The Four Functions of Ministry Life
How does a parish guide potential volunteers in discovering their ministry roles within the church? Provide ministerial opportunities based on, The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
Potential volunteers seek to serve in a wide-range of parish volunteer opportunities. Be ready to provide guidance and encouragement by helping them to foster a Christian spirituality through serving as a disciple of Christ.
The experience of a favorable, spiritual, and cooperative volunteer structure ignites people to serve. They are not just willing, but excited to help a parish with two conditions:
The Church evangelizes in faithful condition.
That it’s mission is visible in the internal community (the Church) and the external community (the city).
a. This visibility is essential for potential volunteers because it validates the mission of a Church. Furthermore, it provides a means of Christian involvement for volunteers to work for a more significant cause.
Volunteering cultivates a service-oriented community when a parish offers worthwhile service and is committed to the Gospel.
Church Ministry & Organization Structure
Parishioners want to serve at their parish, but most do not know how to do so or where to begin. Demonstrating how to categorize specific ministries under the auspice of Church teachings is essential because it inaugurates the purpose of volunteering. In order to form the structure of ministry opportunities into functions of ministry life, we need to highlight the original roles of ministry. Theologically, The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) and Pentecost (Acts 2:42-47) articulate four primary functions of Church ministry, which provide choices for potential volunteers to serve.
In Created and Called: Discovering our Gifts for Abundant Living, Jean Trumbauer has identified a way to approach potential volunteers that seems to align with the giftedness of the Church (1 Corinthians 12:14, 17-19). “We aim to simplify the Parish's ministries, organizations, and service groups.” Trumbauer confirms that each person who inquires about volunteering comes with a gift. It is evident that categorizing a parish’s ministry/organizations into a few coherent options for potential volunteers simplifies an approach to "God's call to serve in the Church." (14) Furthermore, other people who work within the Parish will better understand the service structure of volunteerism. People such as:
Staff Members
Parishioners
New Comers
Current Volunteers
Potential Volunteers
Ordained and Religious Life
Very often, little or no documentation of ministry-life functions of the church are described in Catholic institutions with the exception of one.
You can learn more about the Four Functions of Ministry Life here in a digital course.
