Church of God

By Leonard C. Albert

In another article we looked at the process of writing a lay ministry purpose statement. Here is the one that was suggested: We, the people of the [insert church name] endeavour to encourage all believers to reach the lost people in our community with a credible offer of the gospel and teach them the doctrine that every believer is a minister and then strengthen the family by helping raise up godly men.

Now we need an action plan—we’ve got to get the ball rolling. Here are some simple steps to consider.

Find the will of God. The best way to begin is to get with a few people who want the laity to be trained and mobilized and begin to pray. You could have a prayer summit or just a few evenings together to really pray about the direction of ministry in your church. You will become kindred spirits with these people who want a vision, strategy, and plan for ministry. Ask God for a plan to create momentum among laity and how to sustain this momentum for the long haul.

Look at where you are now. Take a hard look at where your church is spiritually. What outreach ministries are taking place in the church? How many members? How many workers are in lay ministry? How are they gifted? Conduct a spiritual gifts survey. You will realize that there are different groups in the church. Some are uninvolved and plan to stay that way. Some are on the “fringe.” They know about God but are only “Sunday Christians.” They are either barely inside or just outside the door of the church. Lay ministry author Os Guiness calls these people “the undiscipled disciples.” What would it take to get these people involved? Don’t be upset with people because they are not more spiritually mature. Isn’t this the very purpose for your being a lay coordinator?

Determine where you want to go. Your vision statement says, “Our members are ministers and we are to reach the lost.” All right, but how do we do it? What will it take to make lay ministry a reality in our church? Set some realistic goals for ministry. What would you like to do? Think about “inside” and “outside.” Think about what you want to do inside the church. Maybe you could begin a greeters ministry, train altar workers or teach an evangelism class. You could begin a LifeBuilders men’s ministry. Then consider what you would like to do outside the church. You will need a visitation program. We now have the WIN 2000 Challenge which involves starting “Lighthouses,” where two or three are asked to map their neighbourhood and begin to pray for and minister to each home in their immediate area. (For more details, see our Let’s Do It action page in this issue.) Write down some realistic goals and get started. Remember: If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you always got!

Create momentum for ministry. To get people in motion we need an event that creates “church-scale” momentum. We sometimes call these “catalytic events.” Consider hosting events such as:

• Lay Witness Week. Schedule a week of preaching and teaching on lay ministry opportunities.
• Lay Ministry Appreciation Sunday. Use this opportunity to share the testimonies of some of the great lay workers that are involved in your church.
• Parade Of Ministries. This would be during a main worship service. Use this opportunity to highlight the ministries that are currently working in the church. Let the different groups join you on the platform. Then let a few people who were saved share a testimony of how they were blessed by that ministry.
• A Lay Ministry Seminar. This would be a Friday night, Saturday teaching seminar and Sunday celebration on lay ministry issues and opportunities. Bring in a special speaker from outside the area.
• An Evangelism Festival. Call a one-day celebration to take a look at every kind of ministry and outreach program that is feasible for your church to adopt.

Momentum events are motivational. They create excitement, interest, converts and they get the message out. They will help you give people what they need in the context of what they want. They will give you a quantum leap forward. Plan to hold at least two each year.

Maintain the momentum. Remember it takes a long time to make a disciple. People will stay with your leadership if they really believe that you and the other leaders care about them personally. The question here is “How do you keep people involved after the novelty wears off?” Create a variety of opportunities for involvement. The most meaningful change takes place in the context of church-based relationships. One of the best ways to foster their relationship is to get people involved in small groups. They can be in Bible or book study groups, accountability groups, issue oriented study (divorce, grief, depression etc.) and prayer groups. Your ultimate goal is to keep people in the Word and in the work.

As you build the lay ministry action plan remember that truth flows through our heads to our hearts and out through our hands. People have to first understand what God wants to do in their lives, and then they need a change of heart and to make a fresh commitment to service for Christ and then put it into practice. Someone has well said: God moves mountains—people carry the stones. (Joshua 14:12). Begin your plan of involving laity today!

By Leonard Albert

Someone once said, “If you don’t know where you are going then any road will get you there.” All effective leaders ask themselves this question: “Why am I here and what am I to do?”

A dynamic local church lay ministry program begins with a clear understanding of the purpose of the laity. The first step in building the right strategy is to formulate your purpose. This purpose needs to be in line with Christ’s mission for us and the particular purpose of your church. God desires for the church to reach people with the gospel of Christ and help them grow to maturity. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), Jesus calls us to make disciples by sharing His message. In Ephesians 4:11-13, Paul teaches that God gives some people special abilities to equip other for works of service. Leaders, then, are called to disciple and equip people so they can do the actual work of the ministry and mature to become all God is calling them to be.

There are two foundational principles to remember as you think about the purpose of your lay ministry program in the local church. First, it takes a long time to make a disciple. Have a long-term perspective. Richard Foster said, “Our tendency is to overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in 10 years.” Don’t look for a quick fix in a few months. Instead, pray and plan for what God wants to do over the next several years. Second, most meaningful change takes place in the context of relationships. People change as they live in interaction with other believers. Your lay ministry program should help people develop meaningful relationships with each other.

The next step is to ask your fellow members some tough questions:

• If your church could do one thing for you, what would you want it to be?
• What is the most valuable experience you had at the church in the last year?
• What is the worst experience you’ve had at church in the last year?

