Discovering the Gifts within your Congregation
Matching the talents of people in your pews with the needs of your congregation and community is the best way to unlock the potential in your church. But too often, churches begin with their needs and beg people to fill those needs. For example, we need a youth group and so we beg people to be youth groups leaders. This might work well, as when my wife and I were asked to do just that years ago and found a fun ministry we would not have sought on our own. But often it ends in what feels like a never ending series of begging folk to be more involved.
Asset Mapping is a tool which turns this process around. Instead of beginning with the needs of the congregation, it starts by asking people what they would like to do for their church. Typically, Asset Mapping involves a meeting where members of the congregation write on Post-It Notes things they are willing to do from things they know are needed, like cutting the grass, to things they don’t know if the church needs, like knitting or baking cookies. The main point is that they offer these gifts up front. They state with the note that they will say yes when asked to do what they write there. As the assets are freely given up front, it is easier to ask later when the “asset” is needed.
In one congregational meeting, your church can discover gifts you never knew you had and better yet people are empowered to do what they would love to do on behalf of their church family.
If this process is intriguing, and you want more information, Luther Snow’s The Power of Asset Mapping from the Alban Institute (ISBN 978-1566992947) is the definitive book. There is also a free handout from the Alban Institite which details an asset mapping meeting. It is online in PDF form here: The Quick and Simple Congregational Asset-Mapping Experience.
Asset Mapping is not an end in itself, but a tool for uncovering the gifts already present in your church. Using this tool, you can reimagine how to use those gifts more fully to be the Body of Christ in your community.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries
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