Plentiful Gifts: Discovering the Strengths Already in Your Church

Dear Presbytery of Southern Kansas,

Your church has the gifts it needs to be the church of Jesus Christ. Each church in our presbytery is equipped by God for ministry. Your gifts are plentiful. Now, they may be different gifts than you had in your congregation 5 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 45 years ago. And sometimes you might wish you had different gifts or different people with those gifts, but you have gifts, and it’s time to explore and develop those gifts.

We are kicking off our partnership with the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and their Plentiful Gifts Program (sponsored by a Lilly Foundation grant). Dubuque Seminary selected 6 church judicatories to work with them in this program, 5 presbyteries and one congregational body. Three groups are in the final stages of their grant, and we and two others are about to begin.

4-5 churches in our presbytery will be selected to be part of Plentiful Gifts. Being part of Plentiful Gifts is a commitment of 18 months to 2 years. In that time your congregation will go through a self-study, looking at where you’ve been and where you might be going. This is an effort of the entire congregation. After that a handful of church members will pick an area or two of church life where it would be helpful to be more equipped.

Do you have a pastor? Then you might not want to get more training in preaching, but learning more about pastoral care would be great. Is your paid leadership part time? What kind of training would best help you lead the church along with your pastor? You’ll have time and help discerning this. Each church will be given a coach. I serve as the catalyst and oversee the program.  All of the churches in our presbytery Plentiful Gifts program will send participants on 3 retreats together.

What kind of church should apply? It might be easiest to start with who shouldn’t apply. Your church shouldn’t apply if things are pretty awesome. Your leadership is well equipped across the board. No one person does everything.  On the flip side, you shouldn’t apply if you have more conversations about how many years before your church closes than you do about the future. End of church conversations are important, but they are not for this. The other category of who should not apply is a church in conflict. This isn’t a remediation program.

BUT if you’re a church that isn’t quite sure what the future holds but is confident that God will use your church, if you’re a church that has 5-7 people willing to really engage with this process, and if you’re a church that wants to learn and grow, then apply!

I’m happy to come and meet with your sessions or congregations. I can take phone calls or zoom calls, and I’m always up for a road trip. I already have three trips to meet with sessions scheduled for June.

This is a really cool opportunity for churches willing to do some work. Plentiful Gifts is about the gifts that are already in your congregation and how they can be grown and strengthened. I look forward to talking to you more about it.

In Christ,

Catherine Neelly Burton