Meaningful Membership

Taking the Next Step – Ralph Hodge’s Taking the Next Step, published by LifeWay, is a basic, easy-to-use, interactive resource designed to help new members find a place of meaningful involvement in your church’s life and ministry. Primarily for adults, Taking the Next Step can also be adapted for use with students and the material can be taught in four or five sessions.

Membership 101 – Whether you call it Membership 101, The Discovery Class or Lunch with the Pastor, new member orientation has become the new normal for most churches. Often, it is an introductory class both for new and prospective members—a safe place to ask questions and take the church for a test drive.

Assurance of salvation topics are a common starting point. That might include how to become a Christian, a “writing your story” segment, a baptism explanation and a short summary of what the church believes. Some churches cover denominational and missions affiliations as well as church ministries and values.

New member orientation can also cover spiritual gifts and serving opportunities or offer that as a follow-up option to an initial meetings. This may include a spiritual gifts inventory, personal ministry survey and a Christian skills inventory. Many classes end with a membership covenant or commitment.

   Membership 101 Curriculum

   “8 Topics to Include in Your Church Membership Class” by ServeHQ

Spiritual Gifts

Finding Your PLACE in Life and Ministry – PLACE is an intentional process to connect church members into purpose-driven ministry including self discovery, individualized ministry coaching and tracking from workshop training to ministry placement. Through the PLACE process, people discover that God has created and gifted them with a unique capacity to serve others. The PLACE acronym outlines a 5-step process:

• P = Personality Discovery
• L = Learning Spiritual Gifts
• A = Abilities Awareness
• C = Connecting Passion with Ministry
• E = Experiences in Life

Class 301: Discovering My SHAPE for Ministry – Saddleback’s Class 301 helps believers learn how God can use their Spiritual Gifts, their Heart (passions), their Abilities, Personality and Experiences to minister to others in need—a person’s SHAPE for ministry.

   SHAPE Discovery Tool

Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts – Download this free worksheet and use it to identify strengths related to ministry and service in the local church.

   Spiritual Gifts Worksheet

Resources

ServeHQ – Equip volunteers, onboard new members, develop leaders, send announcements, and chat with anyone safely with accountability, all with the ServeHQ platform.