Looking Forward with Your MAP w/ Hector and Juan Carlos Barrero

11/20/24 • 27 min

GC Podcast | Grace Communion International Resources

Looking Forward with Your MAP w/ Hector and Juan Carlos Barrero

Cara: Welcome to GC Podcast, a podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience. Hello friends, and welcome to this episode of GC podcast. This podcast is devoted to exploring best ministry practices in the context of Grace Communion International churches.

I’m your host Cara Garrity. And today we are wrapping up our series on processes and practices of discernment, strategic planning, and ministry action plan. So, for the final time this year, let’s welcome back Pastor Hector. And Wonka, who helped us with this series from the start of the year all the way to wrapping it up at the end of this year.

Thank you both, Hector and Juanca, for joining us for this entire series.

[00:00:56] Hector: Thank you to you, Cara.

[00:00:58] Cara: No, thank you. Your insights have been invaluable to us. So, like I said, this is going to be our last episode for this series that you guys have shared with us from the start of the year to the beginning of the year, your journey of using a ministry action plan.

And at the end of the year, one of the things we do is look forward to what’s happening next year. The end of the year is usually, in that last quarter, that time where we’re putting together our Ministry Action Plans for the coming year.

And I would love to learn from you all. What are you guys going to do differently this year as you develop your ministry action plan?

[00:01:40] Juanca: Yes, Cara, definitely. Listening more, to have active listening. Sometimes as leaders, we have a very grounded perspective and that could be sometimes a challenge for the team members. At the same time, we have to honor the vision and the mission that we have written in the past.

And so, with this, what I’m trying to say is: try to be sensible. With all the different voices on the team, there are different personalities. Some personalities are just creative and like fire. Other personalities are very cold, but at the same time, they have great ideas.

And sometimes when discussing these ideas and in these meetings the outgoing personalities tend to be more vocal, tend to have more space, let’s say. And those voices that are maybe more introverted, those people that are more introverted tend to be left out a little bit.

Because they are so understanding. They are just like, “Okay well, he said that, and she said that, so let’s not — I was going to say this, but...”

Anyway, it’s listening a little bit more. In the 5 Voices, it is especially important to listen, to hear the creative people. At the same time, is this really going to work? Is there really a budget for this? The guardians are always going to be like, no, this is not going to be possible.

We love this structure, and there’s this ongoing conversation that is going to happen in this meeting. So, we have to be in nurturing more mode. We have to be soft; we have to be gentle. We have to be humble, right? Because we all want to participate, and sometimes with words we can just hurt or say things that are not right. We are only human.

But in these meetings, something different that we have to implement is listening more to the people because they have great ideas And it is, after all, the Church of Christ. We are the body of Christ. Everybody should have a voice. Everybody’s part of the body of Christ with different gifts and different perspectives.

[00:04:40] Hector: I will add that Paulina and I — I consider myself and I tell this to my wife, Paulina, that we are motivators. We are to be very enthusiastic, motivating people to do things. The things that they have in mind, we have just to guide, not to impose, but to guide people because they have so much to give, and we want to motivate them to give their best.

And this is my role to be a motivator, to tell people you can do it! Go ahead. I will be supporting you. I will be praying for you. I will give you resources if it is possible and needed.

So, Paulina and I are motivators. Now I see that as my role. So, what are we going to be doing differently? More motivators toward the people who are working in the Avenues. To be in contact with them and motivate them, inspire them to do their job in the congregation.

[00:06:00] Juanca: Yeah, and it’s definitely an art, Cara. It’s definitely an art to not judge. To not judge! Because there’s a difference between — in teaching, there’s a difference between evaluation and assessment, right? In evaluation, you just judge the quality. This is bad. This is wrong. You’re doing it wrong, and the results are insufficient.

And sometimes, regrettably, we are like that. We are like, “Guys, this is not working...

Looking Forward with Your MAP w/ Hector and Juan Carlos Barrero

Thank you both, Hector and Juanca, for joining us for this entire series.

[00:00:56] Hector: Thank you to you, Cara.

And I would love to learn from you all. What are you guys going to do differently this year as you develop your ministry action plan?

Because they are so understanding. They are just like, “Okay well, he said that, and she said that, so let’s not — I was going to say this, but...”

And this is my role to be a motivator, to tell people you can do it! Go ahead. I will be supporting you. I will be praying for you. I will give you resources if it is possible and needed.

And sometimes, regrettably, we are like that. We are like, “Guys, this is not working...

Previous Episode

Assessing the Impact of Your MAP w/ Hector and Juan Carlos Barrero

Assessing the Impact of Your MAP w/ Hector and Juan Carlos Barrero

I’m your host, Cara Garrity. And today we welcome back Pastor Hector and Juanca to discuss our series on processes and practices of discernment, strategic planning, and Ministry Action Plans.

Thank you so much, Hector and Juanca, for joining us again today.

Juanca: Hello, Cara. How are you?

Hector: Hello, Kara.

Cara: Doing very well. Thank you both so much for coming back. I’m really looking forward to learning more from you about this Ministry Action Plan process and what it has looked like for you all.

I know that we’re coming to the end of the year as we record this episode. And one of the things that can be helpful to us when we think about Ministry Action Plans is to reflect on our action plans for the year and maybe debrief or look at what was actually accomplished, what our goal progress looked like.

I want to know from you guys, how has your team reflected on the impact of your Ministry Action Plan this year [and] the progress that you’ve made towards your ministry vision and goals?

[00:01:44] Juanca: Sure. We have noticed that the people basically participate more and people that are involved are aware of all the events. They are helping in the activities, and this brings growth. This brings place-sharing and fosters relationships along the way in every ministry.

