Every-Member Ministry and Changes to the Lobby

A few years ago we started talking about "every-member ministry," the idea that our church has a few elders but hundreds of ministers. This comes from the Bible in Ephesians 4:11-12: 

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

The "shepherds and teachers" includes the elders (the Greek for "pastor" and "shepherd" is the same word). Their role is "to equip the saints." Remember, "saints" aren't the super-heroes of the faith, they're just normal Christians. Every Christian is a saint, and every Christian is therefore called to "the work of ministry." That's what we mean when we say that SGC has a few elders but hundreds of ministers.

One of the things we encouraged people to do was to take initiative with things they observed in the church. We are still learning how to balance this with strategic leadership from the elders and caring for the church when different people have different initiatives. However, it has been encouraging to see people do things in response to this basic exhortation. Energetic service has marked this church from the beginning, so it is no surprise that you responded as you did.

Along these lines, a group of people began to talk about the church lobby. This is a key place for us because it's the first introduction a visitor has to our church, and it's a space where we as a church family gather weekly for fellowship and worship. Ours has served us well. But in the name of taking it up a notch, some people thought it could serve us better.

We received a proposal from Marci Hodges and Dawn Ruhl that involved a new approach to the design and layout of the lobby. First steps toward this involve the coffee stations, and it also incorporated prints of Guatemala taken by Misi Schlax. Julia Kopacz, Philip Sasser, John McLeod, and I all spoke to different parts of the process. The first step is in the picture above, and you'll see it as you come to the church Sunday. 

We think the improvements are significant. More will be coming in the months ahead, Lord willing. But these are encouraging first steps. Thank you to the many who spent hours toward making this happen! 

Please let me know if you have ideas for such improvements to our property and building. I know John is working with some people on a couple of projects even now. If you'd like to be involved with these but don't feel like you want to be on the design end, that's fine. There are many facets with such endeavors.

As Jim communicated at the Family Business Meeting in September, we are still in a tight financial season. Some projects are on hold while we wait on more funds to be available. The elders felt the lobby redesign had a good blend of addressing priority issues, having a modest price tag, and being able to be accomplished within the current budget. 

So, that's a bit of the back story for what you'll see in the morning. It is a gift to serve such a gifted and committed body. 

Daniel