Community of Gifts is a resource created from a Brethren perspective to support congregations in a process of personal and community discernment.
When the individuals within the congregation identify their gifts and abilities, and have them affirmed within the shared life of the community, the congregation flourishes. This tool, then, is designed to begin the process of discovering and affirming how each person contributes to the ministry and mission of the church.
Through the Ethics for Congregations paper we as the Church of the Brethren strive to accompany communities of believers as they become aware of relationships within and around them. The paper helps communities assess their actions, and hold themselves accountable for their actions as Christ’s body in the world. For it is in our heritage as a Believers’ Church tradition to live as authentically as possible, matching our words and deeds each day.
In the earliest pages of the New Testament, Jesus invited others to follow him and become his disciples. In the days after the resurrection, he then directed his own disciples to go into the world and make more disciples.
With the adoption of the Compelling Vision by the Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren we have called ourselves back to Jesus commissioning—to call and equip disciples.
Using the metaphor of Learning to Wash Feet, these videos and guides help lay a foundation for this discipling culture by providing a common definition of discipleship.