Created and Called: Discovering Our Gifts for Abundant Living (Book)
Jean M. Trumbauer, Author. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1998.

True to its title, Created and Called emphasizes that we are co-creators with God and that each person is gifted and called to ministry. Unlike manuals with similar themes, Created and Called explains how our gifts are more than our most visible talents and skills: they include our interests, motivations, styles, values, hopes, and vulnerabilities. Jean Trumbauer helps us to recognize and integrate our gifts and apply them to needs in both the church and the larger community. With reflection guides, exercises, samples, and resources in each chapter, Created and Called is an excellent tool for small groups, adult education classes, and leadership programs.
 

Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts (Book)
Lloyd Edwards, Author. Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1988.

While human abilities are "natural talents" when they are used for self-gratification or altruism, they become "spiritual gifts" when they equip a person to assume his or her unique role in God's creative and redemptive work. Gifts revealed when one is grounded in a faith community make easier an appreciation of the dual role an individual plays: as a unique agent for God's work in the world and as a member of a community held by God. Offering theological exploration, personalized examples, exercises for gift discernment, and a model for a spiritual gifts workshop, this book can be used by individuals, workshop leaders, or congregational leaders.
 

Discovering God’s Vision for Your Life: You and Your Spiritual Gifts (Book)
Kenneth C. Haugk, Author. St. Louis, MO: Tebunah Ministries, 1998.

Discovering God's Vision for Your Life views ministries as channels through which parishioners can develop and share their unique gifts. Each of the interactive eight chapters in this program draws on reflections, Bible study, and readings in church ministry to help parishioners develop not only their gifts, but also their spirituality, self-understanding, and commitment. The program includes preparation materials for leaders and inventory materials for participants. Because the development of personal spiritual gifts requires a congregational culture of spiritual gifts, congregations that appreciate complexity and understand systems thinking will most benefit from these materials. The presentation can be accomplished in eight sessions, a week-end retreat, or two half-day retreats.
 

Equipped for Every Good Work: Building a Gifts-Based Church (Book)
Dan Dick, Barbara Miller, Authors. Nashville, TN: Discipleship Resources, 2001.

Seeking to help churches change from the "program approach" of ministry to "gifts-based" disciple-building, the authors offer various tools that can be used to discover and develop the spiritual gifts, spirituality types, interaction styles, and working preferences of each person in a congregation. Using the full set of tools initially requires more than nine hours of contact time with church members who participate in gifts-discovery, so a weekend retreat is the perhaps the best setting for initiating this project. A Web site ( www.equippedforeverygoodwork.org) provides access to the project’s handouts, presentation materials, reference materials, and interpretive aids.
 

The Equipping Church, Serving Together to Transform Lives (Book)
Sue Mallory, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001.

Beginning with the injunction that pastors are to "equip the saints for the work of the ministry," The Equipping Church passionately relays the process that lay minister Sue Mallory and her team followed in developing a culture and system in the church for supporting lay ministry. Not a "quick fix" program, this book identifies processes that must be tailored to each church’s culture and vision. Mallory's discussion of difficult issues, and her identification of resources, make this book highly practical. Congregational, educational, and denominational leaders seeking to implement a vision for a vibrant church—with members equipped to fulfill their callings—will benefit from implementing its ideas.
 

The Equipping Church Guidebook (Book)
Sue Mallory, Brad Smith, Authors. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001.

This guidebook accompanies Sue Mallory’s book, The Equipping Church, and provides extensive detail on both developing a church culture and implementing a system for lay ministry in the local church and community. Part 1 describes how to develop a church vision and culture ripe for implementing lay ministry. Part 2 provides the steps for building an equipping ministry system—preparing, connecting, and equipping people for service. Within the text are lists of ideas, tables, and charts for teaching tools, as well as forms and job descriptions to adapt. This book would be useful for church staff, lay leaders, seminarians, and teachers of lay ministry.
 

The Equipping Pastor: A Systems Approach to Congregational Leadership (Book)
R. Paul Stevens, Phil Collins, Authors. Bethesda, MD: The Alban Institute, 1993.

Drawing on systems theory, covenant relationships, and Biblical references, the authors present a model through which clergy can move congregations from focusing on self-preservation to fulfilling their ministry as Christian ambassadors. Shifting the focus from equipping individuals to equipping the whole church, they affirm the importance of interdependence among church members and explore various dysfunctional relationships that work against interdependence. Visionary servant leaders must recognize that their authority ultimately rests in God and that they can only effectively fulfill their calling through a life of prayer. Leaders must also affirm that ministry is not what we do with “extra time,” but what we do with all of life.
 

Letting Go: Transforming Congregations for Ministry (Book)
Roy D. Phillips, Author. Bethesda, MD: The Alban Institute, 1999.

