How do I get involved?

The best way is to ask! If you are thinking of a ministry that already is in place (worship team, youth ministry, etc.), talk with one of the leaders. If you don’t know who the leaders are, ask one of the staff members, or call the church office, or track down one of the elders. You can even let us know via e-mail or through a comment card at worship.

What if I want to start a ministry?

"God is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)

You have permission! We ask that the ministry (program, outreach, community service, etc.) be something that helps New Summit to fulfill its Vision, Mission and Values. We ask that you have a passion for this area of ministry, spiritual gifts that are matched with the kind of ministry you have in mind, and that you establish a team that shares your passion, and balances your gifts.

Every team will be part of a larger quadrant:  Connect, Love,  Serve and Share. You’ll want to touch base with the quadrant leader to get your team and ministry up and running!

How do we recruit people to ministries and build teams?

"Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us had different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others. God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God have given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly." (Romans 12:4-8)

Look for people who share your interests and passions. Look for people with the spiritual gifts necessary for the kind of ministry you are considering. (We are building a database in the church office, including the gifts of those who have taken Network or one of the other inventories we have offered at New Summit) In your conversations about the things that excite you, look for others whose eyes light up! Talk about your hopes and dreams, and talk about specific opportunities of which you are aware. Be intentional about approaching people and inviting them to pray about a ministry opportunity. If others respond positively this is a good sign that God is inviting you to a new ministry opportunity as a team! If not, perhaps this is an opportunity to re-think (and pray) the original ideas, revise them, or reconsider.

How do we keep one ministry from draining another?

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. That way both the wine and the wineskins are preserved." (Matthew 9:17)

At New Summit we are trying to balance between the two extremes of legalism and non-commitment. We do not require that a person be involved in a ministry. We do not limit the number of ministries with which a person may be involved. But our experience has been that it is very difficult to be truly effective in more than one ministry area! We encourage you to say "yes" to only those things about which you are passionate and gifted, and to build teams to help prevent issues like burnout. We encourage you to say "NO" when you are not interested, when you are involved with another ministry, and when you do not have the passion or gifts to make a complete commitment. Often the most difficult thing about saying "NO" is that we feel we will hurt the person who is making the request. Every leader at New Summit needs to be a champion of encouragement and prayer. We encourage those we invite and understand that only God can lead them, through prayer, to say "yes" or "no." We therefore pray with and for them, and support their decision, even if it means that an idea of ours goes unfulfilled for a time.

Using the Team Building and Permission Giving Model, will some current ministries at New Summit change? Will some disappear?

Without a doubt. Change is a constant part of our life experience, and different ministries and programs at New Summit will come and go. If we are growing in our relationship with Jesus, and honoring the call of God expressed in Scripture and articulated in our Vision, Mission and Values, we will be faithful to the fundamental challenges and needs expressed in our four primary ministry areas: Connect, Love,  Serve and Share.. We will also meet the primary needs and concerns of the people in our congregation, and in the communities we serve. The different groups, teams, programs, etc. will go through changes and adjustments.

What is the pathway of communication? How do I share my needs and concerns?

There are a variety of ways to communicate within our congregation. Some are less personal, though effective in making contact: e-mail, phone call to the church office, the comment cards inserted in the church bulletin each week at the worship services. If you are uncertain about where to go, or about the person with whom you should speak, you can always ask a member of the staff, or one of our elders or deacons. You may approach anyone who is serving as a volunteer on the platform at worship, or one of our ushers or greeters, or someone else in a leadership capacity. Note to all of the above: if you don’t know, say, "I don’t know, but I would be happy to find out for you!" Our hope is that no one would have to make more than one or two contacts to find the right person to answer a question or address a need.

More specifically, questions involving ministry programs at New Summit will go to the team leader or team for each of those programs. So, ask for the leader of a particular ministry, find that person and share your questions or ideas or thoughts or concerns, and they will know how to help, or they will ask for help from someone else.

What if I have a conflict?

"If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won’t accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17)

Nothing is more destructive to congregations than unhealthy church conflict. By definition, we have conflict in every relationship because all of us are different! How we deal with our disagreements will help us to fulfill our Vision, Mission and Values, or will tear us apart and tell the community that we have nothing to offer but pain.

There are some general rules that should guide all of our interaction. We are invited to love one another, to consider each other better than ourselves, to exercise humility, kindness, and forgiveness. We should take every opportunity to make our concerns a matter of prayer.

Having done these things, the Scripture is quite clear about how to approach conflict in the church, particularly if you feel you have been wronged (Matthew 18). First, take your concern directly to the person who is involved. This means talking face to face with the one who has hurt you or with whom you disagree. Talking to anyone else is not helping to resolve the issue, and may be causing the problem to spread.

Second, if there is no resolution to the issue in a face-to-face conversation, involve others who are in a position to help. This might be members of the team involved in a particular ministry, or the leader of that team.

Third, if there is still no resolution, involve those who are in a position of authority and leadership over the individuals involved. This might be members of the Personnel Team at New Summit, if the person with whom you have a conflict is a staff member. It might be the quadrant leader for the specific area of ministry: Gathering, Inspiring, Equipping, and Sending. It might be the elders at New Summit.

There may still be a problem or disagreement when all of our efforts have been exhausted. If so, we are also people under authority. Our elders and leaders have been placed in authority over us by God’s call and by the affirmation of the church. We may need to agree to disagree, and submit to the decision of the team or group or leader(s). The goal of church discipline is always reconciliation and restoration to full and fulfilling membership in the life of the congregation. On rare occasions, someone will find this impossible, and will feel called away from New Summit to participation in another Christian congregation. Though we would never seek this, having tried every other way of working together, we should bless one another in parting.

How do we maintain accountability?

The best accountability comes from our common commitment to the Vision, Mission, and Values of the congregation. If we are willing to own these, for instance, we will share a common purpose and goals and standards.

From time to time we have to develop written standards. Sometimes these pertain to legal requirements, for instance as a not-for-profit corporation in the state of Missouri. Some of our standards come from the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which helps us through the process of choosing leaders, making decisions about worship and life together, and gives us some of our historical and confessional identity as Christians in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition.

However, we have found that our common identity and commitment to our Mission keeps us focused, helps us to interact with one another, and helps us to be accountable in love to one another.

What kind of program evaluation do we do?

The best kind of planning for new programs will ask questions like: How does this proposed program forward our Vision, Mission and Values? Are the right spiritual gifts present to make the program work? Is there genuine passion for this kind of ministry among those participating? Is there a team in place? Whenever there are opportunities for new ministry the leaders involved should be asking these questions.

The best kind of evaluation following events and programs should come from the team responsible, including leaders and staff as helpful. Questions will be very similar: did our program or event help fulfill the Vision, Mission and Values of New Summit? Did we have the right people with the right gifts and passions in the right places? What did we learn? How can we grow? Again, leaders of every program are encouraged to make this kind of conversation a part of the life of each team and group!