Chapter 7: Organizing Around Your Purposes

Balance has been a key word during this semester for me and it stands out here in this chapter.  Churches need a balanced emphasis on all five purposes of the church. So many churches overemphasize on one purpose as I have observed over the years and as Warren stated in "The Purpose Driven Church".  If we do not organize and balance out ahead of time, the ministry will focus on just one thing.  My personal passion falls under the "Family Reunion" category, but I don't want to be solely focusing on that even though that is a goal of mine (reuniting the body together instead of being apart like Christians are based on denomination). We need people who are organizers similar to John Wesley who can start a revival/renewal and leave a legacy. Having a balance is healthy for life and for the ministry.  I'd venture as close to say that ministry is equal to life especially if you are called to minister God's word because a balanced life leads to balanced ministry.  I never realized how much life and ministry correlated until seeing this chapter because I struggle with balance a lot but it is God's grace that I find some sort of balance to keep my mind from going spastic. Also, this chapter shows us the "We Build People" bases, which have been a model for church member growth for about a decade in the Assemblies of God, but I have noticed that it is not utilized in the right way in some churches.  Granted, it is a great model but if the commitment level isn't there from the first at-bat, you won't hit any Major League home runs. I might have mentioned about the CORE Classes in a previous posting, but one church relegated it to a Wednesday night (which is typical Family night when normally only the true die-hard church attendees/members come out), I find that as a poor utilization of not only people but ministry. Yes, we must have commitment but we must also have proper utilization of not only our gifts but our programs for effective and balanced ministry.