Christian Schwarz says that "When Christians serve in their area of giftedness, they generally function less in their own strength and more in the power of the Holy Spirit." This quality characteristic fits well with the idea of natural growth. If people are working in the church in areas where they feel that God is calling them, then they will be effective and productive.
Helping people identify and use their gifts is the other side of the empowering leadership coin. It seems difficult to imagine a congregation with one characteristic and not the other. Yet, it does seem logically possible that one of these quality characteristics might be more developed than the other.
However, as Schwarz points out, it is not just identification of gifts that makes a difference. Gifts need to be encouraged and developed. He says, "Of all the variables associated with this quality characteristic, the question on 'lay training' has the greatest correlation with church growth." So it might be more accurate to name this quality characteristic as "Identifying gifts and training for ministry."
Several groups have designed programs to help individuals and congregations develop gift-oriented ministries. At the simplest level people can be encouraged to self identify their gifts and to work in the church in areas where they feel they are gifted. One program you might want to look at is described on the www.churchgrowth.org website. You may want to take their spiritual gifts analysis at http://www.churchgrowth.org/cgi-cg/gifts.cgi. It will give you a good idea of how this kind of tool works.
Schwarz does not go into exactly how gifts should be identified. In a real church situation there can be a problem if someone thinks that they have a particular gift and it appears to others that they do not. Even when it comes to ordained ministry it is sometimes difficult for people to hear that they don't have the necessary gifts. Is it the role of the minister to tell people that they do not have the necessary gifts for a particular task?
This suggests an alternative school of thought about church growth that needs to be clearly distinguished from what Schwarz proposes. This alternative suggests that the way to grow a church is for the minister to "cast a vision" for what the church can be. Then the role of the minister is to promote that vision. The minister recruits and trains the people who accomplish the vision. With this approach to church growth the minister is given the additional task of discerning what people have the necessary gifts to fulfill the vision.
Natural Church Development takes exactly the opposite approach. It is God who provides the gifts for ministry. Every Christian has been given gifts and the church will grow naturally when the gifts of every person are identified, trained and encouraged.
This still leaves us with several questions: What if someone thinks they have a gift that others do not see? What if a church does not have anyone who claims to be gifted in a particular area? In other words, What do you do about the Sunday School teacher who loves to teach, but drives the junior high youth away from the church? And What if no one in the church believes that they have the necessary gifts to be the treasurer and make sure that all the bills are paid? I'll leave these questions for the discussion. What do you think?
Ken Bedell
January 9, 2005