Neighborhood Ministries

Before Christ ascended to heaven, He gave His disciples two commands.  He told His disciples to (A) go into all the world and preach the Gospel, and (B) to make disciples of all the world. He had come to earth and showed us how to live and had selected twelve to train. He later sent them out to see how they would do with what He had taught them. He later sent out seventy more, but the Bible never said he called seventy. I believe that they were ones His disciples had called and were training under Jesus’ supervision so they would learn to train others. When He was ready to ascend, He commanded His disciples to carry on the work that He had started. As each disciple was trained to live a Christ-like life, they would then be trained to train others. As each one would train others, it would create an ever-expanding group until everyone had heard the Gospel and all who responded would enter the kingdom. Unfortunately, many churches have become so busy with their many programs, that they have forgotten their primary assignment. Eastertide is a time when we are reminded of our primary assignment.

Prepare-Too many churches simply wait until a position is open and then try to fill it. The problem with that is the same people continue to serve so there are very few in the church with experience and very few members are involved in the church’s ministry. Many people are afraid to take new positions because they have no experience and those that do accept the position don’t do well, often become frustrated, and soon quit or continue struggling along doing a poor job. It makes better sense to ask someone to train as an assistant under someone more experienced before the need arises. Someone who has never taught before will be more likely to accept an opportunity to learn then to take a class alone with no experience. When a position comes open, there will be people who have experience and can do well. They will often be more likely to take the position if they have worked in a classroom for a while under someone than if they have never helped in a classroom before. It also provides assistants to help the teacher, so they don’t have to do everything themselves.

Involve New People-It is not enough to just have everyone take a year off. The church must actively seek to involve new people. A full-time search committee should be established that actively meet with members to talk with them about their interests and help them find areas that interest them. Too often search committees are called a couple weeks before the church’s annual conference to fill vacant elected positions and they have little time to seek qualified people. As a result, they often nominate the same people they know well, even though the people may have little interest or experience in that area. As a year-round committee, they can get to know more members and seek to help them find areas that interest them before openings occur.  When openings occur in committees during the year, the search committee can help the committee chairman find suitable replacements. The interest survey previously mentioned is a good way to help members discover where they would like to use their gifts. Before members go off their position after six years, the committee should meet with them again to help them explore other areas to see if there are other areas that interest them. The committee should be familiar with the various functions of the church and how to help members explore their interests. (I deal with it in my book for pastors and church leaders “Rebuilding The Kingdom”). As the committee locates new talents, it can help the church expand its ministry into new areas and involve more people in the church. The committee can also help each committee define its mission and draw up a mission statement to help them focus their work.