Philosophy of Ministry: Part 2

By Elder Kathy Vaselkiv

So what is all this stuff about "spiritual design" and why is it important? Session has adopted seven principles for guiding how we will fulfill our mission of "Moving People Toward Christ." The second principle is:

All Christians should understand their "spiritual design" as the foundation for their call to ministry inside and outside of Central.

For many years our Sunday bulletin has listed the ministers at Central Presbyterian Church as "every member of the congregation," to be "assisted by" our staff. Ephesians 2:10 says we are all "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Understanding our spiritual design is simply a way of saying we want each person in our congregation to give intentional thought and prayer to discerning what ministry God has prepared for them to do, now and in the future. Ephesians 4:11-13 suggests that each believer is God's gift to the church and that full maturity for individuals and the Body of Christ will not be achieved until each of us is involved in ministry.

The Spiritual Design class was created to give individuals a structured opportunity to understand how God has uniquely created them to be faithful, fruitful and fulfilled servants of Jesus Christ. This course will give you an appreciation of how your personality affects your approach to ministry, your life experience reveals God's preparation for service, your spiritual gifts give you a specific ministry role, your passion points you to an area of ministry and your present life placement is a filter that defines the shape of your ministry. This class will be offered periodically in varied settings and times to give us all a chance to benefit from its content. I believe it provides excellent tools for both new believers and mature disciples to continually assess and affirm God's calling to ministry. Most of the staff, elders and deacons have already taken advantage of the course.

Central's AiM ministry (Assimilation and Mobilization) helps the rubber meet the road as they match peoples' spiritual design with specific ministry opportunities, and encourage servant leaders to equip every ministry team member to fulfill their God-given purpose. The Session believes God has called us to this more intentional process of recruiting and equipping every individual in our congregation in order to move greater numbers of people toward ever-deeper relationships with Jesus Christ.