May of 2005 a group of Deacons and their Pastor attended a Pastor-Deacon retreat at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center outside of Lynchburg, Virginia. Two of our ladies had the good fortune of attending a small break-out session called "Setting the Deacon Free." They came back excited about what they had heard encouraging the rest of us to attend the session.
The presentation maintained that many deacons felt overwhelmed by what the church was asking them to do. The task of being a mini-pastor to 6 - 10 families as the traditional "Family Deacon Ministry Plan" required was asking many people to minister outside of their God given spiritual gifts. The leader of the session encouraged churches and their deacons to identify the needs fo their church and community, and develop ministry teams to meet those needs. Each deacon would then be on a ministry team with 10 or more members, giving deacons and non-ordained members the opportunity to minister. The vision we realized for our church was to involve as many people as possible in the ministry of our church.
The vision of First Baptist Church of St. Paul is to become a fully functioning body of Christ, which through worship and ministry our works of kindness might overflow into our community, giving all the glory to God and His Kingdom.
Such a vision for the future of our church needs a practical means of realizing the full potential of this dream of ministry that God has given us. The practical means of fulfilling this vision of ministry is first identifying ministry needs and then developing
ministry teams to help meet those needs.
Some of the needs that we have identified in our church and community are evangelism and outreach, prayer ministry needs, hospital visitation ministry, shut-in ministry, death and bereavement concerns, small jobs endeavors, benevolence ministry concerns, and worship needs. There are obviously more needs than these, and in due time we hopefully will recognize those needs yet, at this time these are the greatest concerns the Lord is leading us to address. This does not mean if you find a ministry need in our church or community that you cannot do as the Lord leads you and minister to those needs. We need everyone participating in ministry no matter what the situation. You are a part of the body of Christ and our body is crippled without your participation. If you will, please prayerfully consider our
ministry teams.