Gateway Church :: Membership and Volunteering

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, when we moved to Texas, we knew it was where God wanted us to be. Similarly, when we started attending Gateway Church, where my brother and sister-in-law both worked, we felt at home there. We actually didn't do any "church shopping" at all because we felt like God was telling us, "This is it; this is where I want you to be. Stay at Gateway."

Gateway is not what we're used to...at all. (I'd like to write all about the size, the children's ministry, the worship, etc., but that will have to wait for another post.) But from everything we've learned about this church, it is absolutely right where we need to be. We did our homework right from the beginning. We researched the website, and at our first opportunity, attended the first of the three membership classes, which are more like seminars, called Catch the Vision.

I'm going to be really, really descriptive for this part, just because Gateway is such a different church than we've ever attended, and we'd like to dispel any rumors or apprehension any of our family and friends might have after hearing about our involvement with this new church. That being said, if you could care less, please feel free to skip to the end to read about how I'm going to be getting involved by volunteering starting in September, hopefully.

Catch the Vision
This first class was more like a seminar, a totally low-key, informational format that allowed you to make your decision on whether to become a member either immediately or later, at your leisure. I loved that there was no pressure. We watched a video about the history of the church, and it was really awesome to see how they followed God's direction at every turn. I was especially pleased to discover the church was born out of God leading our pastor to start a church rather than a group that started after breaking away from another church after a conflict. The class provided a workbook full of information including the history, vision, mission, statement of faith, and position papers (which could also be seen as their doctrine). I eagerly read it all. We prayerfully considered our decision and became members after attending for less than a month!

The Journey
The second class, called the Journey, is a lot like a class I took in college called Core 300. It focused on your personal spiritual walk, and it explained a lot of basic theology about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It was a good refresher for us and confirmed again that Gateway teaches what we already believe doctrinally. There was one topic, having to do with the Holy Spirit, that was and still is a struggle for me, but in a good way. Having grown up in the church and having attended a Christian university, it is easy for me to get comfortable that I already know everything I need to know about what I believe. It's foolish to think I know everything there is to know, as I could go my whole lifetime learning and still barely scratch the surface, so I like that there are a few areas, especially, that have come to my attention in this class where I have room to grow.

Discovery
The third class, called Discovery, was also a lot like a class I took in college combined with a seminar I took in college. The first was a required course called Core 400, and the seminar, called Discovering My Design, was a several-day workshop offered to sophomores. I love personality tests and learning more about who I am and how people interact with each other. It fascinates me. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this class with much excitement. Catch the Vision had emphasized the need to get plugged in to a group, a necessity in such a large church, as well as getting involved as a volunteer. I've always believed it is important to minister and to get ministered to equally. Discovery is Gateway's way of helping you get to know yourself better in order to find the best place for you to serve...and to actually enjoy every second of it, rather than doing it out of obligation. I love this concept!

Most of the workbook could not be completed in class as there was just not enough time to cover it all, so I worked on most of it at home. The finished results were to be applied to the Servant Profile. The sections covered were:
1. Life Experiences, where you were given the opportunity to write about experiences you had whether it was something difficult, relational, achievement-related, or ministry-related that might impact where you might choose to serve. One example I used was achieving my art degree, and how I wanted to use my creative skills in some fashion in ministry.
2. Passion and Interests, where you could describe the things that you most enjoyed doing, and my examples included working with kids.
3. Personality, in which I took a version of the DISC test which is also compatible with the Gary Smalley Personality Types: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, and Beaver. I scored exactly how I expected: S (Golden Retriever), with an ability to pull out the I (Otter) or C (Beaver) when necessary.
4. Spiritual Gifts. A questionnaire almost identical to one I took in Core 400 in college which helped you know which God-given gifts you had, which for me included Craftsmanship (creativity), Exhortation (encouragement), and Helps/Service/Hospitality (assisting others, serving others, and making others feel comfortable).
5. Strengths/Abilities/Skills. This section dealt with your natural strengths. If you are familiar with the Strength Finder test, that is basically what this was. I scored high on Input (collecting, archiving, and traveling to learn more), Learner (enjoying learning more on a variety of topics), Relator (wanting to know a few people closely), Context (fascinated with learning from the past), and Arranger (organizing complex things).

[If you've skipped to the end, start HERE.]

After completing the Servant Profile, I was connected with someone, called a Ministry Placement Coach, whose job (as a volunteer herself) is to help others find their perfect place to volunteer. I just met with my coach for the first time today after church, and I have to say I'm so excited to get involved. She explained a few ideas where she thought I might be a good fit. She told me about the Event Administration volunteers who help to decorate for events. I'm sure my face lit up when she described it, and I told her that sounded really fun. If you've ever been to Gateway for any event, you know they go all out making it a fun environment for those in attendance. I love decorating, and I'm really excited to get to do this. I'll also probably begin working in Gateway's Amazing Kids, the kids' ministry, which has a more involved application and interview process in order to help keep the kids safe in such a large church. Ideally if I pass that process, I'll begin helping with the kids groups or in the nursery on the weekends.

After meeting with my coach, I don't have to do anything else until the ministries contact me. I love that Gateway has the volunteer ministry organized so well and that it is set up so that I have a contact person. Once I start volunteering, if I'm unhappy with my placement, all I have to do is contact my coach and she'll move me. That simplifies it a lot, and makes it a lot less awkward. (There's no going to a leader of a ministry and trying to come up with excuses for why you don't want to volunteer with them anymore.)

So that's what I have to look forward to in the next few weeks...getting involved. We're also going to get involved in a group, which I will explain more about in another post when I have more information.