FAQS

QUES: Is LAYMINISTRIES affiliated with a specific Church?

ANS: No...well, actually we want Christians from MANY Churches all over Southern California to get involved in the ministries presented on this blog. But, we are not affiliated with any one Church officially. We hope to encourage the "global" Church to work together. We are non-denominational...we believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, He came to earth to die for our sins, and He rose again that all who believe may have eternal life!

QUES: Why are you guys using Xanga to promote LAYMINISTRIES?

ANS: Well, we find that Xanga is a good communication tool. With Xanga, we can spread the word easily, keep people updated on the various ministries we promote, connect Christians with each other, and make it fun to get involved! Let's build this Layman community...tell your friends to subscribe!!

Most of all...it's FREE! ...which is good when we are non-profit and have zero budget!

QUES: I want to get involved with a particular ministry I see here...how do I do that?

ANS: Every ministry presented on this blog will have a Contact Person in charge of that ministry. Please contact this person for more details on how you can get involved...I'm sure they will appreciate the help! You can also keep watch on their posting here to find more information, and put comments on their post to communicate with that ministry. Please read the "GETTING INVOLVED" post.

QUES: I feel led to start a ministry. Can I promote my ministry here and to seek help from other Christians here?

ANS: YES! This is exactly what this LAYMINISTRIES Blog is about! We want people to start their own ministries and seek assistance from other readers here on this blog. Please read the "GETTING INVOLVED" post to get more information on how you can share your ministry idea here.

QUES: LAYMINISTRIES sounds like such a wonderful organization! Can I donate some money to you?

ANS: Praise the Lord for your generosity!...but NO, we do not accept donations. Here at LAYMINISTRIES, the only thing we do currently is administer this blog, which is free.

We are here to foster the collaboration and creation of community focused ministries...so all the real work and funding of these ministries is done by individuals such as you...not our organization. If you would like to donate money...I would suggest looking at the various ministries posted on this blog...find one you want to support...and contact the Contact Person of that ministry to see if they are in need of money.

QUES: By promoting this movement, are you taking away resources of Churches?

ANS: Well...this may be in part correct, but in our defense, we feel we are encouraging what is Biblical. In a nutshell, we feel Church culture of today don't foster community oriented ministries as much as they should. Even Jesus said that it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. Many Churches today are more absorbed in ministering to their own Church to keep all the programs running.

Also, when you look at any Church...there's a good chance you will find that 20 percent of the people are doing 80 percent of the work. There are many church goers in the congregation who aren't participating in any ministry. Here at LAYMINISTRIES...we feel there is MUCH potential in this group of people who aren't active in service. We want to encourage and activate these people to use their God-given talents, gifts, and resources to spread the love of God through various innovative community ministries.

QUES: This blog is great, but I don't live around Southern California...can I copy your blog and start one in my city?

ANS: Sure, we would love you to continue this movement around your city! We hope that this movement will get Christians everywhere to work together across Church lines to bring light to every city!

Only thing we ask is to try to keep in the spirit of what LAYMINISTRIES is about.

GETTING INVOLVED

Getting involved with Layministries is EASY! You can either 1. Participate in an existing ministry here by browsing the posts, or 2. Create your own ministry and ask for collaboration here!

PARTICIPATE IN AN EXISTING MINISTRY

1. Find a ministry on this blog that you would like to get involved with.
2. Contact the Contact Person listed on that ministry's posting.
3. Feel free to connect and collaborate with other people in the ministry apart from this blog or even using the comments seciton of the blog.
4. Make sure someone involved with the ministry give updates, status, and progress of that particular ministry so that the posting can get updated.

CREATE YOUR OWN MINISTRY

1. Pray about the direction of your ministry.
2. Propose a vision or plan of your ministry and send it as a message to this Layministries blog.
3. Please include the following information in your proposal, and send this along with how you want the actual posting to read and any relevant picures:
• Ministry Name
• Ministry Vision
• Contact Person Name & Contact Information
• How many people are currently involved
• How many people are needed
• Are any funds needed?...if so, how much?
• What resources are needed?
• Is this ministry affiliated with a particular church?...please describe.
4. Gather interest in your ministry from other Layministries blog readers.
5. Maintain status/updates on your ministry posting.
6. Execute your ministry.

