Missional Living

Just thought I'd put up my next "work for hire" that I just wrote for CVC (www.churchvolunteercentral.com). It should be coming out in their October e-newsletter. If you lead volunteers in a church setting, this is by far the best resource I've found. There's a $99 yearly membership fee but that covers everyone in your church and trust me, it's worth it. Plus it's run by Group Publishing, which in my opinion is one of the best Christian publishers. Anyway, here's the article in it's form before reaching the editor....

Developing an equipping culture isn’t just about the church and its activities. It means believing that each person in your church body has been strategically gifted and placed by God in their life situations to make an impact for His Kingdom. It means that when your small group leader comes to you and says, “My child just decided to start playing t-ball and I’m going to have to miss our next small group leader’s meeting because of a game,” you don’t fear that you are losing a leader, you cheer that God has given that family another opportunity to be a minister to a whole new set of people.

In 2005 I started wondering if “professional” ministry was where God wanted me. I had been serving in full-time ministry for about 3 years at that point and had faced some things that left me questioning. I spoke to a person who was in leadership over our church at the time and he told me that I would be letting God down and that he was sure that I didn’t want to be like the many men and women in the Bible who failed. Thankfully God’s voice in my head was louder. A few weeks after that conversation I really felt like God told me, “April, it’s not about being a “professional” minister, it’s about ministering wherever I place you.” I think my eyes were opened that day not only in regards to my own situation but also in regards to how we value or don’t value the lives of our church family members outside the church walls.

I have a friend who works at Target. He hates it. He feels like it’s a worthless job where all he does is help a big corporation make more money. That’s one of the reasons I went into full-time ministry in the first place: to do something worthwhile. But the truth is, God has strategically placed each of us where we are to make a great impact for His kingdom. The problem is that most of us miss our calling and just earn a paycheck.

I believe the church has a responsibility to help people discover their calling, not just as it relates to their service to the church but as it relates to who God calls them to be in their everyday situations. Developing an equipping culture is about preparing people to “go into all the world and make disciples.” Often times, however, fear causes the church to hold on tightly to its servants. They wonder, “If I release people to live in the world, how will I run the ministries in my church?”

Here’s what I believe with all my heart: If a church is committed to equipping people and releasing them to be ministers in their circles of influence, there will be no need to stress about the lack of volunteers because the church will grow and overflow with the lives that have been touched by the ministers who have been sent out. Jesus says to seek God’s Kingdom first, and everything else will fall into place.

What exactly does it look like to equip people to minister in their worlds? I don’t really think it’s an exact science. I don’t think you can write it into three easy steps. I do, however, want to give you a few ideas that I’ve thought of in hopes to get your minds thinking in that direction.

First of all, it’s important to consider what you communicate. How do you respond when conflicts of scheduling arise like the example I mentioned in the beginning? You could throw a fit and demand that your small group leader attend the meeting. In that case you’re very likely to lose that leader’s service to the church and you’ve missed a great opportunity to equip them to go out. What if instead of responding negatively you say, “Well we’ll really miss you at our meeting, but that’s great that you’re getting to interact with some new families. Have you thought about ways you can use your God-given gifts to love the people you are meeting?” Your leader may miss the training you wanted to give to them on small groups, but in just a quick sentence you’ve trained them to think strategically about the relationships they have. Take this example a step forward by offering a suggestion. “Susie, you are so great at hosting your small group. Have you thought about opening your home to the families on your child’s t-ball team? A meal might be a fantastic way to get to know them and show them God’s love.” In that one sentence you’ve helped them to see that God has gifted them not only to serve the church but also to reach out to the people around them.

What does your church value and how do you express it? Equipping people to live out God’s mission in their world has to be at the core of who you are as a church body. Many churches are developing mission statements and core values to help their church family clearly understand the vision God has given for their particular church. My church has a set of core values, one of which is “Missional Living.” We define this as: Meeting people's needs through acts of compassion and sharing with them the truth about God's love. We also have a list of goals that we’ve given our church members as it relates to this value.

Personal Goals:
I will do spontaneous acts of compassion daily.
I will spend time building quality relationships with my neighbors.
I will regularly pray for people in my circle of influence and be available to respond to their needs and to talk with them about their faith questions.

There are probably many more personal goals you can give people as it relates to this but these are just a few we’ve come up with to help our church family get started.

What are you teaching on Sunday mornings when the church gathers together for worship? Do your church members feel like it is a safe place to bring their friends? Do you make visitors stand up to be recognized and in my opinion, feel uncomfortable? Are you preaching about spiritual gifts only as they relate to service within the church or do you talk about how people can use their spiritual gifts outside the church?

Take a quick look at your church calendar for the next couple of months. How many days a week do you have “church stuff” planned – (i.e. small groups, Wednesday night church, Sunday night church, Sunday morning church, Men’s breakfast, Ladies lunch, Women’s Craft Night, Men’s Golf Night, Singles Events, etc…)? Stop over scheduling your church families and leave them room in their schedules to develop relationships outside the church.

Lastly, start to value the informal. What does that mean exactly? As pastors, we like to be able to measure our success. “Look, 75% of our Sunday morning attendance is in a small group! Look we have started 3 new ministries in the last six months and are touching the lives of 40 new families as a result of those ministries.” I’m not suggesting that it is bad to look at those things. It’s important to make sure the ministries you do have are actually being effective. However, don’t underestimate informal gatherings of people. Dan might have a hard time making it to a small group on week nights because of his work schedule but what you don’t know is that he’s growing spiritually with a group of Christian and non-Christian friends who meet on Saturday mornings for a bike ride and breakfast and then just happen to talk about spiritual things in the context of real life. Sharon might not be serving in one of your official ministries but what you don’t know about her is that on Wednesday mornings she invites some of the ladies in her neighborhood over so the kids can play together and she can share God’s love with them.

Ministry isn’t always measurable. We need to encourage and value ministry that happens outside our walls. We need to equip people to reach out to the people they interact with everyday at work and at their kids schools and at their gyms and in their classes. We need to instill in our church family the truth that they are ministers, not just within the church but everywhere they go and to everyone they meet.