RMCNews Interview with Daniel Birai – Denver, Colorado … There is excitement at LifeSource Adventist Fellowship. With deep interest in making Adventist mission relevant and involving the whole congregation, the church leadership is strategically streamlining activities and its use of resources. Pastor Daniel Birai shares the meaning behind his church’s Keystone Ministries.

NewsNuggets: What challenge are you facing at LifeSource with your ministries?

Daniel Birai: We have about 24 active ministries and it isn’t realistic to be able to provide each of them the time and resources that they need with two pastors. Even with lay members leading the groups, there isn’t enough support, accountability, or training to create sustainable growth. This leads to low volunteer leadership, low morale, and low attendance at events.

NN: So, how are you going to turn this around?

DB: I’m privileged to work with Pastor Jose Briones. A few months ago, we were brainstorming on a white board on how we could support our church family. We [concluded that we] will spend more of our time on a fewer number of ministries that can strategically bring more people (volunteers) to our church, giving them a bigger base out of which to invite them into service. We are calling them Keystone Ministries.

NN: How do you determine which ministries will be designated as Keystone Ministries?

DB: We asked ourselves what ministries we can prioritize, which by doing so, will give our church the best chance of growing sustainably and increase the number of volunteers that we can invite to serve on other ministry teams.

There are ministries with individuals who have high engagement in church life. We measure high engagement when ministries have individuals who consistently attend events, support the church financially, and are willing to step up into leadership roles. We also asked what ministry is so critical to our calling as a church that we cannot afford to neglect it, even if we don’t currently have much “fruit” showing?

NN: If you can share your discoveries through your analysis, what are the Keystone Ministries you have identified?

DB: We identified four areas and seven ministries. The first area is Church Connections, and this includes Greeters, as this impacts new growth. It is where many people get their first chance to meet us. It includes our Hospitality Team as it impacts being a family and doing life together with monthly fellowship meals, church picnics –things that everyone in our church can attend if they wish — and finally, Lay Pastor Assistants who provide spiritual care for our church family by visiting regularly.

The next area is Community. Our Ministry Impact Team will add value to our community by inviting its members to join our family doing surveys in our community.

Area number three is our Young Adult Ministry. In this area, we already have high engagement. They meet weekly (outside our Sabbath morning worship time) with different events and experiences and God is blessing their commitment to being a family.

Area four is identified as Young Families. We seek to add value by providing Children’s Ministries–a space where parents can bring their children each Sabbath to be nurtured and developed and challenged to live for Jesus in our Sabbath Schools. For parents wanting more engagement for their children, we lean on our Club Ministries–Adventurers and Pathfinders–to be our discipleship arm for our young people.

NN: If a ministry isn’t identified here, does it mean you don’t care about it or think it isn’t important?

DB: No, not at all. We are acknowledging that with limited resources, it makes sense to do a few things with excellence, and trust that as these thrive, more people will join our family and serve in the other ministries that are just as important. We will highlight the amazing impact these ministries are having during our weekly ministry spotlight, e-newsletter, and word of mouth.

NN: How will you measure success?

DB: Before the end of the year, our pastoral team will work together with Keystone Ministry leaders to create Key Performance Indicators that will be tracked, measured, and reported. We will ask about attendance at events, report monthly engagement on social media, and create quarterly surveys of those they are serving in order to measure impact, and more.

Naturally, we asked ourselves how these Keystone Ministries will be supported. It is vital to ensure they have the financial and people resources needed to achieve their goals, that regular attention is given to events and ministry meetings through a variety of communication vehicles, as well as have church leadership give regular attention to ministry leaders and team members.

We trust that by focusing on these Keystone Ministries, the church can create sustainable value to our community in a day and age when people realize the importance of being in community.

–RMCNews. Photo by Daniel Birai.