Spiritual Gifts Support Team

The most current incarnation of Teamnet Ministries has seen the emergence of a group we call our Spiritual Gifts Support Team. The SGST came into being when the church I now serve as pastor decided to change the function and focus of what we had previously called the Human Resources Council. The HRC was basically a standing committee that functioned as a permanent personnel committee for the local church. Whenever there was a vacancy in an office, the HRC was called upon to find someone to fill it. The emphasis was always on Spiritual Gifts and finding the right person for the right job.

At a point about a year and three months ago, the church body decided they wanted to discontinue the standing personnel committee plan, but instead return to the previously tried-and-trusted annual nominating committee process. At the time, some Teamnet Ministries loyalists saw this as a serious retrogression back into lock-step traditionalism and control by the few. Others saw the step as a retreat from chaos, in that they could not understand the open system at the heart of Teamnet Ministries. Nevertheless, something very beneficial has emerged from that conflict.

What had been the Human Resorces Council was morphed into a Spiritual Gifts Support Team. The SGST has spent the last year and several months learning its new role, and most recently some tangible clarity has begun to emerge.

As we now see it, there are two main tracks of service lying before the SGST. (1) Spiritual gifts education for the church body, including promotion, awareness, training, and many other different aspects of helping the individual members become aware of their personal gifts and placing them in service for the Lord; and (2) a coaching/mentoring relationship with each of the team leaders/facilitators, in which the members of the SGST work in support roles with them. Their task in this track is to coach, ask questions, assist, and encourage the team leaders in their work to manage, inspire, and coordinate the spiritual gifts resident within the team members.

These two tracks are supported internally within the SGST through an intentional, focused plan of personal growth and inservice education. At present, the coaching skills of the SGST members are seriously in need of development. Communication skills and techniques need to be studied and put to use in sharing the inspiration and joy of service through using the gifts God has given to every believer.

The SGST is a wonderful outgrowth of a period of distress within the congregation. There are incredible opportunities lying ahead of us. It is truly amazing to see how God is leading in the ongoing development and evolution of this plan we call Teamnet Ministries.

As always, the glory is all His.