During this past Lent, 38 members of St. Michael’s, Wayne have been on a six-week Lenten Study using the resources of Gifted, Called and Sent from Convention. These resources focus on discipleship and the ministry of the laity and include a Spiritual Gifts Assessment.
After engaging in the study in small groups, on April 23 all the participants came together for a meeting facilitated by the Rev. Deacon Deborah Drake and Pat Vine, the Parish Administrator and Spiritual Director, at which they did asset mapping of the spiritual gifts they had identified.
Each person was grouped by their highest-ranking gift, with some resulting groups being combined. Then these groups were assigned the task of looking at existing ministries of St. Michael’s and offering suggestions about adding to, or making changes to, these ministries. The groups also suggested ideas for completely new ministries.
Dozens of ideas emerged. Some examples are:
- adding entertainment to the existing monthly Special Needs game/dinner night;
- expanding men’s horseshoes to two nights a week;
- starting a karaoke night with a theme for people to come in costume, advertised in social media and local newspapers;
- having a special service and luncheon to honor and thank fire fighters, police, EMTs and other rescue workers;
- getting to know the other faith-based organizations in our community.
All the ideas, and the names of the people who suggested them, were put in writing and collected. A group will sit with all these suggestions for ministry, and with prayer and God’s help discern where God is calling St. Michael’s to ministry.
