Read and Learn -- Lay Leadership

I read a lot of blogs. I'm an administrator for a blogring, it is kind of part of the territory. A lot of the blogs I read are written by ministers -- imagine that. One thing that I find interesting in a lot of blogs are the sometimes passing references to lay leadership. This is a topic that came to mind recently when I visited a church out of State and then blogged about it.

One of my comments about that church was that it had all the welcome the guest procedures down. What it didn't have was a congregation who would say hello or even make eye contact with someone who was obviously a visitor. The Sr. Pastor posted a comment saying that he had printed off my blog post and taken it to a staff meeting. For some things, like information missing from a website, that is important. What I wanted to know is why didn't he forward it to his Board of Deacons? Aren't those the people who should be your front line in terms of hospitality to visitors? You know what? They aren't at my Church either. So, why not?

Today, one of my Church's Pastors mentioned that he is starting a spiritual discipleship project aimed at the Elders and Deacons. Grace mentioned to me today that her Church just did new officer training emphasizing the equality between laity and clergy in our polity. Well, maybe in our polity . . .

One of my pet peeves is that the best way to really foster growth in mission work is to support the rank and file members who have a vision or are doing something on their own. Our membership are degreed professionals (primarily). We can accomplish great things by empowering our own members. I would like to see a Church's mission team acting as the equivalent of a small business incubator for mission projects.

What would you like to see from your lay leadership and how do we get there?

JusticeSeeker
JusticeSeekerOK@aol.com