The church closed. No singing. No greeting. No sermon. No children. No love. Closed.
“If you do not repent I will remove your lampstand.” God’s word in Revelation 2 came to her mind as she locked the church office for the last time. Once, the multi-staff of administrators, pastors, elders, deacons and countless volunteers kept the place buzzing 24/7. This was not a church busy only on Sundays. It was always bustling! But now it was closed.
Once, there were countless community, adult, and children ministries where adults, children, married, single, men, women, addicts, depressed, educators, business thinkers, and car tinkers all interacted to love and support one another. Now it was gone. Once, there was hope to share with the world. Now, there would not even be the sharing of memories.
Thud. The dead-bolt locked. Amanda pulled the key, and walked slowly to her car. The expansive parking would be used by the shoppers of the strip mall coming soon. She was tired; so tired. “No more tears, no more sorrows,” she mocked herself. Those once promising words of the Lord’s return now only revealed her emotional exhaustion. Over the months so many tears were shed. But not today. She was too spent.
Each generation of a local church has a simple responsibility. It is not novel. It is not unique. To many, the mission is too simple, and they complicate it. But for each generation it is nothing new. It is simply their turn.
Theirs is to share the good news of Christ’s work of love. It is their turn to share the gospel of God’s grace. Theirs is to turn to love and forgive, as God loved and forgave them. It is their turn to love one another; to trust one another; to respect one another. It is their turn to be in a greater work—greater than the sum of their parts. It is theirs to be transformed by the Spirit, and the Word. The work of every generation is not special only to them. It is simply their turn. But it is supernatural.
Pastor Dirk began at Alpha-Omega Community Church five years ago. He arrived conflated--full of passion, and anticipation in what God would do on the one hand, yet pensive and anxious of the trust for a church God gave him on the other. “I must not fail,” he said to his wife, Jean, that first Sunday.
Amanda was inspired by Dirk’s first sermon. It was a call to vision, togetherness, and duty. “The body,” said Dirk, “is meant to grow.”
As the congregation experienced the freedom to use their giftedness the church grew. As the church grew, so did ministry needs and opportunities. As needs grew, so did ideas to meet those needs. As the ideas come forth, so did the chaos, as individuals and groups sought to carry out the ideas. There was overlap, redundancy, confusion, and competition for church building space and resources. Soon the church and its parking lot, was active every day of the week. Pastor Dirk felt like he was losing control. He shared his feelings with his wife. Jean suggested administrative safeguards to keep things from getting out of hand. Pastor Dirk agreed. A committee was formed to develop and manage policies regulating the church’s ministries.
The committee’s first report was simple and straightforward. Two needs were clearly identified: the need for discovery of each one’s spiritual gift(s), and second, the need for the identification of the organization’s core motivational values. The first would identify what God had entrusted to them, and the second would point out what they were passionate about in implementing those gifts. Knowing these two components would allow them to coordinate the competing pressures upon the church’s resources and the volunteer time of his people. But how to discovery the gifts and values of his congregation?
Pastor Dirk did some research. He spoke to industry leaders in his church. There were plenty of tools that exposed direction, vision, and mission of a business or even mega-corporations, but little for a local church. He knew he was unequipped to adopt a business based test for the church. Dirk asked certain committee members who understood these consulting tools in the business setting to help him. They agreed.
What happened over the next year was disastrous. It resulted in confusion, pain, and the church closing. The conflict between applying a basic “bottom line” business model to the function of spiritual gifts and spiritual values was too sharp. A survival mentality was imposed. “If it is too great a drain on the church finances, it must go,” one committee member explained. Passion was soon lost. The conflict between defining business plan and the Spirit’s spontaneous leading was too great. Hard feelings arose. Some people decided to leave. It took some months but with departure came projected financial instability. Financial instability eventually led to closure. Pastor Dirk was forced to resign. Amanda closed the church.
Impossible? Not really. The timeline may be different, but many reading this book have lived it. This book is an attempt to give ministry leaders and congregations a tool to understand spiritual gifts, coordinate them with one’s personal motivational values, and implement them through the church mission. The gifts-to-values relationship is a ministry piece when missing cripples churches like Dirk’s or stagnates healthy spiritual growth in churches like yours. Prayerfully read how you and your church or organization can benefit from understanding your spiritual gifts in relationship to your personal values.
