Today we continue our exploration of Equipping Ministry. For those of you who were not here last week, Trinity Presbyterian Church is embarking on a new emphasis in our ministry, an emphasis called equipping. This emphasis has been embraced by the Session and will be explored in sermons, adult education classes, informal dinners, and other places as well.

This morning we get to the heart of the matter-we will consider the term "equipping" itself. But before we get into definitions and scripture passages, I want to share two stories about equipping. One of the stories has all the look and feel of equipping but is not an example of equipping, and the other one doesn't much look like equipping, but it is.

Story number one: Back when I used to watch broadcast TV (a practice I mostly ended seven years ago), one of my favorite shows was The New Yankee Workshop on public television. The New Yankee Workshop is a woodworking program hosted by the kindly Norm Abrams. Over the course of a half hour, Norm would patiently show us how to turn wood salvaged from an antique barn into a Shaker style table with a lazy Susan in the center. Or he would make playhouse for his kids that put my own house to shame. When it would come time for Norm to work his magic on what for me would be an unyielding pile of lumber, he would say, "Now I could use my $5 coping saw to make this cut, but I decided to use my laser-sighted, diamond tipped, double reversing power band saw, and I think you'll agree, it did a nice job." When I would watch this show I would fantasize that I was being prepared (being equipped if you will) to make the beautiful furniture that Norm was making. I would imagine myself going to the lumber yard and finding walnut, or cherry, or oak with exquisite grain from which I, with my Ultra 2000 carbide enhanced, triple cutting, power joiner, could coax it natural luster. But alas, not only did I not have those tools; I couldn't even find my $5 coping saw. As it turned out, I never made one of Norm's creations-never even started. For as it turned out, I did not watch the New Yankee Workshop to be equipped to build my own furniture; I watch the show to be entertained. It was pure escapism for me-with the added bonus of feeling like I learned something that someday I could actually put to use. I had the feeling of being equipped without actually being readied to do anything. I suspect that this is the experience of most people who watch the New Yankee Workshop. I know there are some that watch Norm religiously and then go out and make that roll-top desk or that early colonial entertainment center-I think those were called bookshelves! But there aren't enough serious woodworkers in the world to cater to with an entire show, let alone keep it on for years-and Norm is still on. This is the case with most how-to shows on television-they feel educational, we have the sensation of being equipped, but really they are entertainment. We watch them because we enjoy the personalities (remember the Galloping Gourmet? I used to watch him long before I ever started cooking-he was an absolute hoot!); we watch them because we like to imagine that we, too, could match their culinary or woodworking or sewing prowess; and we watch them because we know that if we were to attempt any of these things, we would need to be equipped-and here is our chance.

Story number two: this story comes from the book The Equipping Church by Sue Mallory. Sue Mallory was a member of the Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and 20 years ago she was hired as her church's first Director of Equipping Ministry. This book is the story of how her church launched its equipping emphasis. In the book, Sue Mallory tells the story of Jim Martin. When Sue started her equipping work at Brentwood, Jim was not a member. He was a local man who constantly wore a bicycle helmet because he was afflicted with epilepsy-and he used to ride his bike past the church on Sunday mornings. Because this church is in Southern California, members often gather in a patio that is by the street. And one member of the church noticed, Jim riding up and down past the church. One day this man, who no doubt had been equipped to extend hospitality and to share his faith, stepped out of the patio and invited Jim to have some lemonade. Jim took him up on the offer. In addition, he invited Jim to start worshipping with them (an invitation he readily accepted). Next, the man introduced Jim to Sue Mallory, whose job as Director of Equipping Ministry meant that she was the one who helped new members get meaningfully involved in the life of the church. Over the weeks, Jim started asking more and more questions about the church. Finally, he said he wanted to sing in the choir. This took everyone aback because Jim wore a bicycle helmet and no one knew if he could sing-the medication he took gave him a halting speech pattern. But the church knew that it existed to help people find meaningful service, so they agreed, and Jim became a faithful member of the choir. A few months later, Jim was talking with Sue Mallory and announced, "I want to be a leader." Sue confesses that she had never thought of Jim in a position of leadership-she couldn't see past his bicycle helmet. But hers was an equipping church and her calling was to equip people for ministry, so she took his request seriously. She asked what he loved to do and what he would like to lead. He said cooking and woodworking. At this very time, the church was planning to go on a mission trip to Mexico, but because of his medical condition, traveling was out of the question. So Sue suggested that he bake some treats for participants-nothing ended a hard day of work like a couple of homemade cookies. On the day of their departure, Jim showed up with 100 dozen chocolate chip cooking. His cookies became a regular feature of Brentwood events. In addition, he was able to use his woodworking skills to help construct a temporary worship space when the Sanctuary was being refurbished. Later on he became a Deacon and even became the chair of the ride committee (the group that got elderly members to church) even though he couldn't drive (as Sue Mallory said he was the perfect chair for that committee because he would never be tempted to do everything himself-he would have to equip others!). At each step, Jim was trained when needed and given the support to succeed-and he did succeed and he touched countless lives. When Jim died a few years later, the church was packed to overflowing with members. And when his life insurance was processed, it was discovered that he had made the church-the church that equipped-his beneficiary. Jim had skills and passions-and his church, his equipping church, helped him discover those skills and passions and use them for God's glory and to change the world.

