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TROWEL & SWORD

Resources - Evangelism

September 2001

On the Road with ROAD

Peter Smit

What impact does the ministry of ROAD (our Churches’ Committee for Resources for Outreach, Aid and Development) have at the local level? For me in a church-planting ministry in Western Australia it has been very significant. Let me reflect a number of key benefits.

The introduction of the Natural Church Development (NCD) tool to our church ministry has had multiple benefits. We now have a long-term framework for ministry development. As a church in 1999 we undertook an NCD Survey to assess the quality of our congregation’s life. The book, NCD: a Guide, is based on research of 1000 churches. The results pinpoint eight areas of church life that are vital to become a growing church. When all these areas of church life are empowered by the Holy Spirit and working well, then the church will grow “all by itself”. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 4:26ff: “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain.”

The horticulturalists in the church advise us that if any of the ingredients of sun, water, nutrients, soil and trace elements are missing from plant production, you will not have a good crop. But where all these elements are in place in a healthy balance, then “all by itself” the soil will produce a plant. Jesus is teaching us that this is how God’s kingdom works. Only the Lord by His Spirit can grow His church. However, the essential areas of church life are fundamental realities in God’s Word and it makes sense that this is how God’s blessing is realized.

The eight factors that are essentials in the life of the church are: 1. Empowering leadership; 2. Gift oriented ministry; 3. Passionate spirituality; 4. Functional structures; 5. Inspiring worship services; 6. Holistic small groups; 7. Needs oriented evangelism and 8. Loving relationships. The key word in each of these areas is the first one. Every church has leadership, ministry, spirituality, structures etc. But the first word in each category describes the quality of church life. These are the qualities that we continue to focus our attention on as a congregation.

As we focus our energy on continual development of these qualities, we are seeing the Lord blessing and growing His church. One example: our last NCD survey identified that helping people find and use their spiritual gifts was what we most needed to focus on this year. So a team was gathered and appointed by church council to help the congregation understand gifts and to identify, develop and use them in the church.

One of the issues that this change of ministry focus has highlighted for me is the importance of ongoing leadership training and development. The strength of our theological training is that it equips us to be good pastors and teachers. The downside of that is that we need further development in leadership. This is where the Church Resource Ministries Australia “Focusing Leaders” course has been a great help. This year John Rietveld has run this course in the West for people in ministry. The course gives us a supportive environment to grow and develop in our leadership skills and resources. The key leaders of the church need to be multiplying leaders in order to continue to grow and enhance ministry.

Another means by which I’ve been blessed in this process is by having John Rietveld provide me with regular personal coaching, contact, and ideas.

Of course it needs to be said that all of these great tools are simply that – tools! They do not replace the centrality of the gospel and the application of God’s Word. They do however help us sharpen our skills in applying that Word into people’s lives. Just like Moses needed a Jethro to challenge the way he did things, so the ministry of ROAD and John Rietveld has been a personal benefit to me and also to God’s church here. And for that I can only say, “Praise the Lord! “

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