THE VISION

The purpose of this Layministries blog is to foster ministries that reach out to the community around us. We hope to create a movement that will get Christians everywhere to work together, regardless of church affiliations, to start innovative ministries in their communities. Layministries has no 'tangible' ministry of its own...it is merely a springboard...a think tank...a breeding ground for ministry ideas. The blogging aspect will help foster a community of Christians to create ministries, collaborate efforts, disseminate information, and execute...it is up to YOU, the blog reader, to partake in this community and unite with other like-minded readers of this blog.

The spirit of Layministries is three-fold:

1. To create "innovative" ministries in the community that helps the lost connect with God's love.
   (out of the box, talents, gifts, passions, professions, unreached, hobbies, etc...)
   
   
2. To extend your network of collaboration with other Christians in your city.
   (Power of pulling together resources, unite, open-mind to Christian world, fight self-absorption, broaden network, to turn the impossible possible.)
   
   
3. To spread the spirit of this movement by seeking out 'inactive' churchgoers and mobilizing them.
   

THE NEED

LAYMINISTRIES began due to some needs, or deficiencies, in today's Church culture. Our purpose is to help fill in those gaps that currently exist...and in doing so, we hope to bring Christians of many Churches together to create a variety of ministries that help the lost to experience and connect to God.

There are three core deficiencies in today's Church culture that we hope to fill:

1. The independent nature of Churches
   Churches nowadays work so independent of each other, that they often neglect the power that can come from working alongside other churches. Especially churches that are smaller, and even new church plants, can benefit from the resources of bigger more established churches. Oftentimes, a church might have a ministry vision that can't be easily carried out from their existing internal resources. If more churches would join together, the creation of new ministries might be more efficient and effective.
   
   Not sure how this independent culture of churches arose, but pride can easily cause this trend to continue, to make churches want to be self-sufficient, to become better than other churches, to gain more attendance. All this can foster unproductive tendencies such as competition and disharmony.
   
   
2. The under utilization of the average Christian Churchgoer (the Layman)
   If you analyze any church today, it is probable that 20% of the church members does 80% of the work in the church. It is easy to see that in this average scenario, the resources of the Laymen are being underutilized. Only a small percentage of the church population is really actively serving in some capacity. There are many Christian Laymen sitting in congregations that need to be encouraged to find their ministries...to pursue their callings. The parable of the talents teaches us that God gives to some much and to some very little...BUT He wants EVERYONE, no matter how many talents, to invest and use it fruitfully.
   
   As easy as it might be to blame this phenomenon to the 80% of the Laymen not wanting to step up to fill role, I would venture to say that other forces might be at work creating this phenomenon. Sometimes, the administrative duties involved in running a church are so overwhelming, it is easier for the church leaders just to seek out a limited number of Laymen gifted in typical church duties to perform those duties. The negative of this is that only 20% of the church population gets to benefit from active service. It's hard to complain when things are running smooth, right? When a church is running smooth...it is tempting for leaders to think that all is well.
   
   The thing to be wary of is that God doesn't just want a smooth running church. He wants every tree to bear fruit. Leaders shouldn't be just focusing on having enough people to do the work...instead, they should be focusing on having enough work for everyone. There is a subtle but important difference there. I am not proposing a works based faith...but it is clear in the Bible that EVERYONE needs to have a place in building the church...everyone needs a ministry. Leaders in churches MUST help the church laymen find their ministry...this is by definition what a church minister should focus on. Not everyone in the congregation have gifts or talents that directly benefit the church, but we can't ignore these people. Perhaps an auto mechanic can't preach a sermon, teach a bible study, or lead a choir...but they can be encouraged to perhaps start a ministry to repair cars for the poor and needy.
   
   
3. The resource-intensive nature of Churches.
   Churches today are extremely resource intensive just to keep things running on a practical level. Look at the way many churches operate. They are, perhaps unknowingly, very self-absorbed. If you look at all the work done by many of the church members and leaders, most of the resources are used for inner church programs and functions. Church leaders are inundated with ministries to keep the programs running, teaching the peoples of the church, training up new people to serve within the church, growing the church...and the cycle revolves to work at building a bigger and better church. New leaders are often raised up to train even newer church leaders.
   
   Even on a practical level...the amount of money needed to keep a church operating is pretty high, and most of a church's monetary resources are used to pay the church property lease, bills, inner church events and activities, etc. To keep a Church running well, much resources are focused on this upkeep...and the call to spread out the the community can be easily neglected.