Dan R. Dick and Barbara Miller Dick, Equipped for Every Good Work: Building a Gifts-Based Church. Upper Room, 2001.
Referenced in: Ministry Involvement and Gift-Based Ministry
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is very in-depth look at spiritual gifts that goes beyond most curricula in this genre. The publishers also provide an extensive collection of online supplemental resources.
In the opening of the book, the authors describe the program structure:
Equipped for Every Good Work employs four tools that help individuals and groups discover and understand the spiritual gifts, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that influence their ability to live as Christian disciples and to lead within a community of faith.
- The Spiritual Gifts Inventory helps individuals identify their God-given gifts for living faithfully as Christian disciples day by day and to find meaningful ways to use their gifts in connection with others through the community of faith.
- Leadership/Interaction Styles examines how people behave together in various settings. Looking at behavior, rather than personality, helps to explain what happens when we work together, why there is often tension, and how to be more effective in settings where differing styles are present.
- The Spirituality Web offers a way to appreciate the richness and beauty in six different ways that people relate to God, viewed through the lens of the means of grace.
- Task Type Preferences describes four different ways that people choose to work together to achieve a wide variety of jobs — short/long term, large/small, hands-on/cognitive/creative, task/people.
Taken together, the four tools allow individuals to better understand themselves as disciples of Jesus Christ and enable spiritual communities of faith to develop effective ministries based on identity rather than structure. Identification and understanding of spiritual gifts, the ability to work flexibly and openly with people who do things differently, and comprehension of the varied ways that people relate to God are critical areas of learning for congregational leaders. However, the tools themselves are less important than the conversations and passion they inspire.
Equipped for Every Good Work is a process, not a program. All exercises are designed to begin dialogue, not to label people. Ongoing use of the exercises can provide insight and understanding into areas of:
- Disagreement and conflict
- Questions concerning the spiritual life
- The needs of newcomers in the faith community
- Identifying unique qualifications for ministry
- Strengths and limitations for addressing need
(From Equipped for Every Good Work: Building a Gifts-Based Church, 12-13)
From the Publisher
All scripture is inspired by God … so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Equipped for Every Good Work is a four-tool process that can help you discover and develop the spiritual gifts, spirituality types, interaction styles, and working preferences of each person in your congregation.
Begun in 1988, the Profile of Congregational Leadership has been used in approximately two hundred different churches of seven denominations in settings of all shapes, sizes, locations, and racial-ethnic backgrounds. Equipped for Every Good Work is not intended as a tool to help congregations assign members to jobs on committees, boards, councils, or task forces. Instead, it is a process of discovery and discussion of the gifts, graces, and abilities of the leadership core of a local congregation. It shifts the attention off of what we do and on to who we are as called, gifted, and empowered people of God.
Through self-exploration and discovery, each person can gain new insights about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and the entire congregation can grow as a faith-forming spiritual community. Leaders—A special website (equippedforeverygoodwork.wordpress.com) provides access to all the handouts, presentation materials, reference materials, and interpretive aids.
About the Authors
Dan R. Dick is Director of Connectional Ministries for the Wisconsin Annual Conference, where he is also a clergy member. He has served as a local church pastor, a director of Christian education, director of stewardship ministries for an annual conference of The United Methodist Church, and served fourteen years at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tennessee. Dick is the author of several books published by Discipleship Resources, Abingdon Press, and Barbour & Company.
Barbara Miller Dick provides consultation, training, and resource development nationwide in spiritual gifts discovery, leadership development, and conflict resolution. She is the co-author with Dan Dick of the video FaithQuest: A Journey Toward Congregational Transformation (Discipleship Resources) and Equipped for Every Good Work. She has contributed numerous articles to the Upper Room Disciplines and the General Board of Discipleship website. Barbara is currently a free-lance editor and voice over artist living in Wisconsin with her husband.
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