Ministries
Join a team to serve God. Many opportunities exist – or start a new team based on your passion and God’s leading.
Ministry at Lake Ridge Baptist
At Lake Ridge Baptist Church we use a bottom-up ministry model to allow the focus to be on ministry more than administration. This model is designed to encourage and enable individuals and teams who have a passion for a particular ministry area.
The LRBC 2020 Vision identifies three pillars for ministry at Lake Ridge Baptist Church. They work together as three parts of an ever-expanding circle. Pillars are not designed to oversee ministries but rather to support ministries.
The Pillars
WELCOMING In
The Welcoming In Pillar is primarily focused on relationships: with God, with each other, and with our neighbors.
BUILDING UP
The Building Up Pillar deals with steps to make each of us a more mature and productive disciple – Christian growth.
REACHING OUT
The Reaching Out Pillar addresses our responsibility to introduce others to Christ.
NexGen Ministries
Transforming lives of the next generation of believers.
LRBC Ministries
This list gives you an idea of some of the more major ministries of the church. If you have a passion for a particular ministry that you don’t see listed or an idea for a new ministry you would like to introduce, please use the form at the bottom of this page.
Family Life Ministries
Welcoming In Ministries
Building Up Ministries
Ministry FAQ
In a bottom-up ministry, individual teams are formed and driven by the God-given passion of the team members to do something special for God’s Kingdom. Enthusiasm and commitment are abundant, their enthusiasm is infectious, and the hand of God is revealed to the people of God. People are in the ministry they are called to and the church is, by definition, only doing those things where God is one the move.
Top-down ministry is not the pattern in the New Testament. In a top-down ministry model, a handful of people are responsible for coming up with most of the ideas, then they pray they can locate the handful of people they can either get excited or else coerce into making the ministry come into existence. Short-handedness and lack of enthusiasm exhaust faithful Christians.
Pillar Teams work to ensure that as a church we achieve that particular pillar and accomplish the agreed upon initiatives for that pillar. They do this through prayer; by identifying and prioritizing goals for their pillar; by identifying ministry teams that need a champion; by reviewing, encouraging, refining and coordinating the activities of the various ministry teams responsible for the hard work of ministry; and by collaborating with the other pillar teams, the Administration Team, and the Vision Coordination Team.
It’s easy to get confused between Welcoming In Pillar’s fourth initiative to: ‘Be the light of Christ by actively and sacrificially loving and caring for our neighbors’ and the Reaching Out Pillar’s third initiative to: ‘Provide targeted outreaches that meet the needs of our neighborhood in a manner that fosters the development of relationships in a loving Christ-like manner.’
Both pillars deal with needs, with loving and caring for people, and with genuinely showing them the love of Jesus Christ. The question then becomes “where does the ministry fit?”
- If the ministry is primarily focused on demonstrating the love of Christ for our neighbors, or ministering to the ‘least of these’ in our community in a manner that glorifies God but is unlikely to form the sort of relationship which will include the sharing of the gospel, then the ministry is part of Welcoming In.
- If the ministry either seeks to develop relationships in which you will naturally (or eventually be able to) share the gospel as you demonstrate God’s love, or it supports such a ministry (e.g. supporting missionaries in the field) then the ministry belongs in Reaching Out.
The Pillars are very closely related and often a particular ministry will have some aspects that fit under more than one pillar. However, the ministry should have a primary purpose and that primary purpose helps to identify the appropriate pillar. So ministries will be classified based on the primary purpose of the ministry.
In some cases, a ministry may be divided into separate activities, which may (or may not) be aligned with different Pillars as appropriate.
We’re excited to hear what God has laid on your heart! We’d encourage you to follow these steps:
- Begin by talking with a few others in the church to see if you’ve got the core of a new ministry team.
- Prayerfully determine the driving purpose for this ministry – is it primarily Welcoming In (Welcoming God’s presence, welcoming newcomers, welcoming one another into our lives, or introducing others to God’s love)? Is it mainly about Building Up (making us more complete disciples of Jesus Christ)? Is it mainly about Reaching Out to those who don’t yet know Jesus Christ, serving them, loving them and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ?
- Take your idea to the most appropriate Pillar Implementation Team meeting to share, refine, pray and plan the next steps. That team will help you with getting the word out in the church and in the community, help you solicit support and if resources (money, building, or personnel) are involved, they will help you coordinate those things with the responsible people.
No, because we want you to focus your energy and passion on ministry. However, you should be on your Pillar Team’s mailing list and periodically communicate with one of the Pillar Co-Leaders so they know how to best support and pray for your team. When you need additional resources (people or money) or want to start something very different, you should coordinate with your Pillar Team, which may include attending a meeting.