Disciple: Equipping the Saints
By Diocesan Staff
“Equipping the saints means harnessing the best of our minds,
our hearts and our bodies with the tools of evangelism, reconciliation, formation and stewardship. These four….are all strands of a single mighty chord….that connects us with God,
with our neighbors and with our work as disciples making disciples who make a difference.”
- The Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple,
201st Annual Convention Pastoral Address
STRANDS OF A SINGLE MIGHTY CHORD
Go Speak. Invite Welcome Connect. Project Resource. Over the last few years, the Diocese of North Carolina has introduced several programs and resources to help disciples in diocesan churches develop skills in the areas of evangelism, racial reconciliation, formation, welcome, stewardship, social justice and simply connecting with those in our surrounding communities. As people become more and more familiar with the offerings, we’ve heard stories of their impact and of churches adapting them to incorporate them into daily life.
Equipping the Saints is not another program; on the contrary, it’s the bringing together of all that has come before. Evangelism, reconciliation, formation, stewardship – none of these exists in vacuums or silos. They are all connected and parts of a greater whole, and as disciples they are parts we need to develop to be our fullest selves.
What each of the programs and resources offers is an element of what we need to be equipped to go out in the world and be able to sit with, walk with and be with those with whom we share it.
So if Go Speak; Invite Welcome Connect; Project Resource; racial reconciliation training; a multitude of other educational resources; and diocesan support are the tools to help you become the disciple God calls each of us to be, Equipping the Saints is the toolbox that contains them all.
Or to use Bishop Anne’s analogy, the tools are the individual threads that connect and weave together to form that mighty chord. As you look at what each program has to offer, you will start to understand how they overlap from one area to another, feeding into each other and enriching us in a multitude of ways.
EVANGELISM
Go Speak is an easy way to gather people together to share faith stories. Prompted by question cards, these gatherings have proven an easy, comfortable, safe way to gain comfort in sharing – and more importantly, listening to – stories of how God moves in one’s life.
Invite Welcome Connect is not just about making visitors to your church feel welcome, it’s about helping to make a genuine connection and laying the foundation for long-term relationships. The sharing of faith and faith stories is part of that connection.
A Movable Feast: Originally conceived as a diocesan young adult ministry based out of a customized trailer that holds a chapel and serves hot, home-cooked food, A Movable Feast remains a mobile ministry, gathering with people where they are, feeding them and inviting.
Project Resource is a new, stewardship-based program that helps disciples understand “stewardship” is not a financial campaign, but rather a mindset and way of life. Living that way of life is itself a form of evangelism.
RECONCILIATION
Racial reconciliation training opportunities are scheduled throughout 2017 all around the Diocese.
The Racial Equity Institute offers two-day training opportunities to “help individuals and organizations develop tools to challenge patterns of power and grow equity.”
“Seeing the Face of God in Each Other” is a diocesan anti-racism offering developed and hosted by members of the Bishop’s Committee for Racial Justice and Reconciliation.
Lift Every Voice is a three-year initiative for youth and young adults designed to revisit the historical truths of slavery and the Civil Rights movement in North Carolina and Apartheid in South Africa. This ministry is designed to build an understanding of social injustice that will help participating young people develop a vision and skills to lead their dioceses’ programming around race and inclusivity.
Invite Welcome Connect helps build genuine relationships and paves the way for honest conversation.
Go Speak: An updated card deck will be available in Spring 2017 with a special focus on race and reconciliation. These are being created in response to requests received from across the Diocese to help all of us have thoughtful, sensitive and honest conversations about race.
FORMATION
The School of Ministry is a diocesan institution whose offerings include countless resources for formation of all ages.
The 2016-2017 Gospel-Based Discipleship is a simple way to incorporate formation into your daily life. Available in print, online or on diocesan social media channels, it helps to develop the habit of building time into each day for prayer and reflection.
Go Speak helps us recognize God moving in our lives.
A Movable Feast does not require the trailer be present; food and worship are the key components of A Movable Feast, whether or not the trailer is present.
STEWARDSHIP
Project Resource: Building stewardship into a way of life means going deeper than its traditional definition.
Creation Care is a multiphase, multiyear plan from the Chartered Committee on Environmental Ministry that focuses on three areas: energy, water and food. The initiative offers help in getting a handle on what needs to be done, utilizing new resources, offering infrastructure and guidelines, and defining goals to put plans into action.
All of this only begins to scratch the surface of what Equipping the Saints encompasses, and it is all available to you. Just as we are all connected as humans and by our faith, these offerings intertwine and connect to equip us with what we need to fully realize our lives as disciples.
The people of Grace, Clayton, with help from rector the Rev. John Gibson and regional canon the Rev. Cathy Deats, passed out coffee and cookies to people visiting their church, a polling place, on Election Day 2016.
Tags: North Carolina Disciple
