Spiritual Community ~ Facilitating Becoming
- Spiritual community at Common Ground functions as an organized whole; a system in which various parts fit together and reinforce each other. The focal point of this system is a spiritual community of gifted persons; each with a unique gift package of interests, motivations, experiences, dreams, needs, talents, strengths and weaknesses, and much more.
- What happens to us as we come together to serve in spiritual community is as important as what we accomplish.Spiritual community is an opportunity to facilitate one another’s becoming as we grow and are transformed.
Everything Connected
- At Common Ground everything is connected and mutually supportive. Each part is vital and can only be understood as a ‘function of the dynamics of the whole’, which is greater than the sum of individual parts. The gifts of individuals interact and compliment each other in unique ways. Effective activity in one area impacts every other component and reveals the unique character of the entire spiritual community.
Team Ministry System Design
- Common Ground gives careful thought and planning to its Team Ministry System design. Planning is intended to provide choices, to respond to emerging trends in lifestyle and spiritual community, to be creative and original in response to individual and community needs, to be diverse enough to offer a variety of opportunities that appeal to differing motivations and gifts, to be inclusive, and to build broad participation.
Invitation to Respond
- Coming together in spiritual community is a practice, not just a matter of a declaration of loyalty. Serving in spiritual community is not an ‘ought to’ or ‘have to’ or ‘should’. It is not a commitment someone else can make for us. It is an opportunity to respond to an invitation that encourages a free response to bring forth our unique and special spiritual gifts. Serving spiritual community at Common Ground offers an opportunity for people to discover their gifts, to make choices about how to use their gifts, and to be aware of their gifts as being about both being as well as doing.
Matching Process
- The intention of Team Ministry at Common Ground is to value and encourage participation built around the needs and gifts of individuals in the spiritual community. An effort is made to divide service opportunities into flexible enriching positions in which individuals contribute time, creativity and gifts according to their personal schedules, needs and motivations. Positions involve a balanced range of responsibilities and skills requiring a variety of commitment, time and energy. Many positions are self-selecting allowing people to come forward and offer their own gifts. A few are by invitation and include interviewing and screening processes, such as working with children, finances and secure data.
Personal Energy
- Each person has a unique reason for becoming involved in service to spiritual community. Motivations vary, change with time, and contribute to personal growth and transformation. Needs shift with age, life experience, and life transitions. Serving in spiritual community at Common Ground offers an opportunity to shift involvement when life circumstances change. Those serving are encouraged to be mindful of their own energy and alert to the experiences that are replenishing for their own soul’s journey
