Second Ministry Class

These are my notes from the second ministry leadership class.

Kyle recommended getting The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I've gotten it and have begun reading it. It's very good. (more on this later)

Be open for God to change what you are doing. Be willing to say "I will go where you want me to go." to God because people have seasons of ministry and spiritual assessments can change.

Also, know that you don't get to choose the gifts if the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can remove or add gifts as He sees fit. Where God places you and can move you where your gifts are needed.

Realize that God has gifted you and that you are responsible to exercise that gift - now!

The roll of the staff
The roll of the staff is to equip you, to help you understand and to help you plug in to ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13 says, "¹¹And He gave some {as} apostles, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as} pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

As you grow, you serve more. Remember, "te more you serve, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more you serve."

As you get closer to becoming a pastor, the Holy Spirit will raise the gifts of leadership, prophecy and shepherding.

Just-in-time leadership
The Lord gives us knowledge to share it with others. What you learn needs to be passed on. Find some one in your circle of influence and impart what you are learning here. Pray and ask God who YOU need to be investing in.


Weaknesses in ministry
A question came up about taking on all of the responsibilities for all of the areas, especially areas that you are not gifted in. The answer to that is to find someone to come along side of you who is gifted in that "weak" area. You may still have to perform some of the tasks, but let others keep the details. We need to concentrate on building our strengths.


S.H.A.P.E.
The next class is going to be looking at gifts, experiences, etc. using the acrostic of S.H.A.P.E.

For this week, we looked at the"S" which is Spiritual gifts. If you haven't already, you need to take a Spiritual Gifts Test or Assessment, so you'll know what your Spiritual gifts are. Think of these gifts are the boundries or edges of a puzzle. They frame what we'll be discussing...er...I'll be blogging. The details, which fill in the middle portion come from our passions, personalities, gifts and experiences. These will be covered in more detail in my next post.