Living Stones

Today the Bishop, Debbie Egnatuk from Trinity, Marshall, and I offered a 'case study' as part of our partnership in Living Stones.
Here's a little background: Living Stones is a partnership of 27 Canadian & US dioceses who gather once a year and reflect on the ways in which the Church offers leadership with an emphasis on the Ministry of the Baptized.
Our Baptismal Ministry Experience & Reflection will be posted on our Website (www.edwm.org). Suffice it to say, our reflection was focused on the ways the diocesan staff and volunteers who work on behalf of the wider church serve individual congregations as 'ministry developers.' In our cluster (or reflection) group are folks from the dioceses of Olympia (which is Western Washington state), Ruperts Land (Canada), Nebraska and Chicago. They offered much food for thought, and encouraged us to foster an understanding that developing ministry in congregations is helping congregations become the people of God. Also, we received the invitation to celebrate the ministry of the baptized in every congregation -- all the time. And the ministry of the baptized is identified through our baptismal covenant, which is also reflected in our diocesan vision & mission statement. We in the Diocese of Western Michigan need to look at the gifts within each congregation, and celebrate those ministries and individuals who live out the faith of the baptized...and it's not merely functioning within the bounds of the church. Doctors, nurses, plumbers, lawyers, electricians, students, teachers, and all of those who live outside the few hours of church on Sunday are exercising their baptismal ministry -- or at least have an opportunity to do so.
What do we do to celebrate and acknowledge this? Who is God calling our congregations to be and how do we live into the best we are called to be? How do we invite everyone who attends worship in our congregation to name and claim their ministry? This is the invitation and call of ministry development.