Dear Blooming Glen Friends,  

How do we start new ministry initiatives at Blooming Glen?  Well, there is no one way to start ministries here at Blooming Glen. 

Hopefully, a ministry start-up at Blooming Glen is grounded firmly in two realities:  God’s call and our commitment to prayer. 

First, God’s call – generally, we hear God’s call as we go on the inward journey with Jesus.  We hear God’s call as we deepen our reliance on the scriptures.  We hear God’s call as we grow in self-awareness and self-understanding through the embrace of peacebuilding practices that form deeper spiritual habits of meditation, contemplation, and intercession.  We hear God’s call as we participate in community – gathering in groups small and large, made up of those we know and those we don’t fully understand, with a commitment to practice radical candor.  And we hear God’s call confessionally – remembering what we say we believe. But, if we don’t hear God’s call, we shouldn’t launch a new ministry.  If we don’t hear God’s call, we needn’t criticize those who do.  And if no one hears God’s call to do a specific ministry, we won’t try to coerce one another into going forward with that specific ministry.  What Jesus wants us to do is always grounded in God’s call to us. 

Second, our life of prayer – as the late Gordon Cosby, founder of the Church of the Savior put it, “our outward journey is possible only as an expression of the inward.  Unless the inward call of God issues toward the outward activity, the efforts we hope to create will turn in on themselves and destroy our dreams.” Prayer must be embedded in the ministry work we want to do. I know I’m a better Sunday School teacher when I’ve been praying for the class during the week.  I’m a better preacher when I’ve prayed more than I’ve prepared.  The ministries of presence, service, and verbal witness require of us a depth of intercessory prayer. 

So, do you feel an urging to see Blooming Glen engage in some ministry initiative?  Listen for God’s call through the discipleship behaviors of biblical reliance, peaceful practices, radical candor, and confession.  Then pray.  Pray some more.  Pray again.  Share the vision that emerges with other.  If others confirm that sense of call borne of intercession, then go for it. Seriously.  Proceed as you desire. 

Going forward with a call to ministry in a congregation with the relative size and especially the relational complexity of a Blooming Glen, is to sound a call – describe the process of the intended ministry.  Then consider how to get the word about this ministry out to the congregation and other partners – in short, communicate.  Overcommunicate. 

Having described the process and developed the communications, it is then important to identify leadership in the ministry – this leadership must strike a balance between a willingness to be responsible to do ministry and an accountability for the ministry.  Missing one or the other will doom the ministry’s effectiveness. 

Lastly, the cost of the ministry in human terms, in facility use, and in financial obligations, needs thoughtful consideration prior to the ministry’s launch. 

I believe that congregational ministry done well is found in saying yes to God’s invitation to us all as we live into God’s call, which is heard in the practice of discipleship, and borne of a life of prayer, then tested through a thoughtful process, galvanized by an effort of good communication, animated by balanced leadership, and activated through a counting of the cost.  

At the end of the day, however, the church is a voluntary society, and if the effort to order ministry into a coherent plan of process, communication, leadership, and cost seems like too much then remember, please the way other ministries have been formed at Blooming Glen without benefit of an ordered voluntary pattern. The acts of process, communication, leadership, and identifying cost are not established as roadblocks to congregational programs. They are milestones to help us see the progress that our discipleship and intercession have brought us to in fulfilling God’s call in our lives. 

Love you, Church!
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – I’ll be at the A&N Diner on Monday, July 31 (7:30-8:45 am) and at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, August 4 (3:30-4:45 pm) to listen to whatever is on your mind.  I’ll be back at the A&N Diner once more on Monday, August 7, and then I’ll be away on vacation to Oregon and California, August 8-25.  I’ll resume Monday breakfasts at the A&N on August 28 and Friday coffee at the Grind on September 1.