Rev. Lawrence C. Spencer - The Ministry of Helps: A Manual for Local Church Organization

SERIES TITLE PAGE

This Ministry of Helps manual is the first in a series of three works intended as a resource for pastors and church leaders eager to get more people involved in the work of the ministry in their local bodies. This is a reference manual you can use as a model for creating your local church ministries manual.

The second is the presenters manual for The 12-Week Ministry of Helps Training Program . It is an addendum to this manual and can be used to teach Ministry of Helps classes at your local congregation. This addendum can be used repeatedly for successive training classes.

The third work is Adventures in Service to God , a workbook, which goes along with the presenters manual. It is available in downloadable format for smartphones, e-readers, and tablets and is available in book form wherever books are sold.

Each participant should have a physical copy so he or she can make notations in the text or on electronic devices to refer to in class. If participants are using e-books, they should also have pen and paper to take notes on matters the local church has to change to comply with pastoral or denominational preferences.

A Resource for Charismatic and Pentecostal Congregat ions

The Ministry of Helps

A Manual for Local Church Organization

Rev. Lawrence C. Spencer

Copyright 2017 Rev. Lawrence C. Spencer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7276-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7277-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017900897

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/9/2017

CONTENTS

Lesson 8 Motivational Gifts I
Lesson 8 Motivational Gifts II

I dedicate this manual to Ladonna Spencer, my wife, who has encouraged me and helped me choose words and scriptures in this manual. Without her help, it would never have come to fruition.

I dedicate it as well to the hundreds of students who have gone through the training and have given me feedback that has made this final copy better than if I had done it myself.

This manual is offered as a planning tool to pastors, directors of support ministries, and others interested in working in Gods service in local churches.

I stress at the outset that work in a church is not a substitute for faith, for a prayer life, or for closeness to God. Working hard for God should be the result of these commitments to Him.

Successful people in the Ministry of Helps are examples of folks living the life God intends for them. They walk in love, divine health, and prosperity and praise God at all times. Also, they never neglect family to work in the church. This includes pastors; we have a Helps Ministry to take the burden off pastors! Never do you hear a bad confession out of responsible Helps workers; never do they criticize their pastors or lead dissenters in a church.

This is not to suggest that Helps workers are perfect; they just set examples for Helps workers to follow. As the chapters unfold, further guidance and suggestions are offered.

Purchasers of this manual are authorized by the copyright owner to duplicate forms for their local churches only. However, no charge can be made nor can the manual or any training program be duplicated for sale without express written permission of the copyright owner or WestBow Press. All other rights reserved.

1985, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2016 Rev. Lawrence C. Spencer.

Over the past thirty years, we have noticed the Holy Spirit move a lot more easily and frequently in churches that organized out the chaos.

Pastors have a hard enough job allocating their time to minister to their flocks and take time for family, so doing the more mundane tasks in the church is not given as high a priority. Forward-thinking pastors delegate these non-spiritual tasks to volunteers in their congregation. We use Jesus for our example when He fed the multitudes. He took care of the miracle, and the workers distributed the loaves and fishes.

The best-case scenario is found in a church, big or small, in which everything is tidy; ushers, other greeters, and helpers make guests welcome; follow-up occurs during the week to thank guests; and the parking is easy and the lots are clean. Visitors here are comfortable and can listen and receive Gods Word without being distracted.

Conversely, some congregations have facilities that are not well maintained, untidy parking lots or exteriors, poor lighting inside or outside, heating or air conditioning set wrong, and music poorly planned or played. They can also have disorganized church workers, poor financial stewardship, and other evidence of disorganization. Any combination of these things can take peoples attention off the preaching of the Word.

And other congregations are not growing; these are places where the Holy Spirit does not often move. A church God has not sent new people to is perhaps a church incapable of ministering to more people.

I have had elders argue that I was trying to organize the Holy Spirit out of our service or that theirs was not a liturgical church and didnt have to do things the same way every time. On the contrary, if you organize the non-spiritual parts of your church, the spiritual part, which is led by the Holy Spirit, can move more freely.

People may not compliment you on your clean restrooms, but untidy restrooms will cause many to never come back. Also, if parking is difficult or inconvenient, people simply will not come. If you are having chronic money challenges, people will have legitimate reasons for questioning the congregations faithfulness to the tithe and the churchs financial management.

Read the manual, glean what can to improve your church, and dont try to fix something if it isnt broken. If you dont do one or more tasks the way this manual suggests because your way is working fine, why change? Just set in writing the manner of doing all jobs in your church and make sure all involved get copies of your best practices.

God bless you and your efforts in leading your congregation.

LS

I want to thank a number of people for assisting me in collecting information and writing this manual.

About thirty years ago, I attended an usher training class taught by Scott Schaffer of the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, California. His presentation inspired me to put in writing a process that helps congregations organize the non-spiritual part of their operations so the spiritual part would be unimpeded by distractions.