Introduction-The Importance of Developing Your Primary Area Gift Stream (PAGS)
In this complex world it takes more than the right hand of fellowship to get members actively participating in ministry. It takes more than good preaching. It takes the senior leaders, ministry leaders and members in the pews working together in the right place. How you develop your primary area gift stream in the Ministry Placement and Mobilization Program is too frequently left to chance.
Most ministries provide members with various opportunities to get involved, hoping that one of them will spark an interest and fan the flame into passionate service. This is the goal. However, as you learned in the book, Chosen Appointed & Planted©, 53% of church goers are not passionate about what they do, many of whom are inactive. Most members don’t feel committed, passionate or excited about their work or ministry assignment— yet it is the hope of senior leaders that everyone gets involved doing work that impacts others for Christ.
Don’t think the lack of involvement is limited to your small or medium churches. According to a recent study by The Hartford Institute for Religion Research (2009), forty-five percent (45%) of members in mega churches do not volunteer for anything. They attend primarily for the worship style, church reputation or the senior pastors.
What Can Be Done?
Developing and expressing your PAGS™ is one of the ways to experience personal fulfillment, spiritual empowerment and impact your world for Christ. The journey to fulfillment does require you to risk doing something you may have thought about, but never followed through on. It involves moving beyond your comfort zone and examining what’s really resonating on the inside of you. It comes down to knowledge of and faith in how God designed you to express Him in the earth.
Uncovering what has been hidden, buried or ignored in an environment and community that is safe can be positive. It also encourages you to stretch beyond where you have been before. The discovery and development of your primary area gift stream will help you understand where you get your greatest pleasure and what keeps you moving forward regardless of the obstacles and challenges that will come along the way. It is also the first step to uncover your right place by zeroing in on where to start looking for your right (life) assignment.
There are only 5 places to look for any assignment in work or ministry. I call them your Primary Area Gift Streams(c), or PAGS(c). The 5 streams are: Producer Projector Publisher Protector and Potter.