At the core of our vision for every member of IBB is the goal for everyone to become a minister of the grace of God to others. We make a distinction between “service” and “ministry.” Service is something anyone can do. We serve by greeting at the door or handing out bulletins. We serve by volunteering time to accomplish a project around the church. We serve by helping people in the day-to-day needs that they might have.
Anyone who is willing can serve someone else. Ministry, on the other hand, is when we take the Word of God and help others come to Know God; help them Grow in the will and ways of our Lord; help them exchange the lies they have believed about themselves and the life around them for the Truth that is found in Jesus and His Word. Life Groups are the very center of ministry at IBB and we want every member to understand the purpose and potential of these groups, as well as the people that it takes to make them possible. Every Life Group leadership team is made up of three people or couples:
1) A Host: Someone who offers their home OR prepares the physical space for the Group to meet in.
2) A Trainer or facilitator: Someone who will help guide the discussion and provide the spiritual direction for the group.
3) An Apprentice: Someone who comes along side the facilitator to have on-the-jobtraining to possible lead a Life Group of their own in the future. We believe this is the most effective way for us, as pastors and leaders of the Church, to fulfill what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11-16:
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (NLT)
Equip people to minister Let them be involved in REAL ministry and enjoy the fruit (and challenges) of spiritual development Together build up a church of mature believers in a healthy and growing environment, full of love.
By Russell Johnson