A short word about how we hope you will find your place among us — not just attending Sunday services but knowing where the Lord has wired you to serve, finding the rhythms of relationship that go with that, and walking under the pastoral care of an Elder or Deacon who knows you by name.
Start with the Gifts and Calling course. We strongly encourage every Saint walking with us to go through our Gifts and Calling course. The course helps you discern the spiritual gifts the Lord has given you, the calling He has placed on your life, and the area of ministry in our body where those gifts and that calling fit most naturally. We run the course often enough that any Saint who is ready can step into one within a few months — and if the timing does not suit, an Elder will walk you through the substance personally. Going through the course is the single most important thing you can do to find where you fit.
Once you know where you serve, you naturally also know who oversees you. Each ministry team in our body is overseen by an Elder, or by a Deacon walking under Eldership oversight. The Elder or Deacon knows the team, walks with them pastorally, and provides the spiritual covering for their service. A Saint serving in the kids ministry is naturally pastorally cared for by the Elder overseeing kids ministry. A Saint serving in the op shop is naturally cared for by the Elder overseeing the op shop. A Saint on the worship team has the Elder overseeing worship as their pastoral Elder. And so on through every team in the body.
And once you know who oversees you, you usually find who you fellowship with. The teams in our body naturally become fellowship groups. The kids ministry team meets for Bible study mid-week. The worship team prays together before each Sunday. The op shop team shares meals together. The team running the local mission gathers for prayer together. The Acts 2 picture of the early church — devoted to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, breaking bread together, having everything in common — is most often realised, in our practice, through the relationships that grow inside ministry teams over time.
This is the deep-fellowship pattern, and it is what we encourage. A Saint who serves together with a group and does life together with them — Bible study, prayer, mutual care, shared meals — experiences the body of Christ in a way that simply attending Sunday services cannot deliver. The relationships go deep because the opportunities for connection are abundant. The opposite happens when fellowship is thin — knowing many slightly, knowing few deeply. We encourage the deep pattern. This is not strictly required. We honour Saints who serve in one place and fellowship in another. We honour particular circumstances that mean the natural pattern does not apply. But what we have seen is that the Lord most often places Saints to serve together where He has also placed them to walk together.
Each year we reassess together. In our annual planning workshops we invite every Saint to reflect on whether they are still where the Lord has them — still in the right team, still in the right fellowship. Some Saints find the same answer year after year and stay happily where they are. Others find the Lord moving them toward something new. Both are normal. The annual rhythm gives a natural moment for this discernment, and the Eldership uses it to review who walks with whom and where any gaps in our pastoral care have appeared.
Change is also possible at any time. If you sense the Lord moving you to a different area of ministry, or out of one team and into another, or into a different fellowship group, talk to your Elder. The conversation will be covered in prayer. Your Elder will weigh what you are hearing. If confirmation comes, we will walk through the change together. Change is never pressured. Change is never penalised. There is no prejudice attached to a Saint moving from one area to another — no sense that you are abandoning a team, betraying an Elder, or stepping out of favour. The Lord moves Saints around the body for many reasons, often invisible to us in the moment. We honour His leading.
One more thing — our Elders, Deacons, and Five-Fold ministers are all Members. The reason is straightforward. Those leading and overseeing the body must walk under the body authority, vote on the body legal decisions, and carry the formal commitment that the office requires. It would not make sense for an Elder to oversee the body life without carrying the formal commitment to it through Membership. So when a Saint is called to office in our body, they are first called to Membership. Membership is the foundation. Office is built on it.