Finding Enablers for LSM

While for decades the church has spoken of the minister as being a facilitator or enabler of ministry, the time is fast coming when this kind of qualification will need to be formally laid down as a requirement of all who would serve in full-time work. My prediction is that more and more clergy in regular parish appointments may have to provide a small proportion of their working time for enabling LSM congregations.

Having this year accepted again the challenge of working as enabler with our Bay of Islands Parish Ministry Support Team I recently looked over the profile of categories that I prepared for candidates for the ministry some years ago. I can identify some scales on which the church might now expect rather higher standards of candidates for full-time ministry who are likely to be required to act as enablers.

The profile would provide a good starting point for selection of enablers from lay people, too. However, recently I have drafted a much more detailed - if somewhat tentative - analysis of the Knowledge, Skills and Personal Characteristics that I suggest might be desirable in ministry enablers. This may be a more appropriate place to begin. I have placed both on my website together with another posted earlier.

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/colcom.press

• Assessing Motivation for the Ministry
• An Enabler Matrix
• Can we really train Enablers?