Creating a Theological Grounding

Before beginning the work of gifts-discernment and as you begin to process and plan, it is wise for your team to begin with a theological grounding that will inform your work throughout the process. Grounding yourselves in theology will help you articulate a vision that speaks to how, why, and in what ways God is calling you to do this work. In order to inform the community about the work, you can create a brief statement on why you believe engaging in this asset-based approach to ministry and mission is what your faith community is called to do. As a team, you want to ask and answer many questions including:

• Why are we engaging in this work?
• How does this connect to their Christianity and their lived faith?
• What passages from scripture might inform your work? (Theological Grounding Resources page might help you get started thinking about this.)
• In what way are we being called to live more fully into our Baptismal Covenant?
• How does this call us to engage more fully in the Five Marks of Mission?

To help you work on your statement, our Theological Grounding Resources page will give you:

• Scripture passages that might be helpful as you engage in Bible Study
• Prayers to use
• Models for using scripture to listen for where God is leading you
• Other resources to help ground your work in theology

After you have engaged in a process of thinking and talking about these and other questions, write a brief statement to share with the wider community. To give you an idea of what a theological statement might look like, take a look at these samples.

Once you have created your statement, you may want to ask some trusted people in your faith community to read it and get their feedback. Is it clear? Does this speak to what our faith community is about?  Does this articulate what God is calling us to do and who God is calling us to be?

Communication

Now that you have your statement, you can:

• preach from it
• use it to tell others about what you are doing
• use it to engage the faith community in the next steps of the process
• tie this process into the seasons of the Church Year

Action

Now that your team had grounded yourselves in theology and grappled with how God is calling you to engage in this work, share this with others and spread the word. Engage others in a similar Bible Study to what your team did. Listen to what others in the community have to say about your work.

Celebration

Celebrate the time you have taken to ground this process in theology and to listen to God’s call. Say a prayer of thanksgiving. Read your statement as a prayer. Celebrate Eucharist together and use your statement as a meditation.