2009 Ministers' Conference: Proclaiming the Gospel: Nurturing a Vision for Engaged Congregations

In his presentation to the pastors at the 2009 Ministers' Conference, Dan Epp-Tiessen unpacked the following two points:

• If the church ever has enough volunteers, enough lay involvement, enough exercising of gifts, then the church has failed miserably.
• The volunteers that we do have and the gifts exercised among us, will never be adequate for the job, and if we think that they are, then the church has failed miserably.

His conclusion: If we proclaim the good news of what God has done, continues to do, and will yet one day do (i.e. the gospel), then we can properly understand discipleship and our mission and service work - and be inspired to use and nurture the gifts of the congregation.