Teresa loved her church, not for any one thing but for all the ministries in which it engaged. And she participated in most of them. During Sunday services, she was in the booth at the back, running the computer program for the slides that showed the song words and followed the pastor’s message. On Mondays, she helped in the care ministry, Tuesdays hosted her small group, Wednesdays attended the women’s study, Thursdays attended service rehearsal, and Fridays helped deliver beds that the church gave to impoverished single mothers. Teresa kept her calendar according to her church’s ministries. She had no idea how she would have lived without them.
Ministries
Ministries are a church’s conduit through which the Spirit moves and energizes the body. Churches thrive on their ministries. Effective ministries, though, require coordinating functions, from supervision to staffing, facilities, budget, and communication. Policies and procedures can help make ministries more successful, connecting them to the church’s mission, ensuring that they serve the right people on the right terms and conditions, and ensuring that they have adequate resources and support. Ministry plans are equally vital. Some activities just happen. When they do, the outcomes can be heartening. But in most instances, successful activities need some degree, and often a substantial degree, of planning. Ministry leaders who fail to plan as they carry out programs and activities can find themselves short of time, funds, volunteers, facilities, and outcomes. Help your church plan and manage its ministries. Ministries are the Spirit’s lifeblood.
Types
Churches can conduct a surprisingly wide variety of activities. Some are ubiquitous. You’ll see them in nearly every church. Others are common, offered by many churches. Others may be special, fitted to the specific church body or its community. Ministries, though, tend to fall into categories. First are the ministries of gathering and worship, already treated in the prior chapter. Next are the ministries of teaching and discipling. Followers of Christ should know the scriptures and grow in Christ-like character. Churches thus often conduct Sunday School programs, men’s and women’s scripture studies, and children’s and youth’s ministries devoted to education. See a later chapter on teaching ministries. Care ministries and community ministries follow. Help your church develop and administer rich ministries, several of which this chapter describes.
Staffing
To conduct effective ministries, churches generally need to plan, staff, and budget for them. Ministries require the full support of the church. Your church board should have a role in approving and evaluating ministries. Your church’s pastoral and administrative leadership should be monitoring and assessing ministries, and recommending ministries and their budgets to your church board. Your church’s administration should be helping ministries communicate their activities, events, services, and interest in volunteer participation to the membership and community. Your church’s budget should have an account for each ministry, with a ministry leader responsible for the management of that account. Ministries thus bring together all church governance, leadership, and administrative functions. Ensure that your church is putting its whole body behind its ministries.
Men’s
Churches recognize special value in providing forums for men to share insight with one another, applying the scriptures to everyday life. Men can take different roles and responsibilities, and find different challenges and opportunities, in their families, workplaces, communities, and spiritual life. In a men’s group, they may be able to share experiences, counsel, joys, and frustrations, and warn one another against temptations, more effectively than they could in a mixed group. Men may also have different skills, interests, and affinities on which to draw for ministry. Churches that support men’s groups may be doing their members, both men and women, and their children and communities, special favor.
Women’s
Churches also recognize the value of women’s groups and ministries. Gathering in the Lord’s name is good. Gathering with others who share one’s experiences, interests, and affinities can be especially good. Not all women or men share the same interests and experiences, but some men and women may share experiences and interests with others of the same sex, on certain subjects. The prevalence, strength, and positive effects of women’s groups and ministries prove their value. Women’s groups have saved souls, lives, marriages, families, jobs, homes, and communities. Women, after all, cared for the Lord’s own needs. Churches may wisely commit budgets, facilities, and resources to the support of women’s groups.
Children’s
Children’s ministries are vital to a church’s gospel mission. The end of faith is only a generation away, every generation. Following Christ is both a personal and corporate commitment. One does not acquire a gene from one’s ancestors for faith, even though a heritage in faith can do much. Faith in Christ is God’s gift, communicated through clear and consistent gospel proclamation. The church has few if any greater roles than to help parents bring children up in the Lord. Faith instruction when one is young provides a ground for God to sow with seeds of experience later, in adulthood. Churches rightly place children’s ministry at the core of their programs and activities. Sensitive policies and clear plans well executed can promote the effectiveness, accessibility, and richness of those ministries.
Youth
Youth ministries are also vital to a church’s gospel mission. Youth can find great attraction to Christ when adult role models inspire them in faith through studies and activities appropriate to their age, needs, and interests. Youth learn through ministries that God loves and cares for them as much as anyone else. Youth may need more than others to know of that love, with the social and spiritual challenges of growing to adulthood. Effective youth ministries both preserve and amplify the spiritual foundation that a strong children’s ministry forms. Youth ministries also help youths project their faith into their years of emancipation and beyond to adult work life, when forming their own marriages and families. Youth ministry is a great opportunity for churches, one that can bear great rewards when pursued with firmness, clarity, and vigor.