Now, prayerfully combine the thoughts and ideas generated by this material into a purpose statement for the laity of your church. As a guideline, here is what a sample statement looks like:

We, the people of the [insert church name] endeavor to encourage all believers to reach the lost people in our community with a credible offer of the gospel, and to teach them the doctrine that every believer is a minister and then strengthen the family by helping raise up godly men.

Allow your ministry to be purpose-driven rather than event-driven. Every event that you schedule as a part of your program should serve your overall purpose. When you schedule events make sure to tell the participants the “big picture” of lay ministry and how this event helps achieve it. People want to be a part of something going somewhere.

As mentioned earlier, the ministry must be relationship-oriented rather than task-oriented.

Without real and deep relationships, people will feel no sense of community. If we only call the laity together to “do” there will be no glue to hold them together when the planned event is over. Events attract the people, relationships make them stick. The Bible calls us to make “disciples” and pray for “workers.” Our goal is to equip them to do the work of ministry. Here’s a key idea: If your church focuses on getting its people to do “works” rather than “make disciples” it will burn them out. The purpose of our ministry, then, is to make disciples, and true disciples will become workers out of the overflow of their growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Spend some time in pray and set a date and time to think about, create, and write your mission statement. Submit it to the pastor and other church leaders in order to secure their approval and acceptance.

by John Campbell

This title causes most of us to recall a scene of discipline or correction, and yes, we are on the receiving end of that correction. Because of that flashback or recollection, the image is not usually one of our most treasured memories. In contrast, however, when speaking with a new Christian it is imperative that eye contact be made. It is important for new Christians to hear in our words, as well as see in our eyes, a genuine concern for their understanding of the issue being addressed. In many cases, I believe the eyes are as good a tool of communication, if not better, than the words we speak.

Studies have shown that we give 25 times more attention to what we see than what we hear. Why is this so important, you ask? Sometimes, I think we are caught up in the world’s standard of success, where numbers or volume are the important measures of our labor. We live in a secular world of sales quotas, monthly goals and increased production. More is always better and quality may have to take a back seat to quantity. We can get by with that standard if it is limited to things, but it falls woefully short when applied to new Christians. Leading them to the point of praying the salvation prayer and then letting them find their own nurturing will not measure up to God’s will for their efforts.

A salvation message tells them how important they are. Discipling proves it. The new Christian does not care about being one of the many hands that were raised. They do care deeply that someone cares enough to spend whatever time it takes to bring them to a point of assurance and understanding. This has been done with some success in Newcomer classes, but the strongest soulwinners are those who have had a one-on-one mentoring experience. They realize that help and support are always there for them as they labor in the harvest field. If we are to build strong relevant churches, we need to assume the responsibility and blessings that accompany the one-on-one mentoring.

Looking back on my years as a Christian, I recall the many opportunities I have had to testify to the power of the gospel, and the decisions that were made as God blessed my testimony. It was only after a closer look that I realized there were only a few of those converts active in sharing their story. My experience had become just that—my experience. Not only was it no longer as rewarding as it had been, but it was not Scriptural, and also not very smart. A scripture I had read many times jumped out at me again: “two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).

I immediately set out to attempt to reproduce a soulwinner. This effort came about the same time the Promise Keepers held their mega event at the Minneapolis Metrodome. I took a longtime friend and athlete to this event, and he gave his heart to the Lord. We started the process of small-group (two) ministry stressing personal accountability. For one year, we have been meeting on Wednesdays at 6 a.m.

On November 17, 1996, our church, in conjunction with the National Lay Witness Week, had an Outreach Sunday stressing salvation, and I was able to share my testimony. My friend was responsible for five of the many first-time visitors in attendance who heard the gospel. Two made decisions for Christ that day. Why? Because “two are better than one.” Currently, three mornings a week are set aside for one-on-one sessions with other men. Why? Because maybe four are better than two!

I must share with you that this desire did not just appear at that large gathering of men. For years, through many presentations of the Department of Lay Ministries, I knew this was how God wanted men to get active for Him and involved with other men. I put off this call because the Holy Spirit seemed to be saying to me, “Before you enter into this activity, I want you to look at Me when I’m talking to you.” I was expecting the stern correction I had experienced as a youth when encountering that phrase.

When I finally did seek direction in this outreach attempt, I did not see or experience the correction I had anticipated. What I saw was the compassion God has for all of us, and the support and guidance available whenever it is needed. Men, go ahead and “look at Him when He’s talking to you.” It will change your life!

Laity Ministries will be there in Atlanta, September 14-15, 2009.

From Jason Althoff in Terre Haute, Indiana, following the 2009 LifeBuilders Indiana State Conference:

FYI, an amazing testimony of the work of the Lord in our church and specifically our men: By the Holy Ghost, Pastor Sanders called an altar call on Sunday night after worship for men and over 25 men, I lost count, came up for ministry and 2 were filled will the Holy Ghost with manifestation of speaking in tongues for the first time!  Not to mention the Essentials class on Sunday (prior to this altar call) we were in Lesson 4 on the “Holy Ghost/Walking in the Spirit” and we had a guest speaker who gave multiple words of knowledge relating to our lesson, specifically Acts 1:8 and how we “don’t use the gift of the Holy Ghost for its intended purpose, soul-winning, witnessing and testifying of Jesus Christ outside the 4 walls of the church”….WOW, CONFIRMATION!!!!  Praise God!  He is a wonderful and marvelous God!!! Our discipleship class has entered into strategic prayer for the men of the State of Indiana as well…

LifeBuilders Essentials can be ordered here.