Shared Ministry

“We have discovered that ‘internal ministries’ and ‘external ministries’ appear to be inextricably linked. Where a congregation or its members are actively involved in ministries outside the congregation, it seems that there are always significant ministries to one another taking place within the fellowship of the congregation. … Our findings suggest that one reason the church has had such difficulty in developing the concept and the practice of lay ministry ‘in the world’ may be that too frequently we have assumed that such ministries should or could be separated from vital lay ministries within the congregation.”