The Observation

Have you ever wanted to believe something was true, but you just weren’t sure the evidence would truly back-up your belief?  Over the past 13 years I wanted to believe we were seeing trends that laity (nonpaid staff) were being empowered to do the ministry.  But I wasn’t convinced that what was taking place was more information and knowledge being dumped on God’s people with little empowerment truly being given to them.

Returning Ministry to the People

I have realized that ministry is being returned to the people of God by looking at a trend within our ministry.  Let me explain.  Almost ten years ago I remember how excited I was to work with a group of lay members (all unpaid) of a large church that were empowered to research for resources that would connect their people to meaningful ministry.  After several months of conference calls and emails I was invited to spend the weekend training their lay leadership along with the paid staff.  My first interaction with paid staff was the weekend I spent at the church.  Prior to that weekend every interaction I had was with non-paid staff.  I was elated to work with this group.  This up front interaction with non-paid staff in this manner was a rarity until the last couple of years.

The Positive Trend

PLACE Ministries receives thousands of orders for resources and inquiries for information about our ministry each year.  Until the last couple of years we guessed that 95% or more of those orders and inquiries would come from paid staff.  Over the last couple of years we have seen the trend rising with our guess being that 25-30% of our orders and inquiries are being made by non-paid staff on behalf on their churches.

So many trends in church today are not positive.  This positive trend of empowering non-paid staff to connect God’s people to meaningful ministry is one  we can and should all celebrate and embrace.

Churches who believe in helping people discover HOW they are uniquely created to serve must also be committed to helping direct people WHERE to serve.

I have watched many churches teach their people on HOW to serve based on helping them discover elements like their spiritual without any thought about how to help them know WHERE to serve.

Back to my two ministers I talked with this past week.  One was using our mobilyzr ministry guidehttp://mobilyzr.com/onlineguide/overview.html and pumped about how it was connecting their members to meaningful ministry.  The other was excited about the personal discovery going on through the PLACE assessments, but struggling on what to do beyond the personal discovery.  His church was even providing one-on-one coaching after the personal discovery, but still struggling with connecting people to ministry.

I am thrilled with churches that truly desire to help every individual in a personal and individual way discover who they are in Christ by providing insight to members and attendees into their personality, abilities, discovering their spiritual gifts and passions and connecting their life experiences to these insights and discoveries.  This is why I wrote the five PLACE assessments so God’s people can discover their personality, spiritual gifts, abilities, passion and life experiences as it relates to fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives.  But, I hope you will like me commit whether you are beginning your connection process or strategy or have already implemented it you will ensure to incorporate two key steps in your process and strategy.  First, create a ministry guide so your people will know WHERE they can pursue their purpose.  Secondly, provide one-on-one coaching to help your people know better HOW and then WHERE to serve.  The results will be worth the effort.  A commitment to this simple two-step process will avoid, “I’m gift but WHERE do I serve”.