Develop and Integrate Gift-Based Ministries

Yes, fellow elders, we are free to organize in a New Testament, synergistic way, so that every believer can serve seriously.

Yes, Lord, we’ll arrange for all believers to use the gifts You give them to serve one another and their neighbors, doing the ministries that You require.

Develop all ministries that the New Testament requires of a body of believers.

A church is not fully planted until its members are doing the ministries that God requires of it. Godly leaders let believers serve in vital ministries; weak leaders over-control, curtail members’ participation in serious ministry, and fail to share their authority with apprentice leaders.

Help believers use their spiritual gifts and natural talents to serve each other, their families and neighbors.

Know the gifts named in the NT, and arrange for believers to use their gifts. Practice in the body the interaction that 1 Corinthians 12 requires. Only agape love makes this possible (1 Corinthians. 13). Such interaction requires a group to be small enough that all can face each other, discuss freely, and edify and serve one another as needs and opportunities arise. Create many ways in which believers can serve interactively.

In brief, ministries that the New Testament requires of a body of believers include:

1. Evangelize and baptize
2. Make disciples that lovingly obey Jesus’ commands
3. Worship as a group and celebrate Communion
4. Cultivate edifying fellowship
5. Pray and wage spiritual warfare
6. Hold personal and family devotions
7. Apply God’s Word
8. Watch over the flock to keep it close to Jesus, avoid error and shun wolves
9. Coach those with problems, strengthen families and marriages
10. Give; develop all forms of stewardship
11. Multiply churches and cell groups among neglected folk nearby and afar
12. Organize and oversee
13. Deal with the needy, be good citizens
14. Train new leaders

 

 Resources For While You …

Initiate key church activities. Know the vital ministries with Bible references:

Checklist of ministries required by New Testament

Dodge the devils’ darts. Resist Satan’s ploys to limit the number of leaders in a church:

Five kinds of leaders that God gives churches

Balance the Body. Maintain a proper ratio between the two ways of doing key ministries:

jit 4b 81 Balance both ways to do key ministries, 3 pages

Learn how to use gifts. Recall and illustrate gifts by association with Bible characters:

Bible persons exemplify diverse spiritual gifts

Visualize diverse forms of Kingdom growth:

jit 4b 82 Diagrams of growth by multiplication and other means (PowerPoint)

Keep volunteer workers happy. Let workers do tasks that fit their personalities:

Natural talents enhance gift-based ministries

X-ray the Body’s vital organs. Use this simple image to memorize gift-based ministries, especially if you are someone who learns more readily with visual reminders:

Memorize gift-based ministries by visual association

Name new elders. Why did God use different ways to name leaders in Antioch and Crete? Show with a brief skit who should name shepherds, and under what conditions:

Avoid conflict over naming elders

Discern what to do next. Mentor new leaders as Jesus and Paul did, by responding to current needs and opportunities:

Value of menu-assisted mentoring

Learn what Scripture teaches about teaching. Instruct children and adults in a New Testament way. This penetrating probe may stir up a few dormant brain cells:

Rethinking Christian Education

Distinguish spiritual unity from abusive conformity:

Unity or conformity

Practice synergistic church body life:

Harmonize Different Ministries in the Church Body, scripted

Common Traps To Avoid

Adhere to just one form of church rule, when circumstances require flexibility.

Workers in pioneer fields often find they need a someone to do what Titus did in Crete, when several churches come into being. Titus, an outsider, prepared and installed shepherding elders in “baby” churches, exercising overseer authority. The mature Antioch church, on the other hand, could commission workers itself, because it had mature leaders (Acts 13).

Feel frustrated when new churches fail to do everything right.

New Testament churches had failures; no church is without failure. You will serve with folk who are growing in Christ, babes who will make many mistakes on the way, just as you have made.

Compartmentalize church organization. Let those with different gifts work together in loving harmony. Avoid isolating programs. Christ’s body is to function in an interactive way similar to organs working together in a human body (1 Cor. chapters 12 & 13; Eph. 4:11-16).