This guide offers a process for moving congregations from a maintenance mindset and likely obsolescence to an attitude of embracing and guiding change. Four major shifts in pastoral and congregational outlook are involved: from membership to ministry; from entitlement to mission; from education to spiritual development; and from toleration to engagement. Drawing on process theology and current writing on organizational change, Unitarian pastor Roy Phillips outlines the implications of "letting go." Each major chapter addresses one of the four shifts. In between are sections for personal meditation and assessment. Questions in the margins invite further writer-reader interaction, a practical feature for individuals and groups.
 

Making God Real for a New Generation: Ministry with Millennials Born from 1982 to 1999 (Book)
Craig Kennet Miller, Mary Jane Pierce Norton, Authors. Nashville, TN: Discipleship Resources, 2003.

This overview of ministry with youth explores the world of millennials (people born between 1982 and 1999) and addresses the challenges these young people face. Three primary sections focus on their family lives, day-to-day experiences, and spirituality. A fourth section focuses on ministry with millenials. Personal narratives, exercises, and suggestions for working with congregations are offered. One notable feature is the "Millennial Generation Survey, 2002" from the General Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Youth Organization. Also featured are resources for further exploration, including books and Web sites. Leaders seeking to understand this group more fully and involve them in congregational life more deeply will benefit from this resource.
 

Our Gifts: Identifying and Developing Leaders (Book)
David P. Mayer, Author. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2002.

The author provides a simple and practical, yet theologically rich, guide for equipping all of God's people as disciple leaders. Chapters on spiritual growth, gifts discovery, mobilizing for ministry, leadership recruitment and development, and leadership styles are coupled with assessment tools to provide a process for self-discovery and growth in congregational leadership. Biblical reflection and real-life illustrations offer a framework for study and action. This book is designed for use in the congregational setting, but the tools and practical information can serve any disciple leader concerned with the life and health of congregations today.
 

The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts (Book)
Luther K. Snow, Author. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2002.

Luther Snow shows congregations a way to identify their assets and to see the power of those assets. The Power of Asset Mapping is divided into three parts. In Part 1, Snow presents a "quick and simple" exercise in asset mapping for a congregation. Part 2 details the "how" of asset mapping and walks the potential leader through the steps of the process. Part 3 provides a theoretical basis, exploring how asset mapping reinforces positive cycles in the congregation and presenting "frequently shared lessons" from congregations who have used asset mapping. This book describes a process that could serve as the positive foundation for a church to move forward.
 

Practicing Our Faith (Web Resource)
Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People of Faith

One of the greatest challenges Christian leaders and educators face today is helping people to bridge the gap between Christian practices and the "fast-paced-drive-through" life we live today. The "Practicing Our Faith" Web site, sponsored by the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, helps people connect eternal truths to temporary times. Modeled on teachings in a book by the same name, the twelve practices include hospitality, forgiveness, and keeping Sabbath. Each practice is further explored—through relevant quotes and scriptures, reflective discussion questions, sermons, worship materials, resource lists, and suggestions for ways to apply a practice in everyday life.
 

Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People (Book)
Dorothy C. Bass, Editor. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

This book examines twelve central Christian practices that, woven together, form a way of life grounded in faithfulness and integrity. Editor Dorothy Bass explains how these practices are shared activities addressing fundamental human needs. The book's contributors, from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, explore the practices: honoring the body, hospitality, household economics, saying yes and saying no, keeping Sabbath, testimony, discernment, shaping communities, forgiveness, healing, dying well, and singing our lives. They place each practice in its historical and biblical context, reexamine its relevance to our times, and show how it gives depth and meaning to daily life.
 

Sharing the Ministry: A Practical Guide for Transforming Volunteers into Ministers (Book)
Jean M. Trumbauer, Author. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1999.

Jean Trumbauer presents a new paradigm of volunteer ministry based on the assumptions that each person is uniquely gifted for ministry, that church ministry is shared, and that staff and lay leaders are to help identify, develop, use, and support the gifts of all members. After explaining the shared ministry systems model, Trumbauer explores the model’s processes: planning, discovering gifts, designing, recruiting, interviewing, matching, training, supervising, supporting, evaluating, and managing data. With reflection exercises, sample models, and further resources listed in each chapter, the manual can be used in learning designs for a variety of workshops, sessions, and meetings. Readers may also purchase "personal reflection guides" that facilitate gifts discernment.
 

Why You Can’t Be Anything You Want to Be (Book)
Arthur F. Miller, William Hendricks, Authors. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999.

"We cannot be anything we want to be," say Arthur Miller and William Hendricks. And yet, to be fulfilled in our lives and vocations, we must strive to discover our innate gifts and those things that motivate us. The authors theorize that everyone is endowed at birth with a distinctive blueprint of competencies. They describe how understanding one's motivated abilities pattern (MAP) can lead to realizing one's special giftedness and discovering a purposeful and satisfying calling. This book helps church leaders focus on their unique contributions and encourages them to recruit volunteers for ministries, within and beyond the congregation, on the basis of giftedness for particular tasks.