Two stories-two very different stories-one about the appearance of equipping-the other actually equipping.

Now the first question that may have occurred to you when you heard about this new emphasis in our ministry is, "Why equipping? Where did that word come from and why are we using it?" The word, as it turns out, is not some new-fangled made up word that some church consultant came up with after months or years of test-marketing. Rather, the word "equipping" or "equip", as you have already heard this morning, comes from the Bible, from the fourth chapter of Ephesians. The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Let's just stop here a minute and better understand what the Apostle Paul is saying: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. What Paul is saying is that everyone one of us (he calls us "the saints") are called to the work of ministry. Pastors, teachers, evangelists and apostles have a ministry-but they are not the only ministers. We are all ministers and those first servants are called to equip the rest of us. For Paul, this is the point of the church-for everyone to be in ministry. But Paul knew that even though we are called to ministry, not all of us know what that calling is, not all of us know how to pursue that call, not all of us know how to activate our gifts for ministry. For that reason, Paul says, God has appointed certain people, pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now the word "equip" may sound a bit odd, but think about it-when we equip someone it doesn't mean we are starting from a blank slate; we are not teaching brand new skills, like a kindergarten teacher teaching her children to read. Equipping is what we do to help people succeed with the gifts that they already have, giving people the tools and the training they need to use their gifts. In our story from Brentwood Presbyterian Church, Jim already had the gift of hospitality and the skill of baking cookies. What he needed was encouragement to use them, and a place to use them where he could make a difference. Think about a choir as well. Most choirs are made up of people who know how to sing. What they need is to be equipped (which involved picking out music, rehearsing the music, helping the choristers to embody the message of the music, helping them sing as an ensemble) so that their gifts can be a blessing to others.

So how, you may ask, is this any different from what we are already doing? Why all this talk of a new emphasis? Don't we already emphasize equipping? Well, yes and no. Yes, we have some significant places where equipping is going on at Trinity. I have already mentioned the choir-it is a prime location of equipping. The Food Pantry has a strong equipping component. When a member volunteers to help out, Sandy Norkaitis trains people to use their gifts to effectively feed the hungry in our area. We train and equip Sunday School teachers. New officers take the DNA which has an equipping component in it. But while we have many places where we are equipping people, there is so much more we can be doing. Equipping is not only a training program, it repositions our starting point of ministry away from our structure to the saints. Let me explain: God has called us all to ministry according our spiritual gifts. Sometimes those gifts find great expression in our current structure-we have many faithful and creative servants leading this church in our various committees and boards. But often, our gifts do not have a natural fit with our structure; and all of us know the experience of being burned out when we are simply filling a slot. An equipping emphasis starts where Sue Mallory started with Jim Martin-what are you good at? What are your passions? What are your gifts? When Jim said he wanted to be a leader, Sue Mallory's mind may have flashed to the empty chair of the finance committee or that last elder that the Nominating Committee needed to identify prior to the congregational meeting. But instead she asked him, "what has God put on your heart?" And Jim shared his passion, and new cookie-baking ministry was launched, and people were blessed.

So helping people discover their own particular calling is one feature of an equipping ministry emphasis. The other feature is connecting. When Jim discovered his cookie baking ministry, he needed to know where his talents could make a difference. Baking one hundred dozen cookies is way too much work if no one is going to enjoy them; but when they will sustain and gladden fellow members on a mission trip (a mission trip that Jim would have dearly loved to go on), I imagine the time for Jim flew by. Jim had to be connected to Sue and to the mission trip for his ministry to make sense. But other connections are often needed for successful ministry: we need to find other people with a similar passion. If Jim had wanted to make cookies for other mission trip groups in his Presbytery (or say, if after a natural disaster he had wanted to start a caf that served, oh, I don't know, red beans and rice), he would have needed to find others with a heart for that ministry. They would have needed resources, perhaps some training and ongoing encouragement. Again, that is what an equipping ministry does. And we do do that here at Trinity, but in an equipping church, that is an expectation that all of the saints carry with them at all times. An equipping ministry makes real the Apostle Paul's affirmation, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Yes, God gives us the gifts and the faith and the strength. And the church then equips us to we can use those gifts and that faith and that strength effectively.

In my mind I have built many useful and beautiful pieces of furniture. I have converted my garage into a woodshop and even though I don't have a staff of junior carpenters who do much of my prep work, I complete those projects in about 30 minutes-in my mind. I love the New Yankee Workshop because it allows me to imagine that I am the woodworker that I know I will never be. The show entertains me, delights me, but it does not equip me. The church, however, is not the New Yankee Workshop. We are an equipping community where each of us can identify the gifts that God has given each one of us, where it equips us by training us and connecting us with others who share our passion and our calling, where we are encouraged and prayed for so we can bring God's love to all people and literally, quite literally change the world.