministries.

Not just soccer
Although UGM is founded and based on soccer ministry, there is another important component to Ultimate Goal. John has discovered his testimony, experiences and challenge shared to participants on UGM trips have been life changing as those participants seek God’s calling on their life. It is due to the tremendous response to his speaking that he has begun to share with a wider audience the message of “Pursue the World”, the active and creative pursuit of God’s passion for the world.

The birth and ministry of Ultimate Goal
A soccer player himself, John knows the impact of making the soccer field a mission field. During high school, John played soccer for Wheaton Academy, a private Christian school in a suburb of Chicago. In his junior and senior years, his team placed 5th and 13th in the state of Illinois. During the summer before his senior year, John traveled with his school to Germany for a three-week soccer trip. It was shortly after this trip that John responded to God's calling on his life to ministry/missions.

John started Ultimate Goal Ministries in 1995 after an intense time of seeking God for his future ministry. Combining his calling and passion for missions, his experience and heart for youth ministry, his training in school, and his love for soccer, the vision of Ultimate Goal Ministries was born.

Since that time UGM has taken soccer mission trips to England, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Costa Rica, France and several U.S. locations including Nashville, Denver, and Florida, mobilizing hundreds of young people and adults from over 35 states and several foreign countries, and seen many participants enter the full time ministry as a result of his sharing and challenge.

The passionate pursuit of a vision
Outside of the yearly summer outreaches both foreign and local, Ultimate Goal has developed a strategic focus on reaching the Kurdish community in Nashville. The goal is to plant a Kurdish church with those who come to Christ and to train many of them who will return to Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) as missionaries to their own people. The vision of seeing an unreached, muslim people come to faith in Christ is a part of the pursuit we are passionately following. Starting Kurdish soccer teams, relationship building, networking, and bringing together a coalition of like-minded individuals and ministries are all a part of our unfolding vision, our God-sized adventure.

Other credentials and education
In 1987, John graduated from Oral Robert's University with a degree in Evangelism, and only lacks his comps to complete his master's degree in Missions from Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina.

John was an active member in forming the Nashville Network of Youth Ministries, a network comprised of laypersons and full-time youth leaders. He has also worked in unity with other youth leaders to reach young people and strengthen youth ministries.

John also serves as the Affiliate Director of the Nashville World Relief office.

John and his wife Tracy reside in Nashville, Tennessee. There they enjoy raising their sons, Luke, Paul and Timothy.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…
Creatively pursuing God’s purposes runs in the Stayskal family. Wayne Stayskal, John’s father, is the editorial cartoonist for the Tampa Tribune and is syndicated in hundreds of papers all over the world and across the U.S. His cartoons have been featured in publications such as Reader’s Digest, Charisma, Focus on the Family magazines, and Christianity Today among others. He has also illustrated several books.