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The leaders of a nearby church wanted to encourage members' use of spiritual gifts. They devised a ministry catalog and interest survey. They held a ministry fair, where some members proudly and publicly turned in their surveys. But this fanfare was both the beginning and the end of the church's attempt to call out its members' gifts.

Why? The church failed to build a foundation through vision casting. As a result, less than 10 percent of the congregation turned in interest surveys, and the leftover catalogs ended up in the church's basement. The leaders didn't understand that speed kills. Developing an equipping church, where members really identify and use their gifts, takes time. That's one of the key messages in Sue Mallory's new book, The Equipping Church (Zondervan, 2001).

Mallory is the executive director of the Leadership Training Network and the former director of lay ministry at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. Her book offers principles from her experience to make an intentional, organized transition from staff-focused ministry to lay-based ministry.

I have used her lay-equipping techniques in many churches as a denominational consultant. For the churches I work with, slow cultural shift is the hardest concept to grasp.

Using Ephesians 4:11-13 as the foundation, Mallory describes an equipping church as a beautiful dance, accomplishing amazing things as people live their gifts and value their ministry. She tells stories of ordinary people who use their gifts to do extraordinary things. Bruce battles blindness, but he leads a computer ministry. Robert feeds the homeless on Saturdays, even though his own bed is on the streets. Jim encourages missionaries with his mouth-watering cookies. Mallory uses stories like these to show that an equipping church cares for people; it helps them "serve and be served."

Here's where Mallory's book differs from much of what has been written about spiritual gifts and lay empowerment: she encourages churches to look beyond interest surveys and gifts assessments. She emphasizes that discovery is more than a questionnaire. Mallory explains, "The heart of discovery is a conversation of the head and heart that emphasizes listening." In other words, one-on-one discipleship.

If the equipping church is to dance, Mallory knows it takes time to learn the steps. She insists that churches allow as much as two years to build a culture that supports the vision, before implementing a plan.

The Equipping Church Guidebook, co-authored by Mallory and Leadership Network president Brad Smith, is an additional resource for the local church to apply Mallory's principles. The workbook provides:

1. Tools to determine openings for introducing equipping ministry,
   
   
2. Group exercises that guide teams toward embracing the equipping vision, and
   
   
3. Examples of these principles at work—from churches in Bellevue, Washington, to Greensboro, North Carolina.
   
   

One church I worked with utilized The Equipping Church principles. Stough Memorial Baptist Church in Pineville, North Carolina worked for two years to release the God-breathed ministry dreams inside their members. Their work was tested when 70 people hosted a community-wide event that grew as a response to the school shootings in Colorado. As leaders first talked logistics, many people seemed overwhelmed. Then suddenly one person stood and said, "I work with closed-circuit TV. I'll be on the technical team."

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