Ministry Philosophy
Listening || Empowering || Modeling
Three words describe my ministry life: listening, empowering, and modeling. I think that God is powerfully at work in the world. As his agent, I am to discern his plans and then join them with my skills, giftings, and knowledge. This responsive approach to ministry creates a staff and leadership team that spend time together in prayer and scripture, listening for what the Spirit might be up to. We listen to others in our community, including outside the church, even to those who we feel are oppositional, in order to gather clues to God's work and our calling in that work. We are detectives discovering God's work unfolding in the world. Communal summarizes much of the "body of Christ" theology in the Apostle Paul's writings. I believe it is a community that becomes the hands and feet of Jesus. We together embody his work in the world. Together is almost always better than alone. Figuring out how to gather people for teams and ministry initiatives is critical to a ministry's long-term health. Each ministry initiative should not just get stuff done but should build community as it does its work.
Empowering is the goal of all the work that I do. I am here to help lay the foundation for others to do ministry. The constant empowerment of others to live out their purposes in the kingdom of God is one of the most important components of ministry.
I tend to preach, teach, and lead from what God is doing in my life. I am a vulnerable leader who tells stories about herself. I think part of my work in the ministry I have done is to share openly what I have experienced in my life with God. I am careful with boundaries and protecting people in my life, but I believe that the internal life and external ministry are deeply connected. So, people will come to know me and see me as a passionate, devoted, and flawed follower of Jesus who is in need of his grace, a lot like them. I pray God's work in me becomes a model for how he can work in other lives.