Mike Slayden, like many other directors of equipping, gets asked this question often: “Equipped for what?” Some churches are even beginning to steer away from the word equipping, using words like empowerment, ministry, service, and volunteering instead. Mike says that people aren’t as confused by the word as they are by what they are supposed to do and be once they are equipped.

Oftentimes, Ephesians 4:13, “…until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ,” is viewed in general terms, rather than through our congregation’s specific theology and practices. Mike’s church, The Well Community Church in Fresno, California, interprets the verse to mean that every person should have a personal goal of spiritual maturity, and the church should help him or her reach that goal. Leaders of The Well Community Church identified seven defining characteristics of what a fully devoted follower of Christ looks like in their congregation. They aligned programs, schedules, staffing, training, and evaluative measures for everything the church does with these seven characteristics. When people at The Well talk about equipping, it is about helping individuals and families to meet one of the specific characteristics, such as developing healthy families, or becoming socially responsible. Maturity-based equipping looks different because it is not focused solely on providing skills and competencies. It is focused on helping people grow in spiritual maturity, developing characteristics that can be easily transferred from church to home, business, community, and school.

It’s not unusual for church staff to develop programs and activities that they hope the congregation will support with their time and money, only to be disappointed when that doesn’t happen. The problem could be that the program or activity has not been connected to the spiritual development of the people in the congregation. We assume that our congregations will understand the implicit and unspoken spiritual development goals behind our programs. But often we have so many activities happening simultaneously, or programs happening year after year with little variation, that our congregants can miss the spiritual development purposes in some of our most cherished programs. Focusing on the spiritual why instead of the logistical what is sometimes necessary to communicate clearly our actual equipping goals.

So, what does a church do if the congregation is asking, “Equipped for what?”  Here are a few steps recommended by the leadership at The Well Community Church:

• Work with your leadership to develop a profile of a fully devoted follower of Christ serving in the life of your congregation. Is this person faithful in giving? Is this person active in a small group? Does this person have a balanced family life? Is this person seeking to be socially responsible? For every church and tradition, the list may be different, but what is important is to identify the profile.

• When your profile is identified, plan your activities, programs, staffing, and evaluation around the characteristics in the profile. Why do you have vacation Bible school? If the answer is “Because we’ve always had it,” re-evaluate your programming, and work to align your activities, even vacation Bible school, with your goals.

• Communicate this spiritually mature profile and its characteristics churchwide. Do it often, in each program and activity. When the Well Community Church recently held a neighborhood service day, it was widely communicated that this was an effort to help each congregant become more socially responsible and not simply a good thing to do or a pleasant volunteer outing. The focus was on the value and goal of the activity, not the activity itself.

• Character-based equipping should become a natural part of providing feedback, doing program evaluations, prompting reflection and planning. In order to measure success with each person, ask how the equipping process helped the person to become more aligned with one of the values identified in the profile. Find out if your volunteers feel they are maturing spiritually.

Remember that there are many activities and interests in a person’s life, many of them outside of church, that will contribute to a person’s spiritual maturity. A holistic equipping ministry will take the time to engage every person to determine where he or she is on the maturity path, and how the church can support the person in his or her growth. We can’t say it enough—equipping is not about getting things done, it’s about growing people in their faith.  

As with any significant change, this will take time, and should take time. It will be time well-spent when your church leadership has a ready answer to the question “Equipped for what?”

The Well Community Church - Seven Goals for Spiritual Maturity

• Your life is biblically measured.
• You are passionately committed to Christ.
• You strive to have a healthy family.
• You are morally pure.
• You are evangelistically faithful.
• You are a good steward.
• You are socially responsible.   

“Thank you for the wide variety of issues you cover. I always learn something, or am reminded of something, that's pertinent to my situation. ”

— Katie Peken,
     Carlton, Victoria,
     Australia