Being the Church: Holy Spirit Empowered
How do these areas of ministry relate to our identity and purpose and how do we want to live that out in “being the church?”
1. Communications
The goal of this ministry team is to discuss aspects of communication that help us to be the church that God calls us to be. Please report back to the Synod any recommendations it might have for ways to improve our communication. Discussion could include:
- Communication within the congregation to keep all informed, as well as between congregations, and between congregation and District/ Provincial leadership;
- Sharing our faith stories;
- Valuing the different perspectives within our congregations;
- Sharing of best practices with one another, including models of what is working in your local church; and
- Networking with others in our ministries, both Moravian and ecumenical.
2. Lay Leadership Development
The goal of this ministry team is to share with the Synod ways to further promote the development and equipping of lay leadership in our congregations. Some potential topics for discussion include:
- The “Crossroads” program offered through Moravian Theological Seminary;
- Other opportunities for lay training and using one’s gifts for ministry;
- Best practices of what is working locally for leadership development, as well as the challenges;
- How we might work together to discern God’s call to ministry, being consistent with Jesus’ own ministry;
- How to empower lay leaders so that churches become less pastor-centered;
- How to equip pastors to provide opportunities for lay people to do ministry; and
- How to move from maintenance of an organization to being open to new possibilities for ministry.
3. Congregational Care
The goal of this ministry team is to discuss care and nurture of ministry at the local level our local congregations, as well as our care of others, and bring back to the Synod how this ministry relates to who we are as a church and who we are called to be, including suggestions for growth in this ministry. Some of the things that they may discuss would include:
- Discerning the mission of the local church, your purpose for being;
- What gets in the way of actually living out our mission;
- How are we to share the Gospel;
- How do we support/care for one another in our congregations, recognizing our need for each other;
- How do we care for those beyond our doors, the disadvantaged, broken;
- What biases do we hold that limit our ability to reach out to those very different from ourselves; and
- How do we go upstream to confront systems that hold people in poverty and limit their ability to be all that God intended them to be.
4. Nurture a culture of experimentation and possibility
The goal of this team is to discuss, imagine, and dream of NEW ways to do ministry. Some examples of things this ministry team might discuss include:
- Being creative with new possibilities, brainstorming uncharted territories;
- Sharing of experiments done by others that have or have not worked;
- Being willing to risk and willing to fail. Failure may be a gift as it may help us to learn what might work;
- Justice ministries that challenge systems that hold people hostage;
- Ministry to marginalized, the homeless as some examples;
- Being open to new ways to “be church” that are founded on a desire to serve, not necessarily to be a “success”; and
- Discerning how the District or Province or others might support new ministries.
5. Resourcing Ministry
This group will discuss and share with the Synod concerning the resources needed to do ministry. Some of the topics that may come up would include:
Funding our ministries in the District, including review of the District budget;
- Will we put the ministry we feel called to as a priority above the bottom line;
- How does the budget reflect our purpose/identity/mission/vision for ministry;
- Human resourcing – future clergy. In a time of a clergy shortage and the realization that several of our pastors will be retirement age in the next 5-10 years, how will we recruit ordained leaders;
- Ways to do ministry in the local church without an ordained leader and how can we better equip congregations to do ministry; and
- Ecumenical partnerships. How can we cooperate more with ecumenical partners.
