Rosters to Teams
Jesus calls us to serve each other, as he has served us and given his life for us (Mark 10:41-45, Galatians 5:13). We do this in many informal relational ways through our Gospel Communities, families, workplaces and conversations. Of course we also serve Christ, and one another, as we gather together around his Word on a Sunday. This Pastors’ Pen is all about our formal serving of one another on a Sunday and the shifts that we hope will take place in how we organise that serving.
In particular, during our 9:45am and 6pm Sunday gatherings, we’re gradually shifting from rostered Gospel Communities (GCs) towards serving teams.
Over the past couple of years, GC members have been rostered together on the same week. While it has been great for GCs to serve together, there have been some challenges. It’s often impractical or impossible to consistently roster GC members on the same week, the responsibility for filling vacant spots has often fallen to the GC Vision Coordinators, and some Sunday roles (such as welcoming) would be more effectively done by a smaller team of people who serve in the same role each week.
Throughout this year the staff team have been working, in consultation with GC leaders, to transition to a new Sunday serving approach. The beginnings of this will be seen across Term 3, with a mix of teams and groups serving in different ways. You can see the difference between a team and group explained below.
A team is a small group of people who are committed to a particular role. There is usually a team leader, team meetings and a clear purpose. Examples of teams serving on Sundays in Term 3 include welcoming, music, sound, and kids. Over the next 6 months we also hope to establish a Sunday catering team. These teams are usually not displayed on the whole church roster as they organise serving amongst themselves in consultation with their team leader.
A group is a larger group of people who have committed to serving our church in a particular task. This task is very important, but doesn’t require a lot of teamwork or team meetings and will often be done less frequently (rather than weekly/fortnightly etc). Examples of groups include Bible readers, those leading our church family prayer and kids talk presenters. These group serving roles will be displayed on the whole church roster and will be organised by the Ministry Coordinator and Staff Team.
For Term 3 there are also other rostered roles such as morning tea and supper servers. Gospel Communities also still have a shared role in providing food for morning tea and supper when they are rostered to do so, and as well as this they will continue to be rostered on to help with Park Ave grounds.
Our hope is that this new approach both helps our church family to serve in more focused ways, as well as eases pressure on the Staff Team and Vision Coordinators by providing a more streamlined and easy-to-manage approach.
Can you be praying for our whole church family – that we would together be reflecting the loving, serving attitude described in Romans 12:9-13? Ask that this attitude would be reflected in both our formal serving during a Sunday gathering and in the many, many informal opportunities we have to love and serve each other every day.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:9-13
JR
