Third Vision Team Report:
            Discovering Gifts for Ministry

Empowering people for ministry can often be a challenging concept for a church. As one of the four primary systems stressed in the Crossroads Method, the empowering system carries the spiritual DNA throughout the organism by providing opportunities for spiritual growth through service to others, and is a way to deepen one's own spirituality.

The new paradigm is that healthy churches understand they must meet the needs of individuals first. Those needs focus on

        * spirituality - connecting with God

        * community - connecting with others

Churches have been used to responding to people's desire to participate (volunteer) by creating opportunities to meet the needs of the institution. We often have long lists of institutional "we needs," i.e., "we need this" and "we need that."

The assumption is often made that because people have a particular gift or talent, they will want to use it in service to our church, and there are people who willingly respond to the needs of the church on that basis.

But many more, who want to serve, may prefer not to carry their work life over into their church life. Often these people have a particular gift or passion, that if uncovered and empowered, could be of great value to the life and work of our church. This is a great untapped area, and our duty is to assist people to uncover their gifts and passions.

When we become an empowering church and proactively reach out to individuals, helping them find their gifts and talents and passions for service, and then equipping them for ministry, we will, in the long run, be the main beneficiary.

Please feel free to share your insights and questions regarding any aspect of the visioning process with any member of the Vision Team.