Let’s call him John.

He comes to your church for the first time. He hears an inspiring message and decides that he wants to start living for something, and hopefully Someone, beyond himself. He decides that this particular church is for him and seeks information on how to become part of the church. In many churches, his next step would involve going to some kind of a membership class where he learns about the purpose, values, vision, and strategy of the church. This may be buck-shot style and done in 4 hours straight–yes, some do this–or it may be done over several weeks. Perhaps after that he’ll take another class or series of seminars where he learns how to study his Bible, pray, and some basics on how to grow spiritually. Finally, after what may be a few months, he’s ready to learn about how to be involved on a ministry team.

Before he’s allowed to jump in, though, he must first learn about all the spiritual gifts in the Bible. Perhaps he’ll be given some kind of spiritual gifts assessment where he’ll fill out information about the kinds of things that he likes to do. Some churches will even use really fancy assessments seemingly put together by psychologists so that the person will be a perfect fit on the ministry team. Finally, he finishes all the spiritual gifts seminars, he’s filled out his assessments, but he must now meet with an “advisor” who will go over the results with him and help to find him a place where he can best use his gifts and talents.

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