If someone asks, this where I'll be . . . where I'll be
One of those complaints you hear all the time about why people don't go to church is that they're afraid that they'll be pressured into doing stuff. You know, teaching Sunday School, being on the Altar Guild, making coffee.
Yes, there are some churches where it's all about arm twisting and getting warm bodies into open slots on whatever committee or group needs more people. Often people in them can tell that there's something off, but it's hard to name what it is.
St. Ned's isn't that kind of place, and I'm very happy about that. There's a policy of, if doing something doesn't give you joy, do us a favor and don't do it. We need servant leaders who serve gladly, not people who resent what they're doing. The people who wash dishes after the parish dinner need to be happy to be together and washing dishes. (and, from all appearances, they do seem to be having a fine time) That's a top-down kind of thing, and I really give TheRev credit for growing that kind of culture.
The reason we can get away with this is that we put a lot of effort into discerning spiritual gifts, mostly in the context of our small groups. We use one of the standard spiritual gifts inventories, and then discuss each person's results, including ministries that might be a good fit. Since everyone knows their gifts, they're more free to say, "you know, that's really not my bag...how about if I do this instead?" and really be heard. I don't think we get the kind of widespread ministry burnout I've seen in other places, where you just can't do something another minute because you should never have been doing it in the first place. I'm not sure what all has gone into it, but I do feel like we've created a healthy place for lay ministry.
There will always be people who will say that they were pressured, but I always wonder if that isn't more about needing to feel Important and Sought-After. It's comforting in a martyr-ish way to think that you are the only person who can solve a problem, that you ride up to every meeting on your big white horse, that you must do it even though you would rather be doing something else. I hate being on committees with those people. I hate it even more when I am that person. I'm getting better about it, though.
As I've mentioned, I didn't get a set of gifts with immediately obvious uses. I topped out on Creative Communication and Craftsmanship. There's my top two. I think Hospitality may have been right behind. As for where the parish admin came out on Administration, let's just say there's a reason why I have to periodically excavate my desk with a backhoe.
I've been looking for an online version of the spiritual gifts system we use, and I'm just finding a bunch of dead links, so I think the copyright police have been through. I think there are some other systems online, but I don't know anything about them. I think we customized ours to take out Speaking in Tongues because we don't see a lot of it these days in our church. (I think we use this one)