Groups
Small-group ministries can also be a vital opportunity for churches to pursue their gospel mission. Small groups give members a sense of belonging and support, especially in larger churches where members may not get to know one another as easily. Studies of attendance patterns and spiritual growth show the value of small groups to member retention, engagement, and maturation in God’s Word. Churches can be intimidating places, with large crowds and seas of unfamiliar faces, leaving visitors and new members feeling anonymous, unknown. Small groups connect members to one another in networks that extend outside traditional church hours and programs, and into the homes and lives of the group’s members. Fellowship prospers, belonging grows, and friendships form. Small-group members learn to trust and rely on one another, while being accountable to one another. The church that does not foster small groups may be missing an important opportunity. Discipling takes time together with personal attention, which small groups foster.
Recreation
Churches can also support recreational ministries. Church teams and groups participate in all manner of sports and recreations. Church teams run marathons, climb mountains, and bike across counties and states. Church teams play in basketball, golf, bowling, and volleyball leagues. Churches also develop and maintain sports and recreation facilities, including gymnasiums and ball fields. Churches do so because of the good physical and mental health that physical activity, sporting competition, and recreation can promote. Churches also support, sponsor, and host craft activities of all kinds, from painting to woodworking, knitting, quilting, and photography, for the creative outlet and fellowship that craft activities foster. Encourage your church to support recreational and craft activities among its members.
Care
Churches traditionally have strong care ministries, reflecting Christ’s command to love one another. Church members arrange and host memorials for the families of the departed. They supply prayer and meals for new mothers, the physically ill, and the mentally and emotionally burdened. They host recovery groups and maintain social-service referral networks. They help new parents with babysitting for a free night out. They offer end-of-life symposia to equip families with the knowledge and resources they need to manage the slow and difficult passing of parents. They offer meal services, transportation services, clothes closets, and other social services for the poor and homeless. Churches that pursue care as their Lord’s command and as an opportunity to strengthen the membership know the power of care ministries.
Benevolence
While churches are places of growth, fellowship, and care, churches are also places of shelter during personal and family crises. Benevolence programs are a common feature of churches. Individuals and families can avert or soften some crises with emergency funds. A single rent payment, prescription purchase, or light-bill payment can in some circumstances save substantial hardship. Churches should encourage individuals and families to turn to the church and its members for help including for emergency financial assistance. A sound policy on emergency financial support should state support criteria. It should also authorize a benevolent fund, charge a pastor or staff member with its responsibility, provide for accountability and support, and set other broad parameters within which the responsible staff member acts. Expect members and others to seek the church’s benevolence, and prepare to respond.
Special
Churches can also find special ministries where commercial services have not developed products and services, and other nonprofit organizations have not attracted sufficient philanthropic funding, to serve individuals and families in need. The heart of Christ leads us places where others won’t go. Ministries to special-needs individuals and their families is an example. If your community has families caring for severely disabled members, those families may have little or no community outlet and social support. Special-needs individuals can benefit from time in other caring environments and social settings outside their home. A church special-needs program supporting both the families and their severely disabled individuals can provide those opportunities. To see these isolated families and their special-needs members worshiping with others and celebrating salvation in Christ can deeply encourage a church community. Find your community’s special needs, and help your church step into those gaps.
Outreach
Churches also maintain vital outreach ministries. An outreach ministry encourages those without a church home to join the fellowship. Outreach ministries may start at the church door with teams to greet, welcome, and orient guests. Outreach ministries may pass out free bottles of water at local fairs, athletic competitions, and other outdoor events, inviting folks to church. They may hold special concerts, picnics, fair days, or similar fun community events at or around the church, encouraging community members to learn about Jesus Christ and the church. Outreach directors may follow up with guests, ensuring that they know that the church welcomes and values them. Outreach ministries can be key to pursuing the church’s gospel mission. Find the right mix of ministries for your church, and support those ministries with skilled leadership and management.
Reflection
Does your church have a strategic vision and plan for the growth and sustaining of its ministries? Which of your church’s ministries are the strongest and most vital in serving the membership and community? What ministries should your church be giving greater resources and attention? Does your church have ministries it should pare? Does your church board and leadership have a sound view of the role and health of each church ministry? Does your church adequately staff and budget for its ministries? Does your church adequately communicate to the membership and community the scope, needs, and offerings of its ministries?
Key Points
Church ministries strengthen the body and share the gospel.
Church ministries include teaching, fellowship, care, and community.
Men’s ministries disciple men in the righteousness of Christ.
Women’s ministries likewise disciple women in the ways of Christ.
Children’s ministries raise the young to know the love of Christ.
Youth ministries prepare youths for emancipation and adulthood.
Small groups both disciple members and foster a sense of belonging.
Recreation ministries promote physical fitness and fellowship.
Care ministries comfort and strengthen the membership.
Benevolence funds provide crisis financial assistance.
Special ministries fill gaps in social services, showing Christ’s love.
Outreach ministries welcome guests and spread the gospel.