It also develops leadership because some people are pioneers, and some people are just very creative. Once a team is empowered and they have this fire for doing the work, the ideas flow. And there’s a healthy independence when they are planning and sharing their ideas — that are later supporting new activities. And suddenly we have a lot of new activities.

I can speak, for example, on behalf of the ministry planners in the Love Avenue. And they just came up with an activity, for example, a few months ago to support the missions outside the church and to focus on the community, focusing especially for people that love animals. They love dogs, they have cats, a lot of people have — I cannot think of someone that doesn’t have a dog, at least a hamster.

So, they came up with this rare, very creative idea of providing a gift with a card in representation of the church saying, this is Grace Communion International, we just want to give you a gift and have a good day, something like that. And this event is going to take place in a month or so. But they were the ones that created all of this movement. They talked with the mayorship of the neighborhood, and they did everything.

It’s independence, a good, healthy independence. They are empowered. They’re full of ideas. And there’s just very good possibilities of growing in relationships, again, of growing ministry in place-sharing. And this brings a very good growth in our church and to the body of Christ.

[00:04:22] Hector: Yeah. I would say I would call that the liberating power of having a MAP. Liberating power is that we notice that when people are into something, and we showed them what we want to do in the community, people start giving us ideas. And they themselves are very creative in creating things and ways to reach the community. For example, I see that these MAPs are very liberating in terms of the things that are accomplished, are done, and the gifts of people are in action.

So those things, we see when we are planning. It is just the beginning of things.

[00:05:21] Cara: Hearing you both speak about the impact that the Ministry Action Plans have had, just brought such a joy to me because it’s like you said, Hector, that liberating aspect, and Juanca, the increase in growth of people participating — I just have in mind this equipping the saints for ministry, of fostering the priesthood of all believers. And that’s a really beautiful thing.

And I really appreciate you all sharing that. I would encourage our listeners to really reflect on what you’ve shared and see that when used in this sort of liberatory kind of way, Ministry Action Plans equip and empower folks and not just become something that you feel like tied to or becomes restricting.

I’m just overjoyed hearing about how it’s been a tool for you all to help increase and empower people participating in Jesus’s ministry there. I love that. That’s what the church is called to do. I praise God for that.

And I wonder too, as you’re noticing and reflecting on these ...

Next Episode

Theological Ethics w/ Dr. Gary Deddo

Theological Ethics w/ Gary Deddo

Welcome to the GC Podcast. This year, we’re centering on Kingdom Culture and exploring how it transforms ministry and equips leaders for kingdom living. Through conversations with Grace Communion Seminary professors and a few other guests, we’ll explore how their teachings equip ministry leaders to embody kingdom values.

This is the GC Podcast, where we help you grow into the healthiest ministry leader you can be. Sharing practical insights and best practices from the context of Grace Communion International Churches. Here’s your host, Cara Garrity.

Cara: Hello friends, and welcome to today’s episode of GC Podcast. This podcast is devoted to exploring best ministry practices in context of Grace Communion International churches.

I’m your host, Cara Garrity. And today we are blessed to have Dr. Gary Deddo as our guest. Dr. Deddo is a professor at Grace Communion Seminary and has been participating in GCI and GCS since 2012.

And today for our first episode of 2025, we are going to begin exploring our theme of kingdom living through exploring particularly the course of theological ethics that Dr. Deddo teaches at Grace Community Seminary. So, thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Deddo.

[00:01:35] Gary: Thank you, Cara. It’s a privilege to be with you and to address your audience.

I’m very happy to talk about the seminary and in particular this class that we call Theological Ethics. But that is a very important topic and very complex as anytime you hear the word ethics everybody gets stiff and maybe a bit worried. And so, it’s a huge topic.

It is complex, complicated in a way, but that’s what you need a class for, right? You need a class to have time, to have resources, to think and to talk and interact with others and to work things through, to pray things through, to study scripture that’s relevant to the topic. So, it really does take a good amount of time and some discipline.

And usually, a class helps us be disciplined. You’d make out plans and say I want to read this book, or I want to look into this. And then, of course, you don’t. But a class helps because you’re working with others. And so certainly this topic, theological ethics, does call for that.

And so usually we have a great time. This is, I think, the fourth time we’ve had the class, and it’s always been very productive.

And part of it is, it does take time, and it does take effort. And there’s so many complications, and there’s also many pressures on us to try to discern what’s good, what’s true, what’s right, what I ought to do. And a lot of times, of course, we’re thinking about what others ought to do and that’s certainly part of it, but we have to start with ourselves.

Yeah, we have a class on it that lasts twelve weeks and people put in about, oh, twelve hours a week for each of those weeks to work things through. We have a couple of textbooks.

But the topic itself is important. We call it theological ethics. And the reason we qualify the word ethics with theological is because not all thinking about right and wrong, not all teaching about right and wrong, is theological. That is, it doesn’t connect with who God is or who a particular god is or who the Christian God is.

And in this class, we want to link together who God is — the God revealed in Jesus Christ according to Scripture — and then see what does that have to do with how we live our lives, how we discern what’s good and right, how we avoid being deceived or used, or use others or treat others poorly.

So, you want to connect together theology, which is our knowledge and faith in the living God, and how that then yields fruit in our lives: what we do, what we think, how we act, how we react. So, it’s a theological ethic.

Often without the connection between who God is and trusting in God, we just do what’s right because we just have a feeling, and then we think about it later. Or we’ve heard someone say something, and it sounded good to us, so we went with it. Or sometimes it’s out of guilt or fear or anxiety that we decide to act a certain way, react a certain way, and there’s not a lot of prayer; there’s not a lot of thought.

Or later on we realize, wow, I didn’t take into consideration that. Wow, if I would have realized that, I probably would have decided differently or reacted differently or decided differently.

We want to bring our theology, our faith, our worship, our prayer together with what we think and decide and how we react and reply, and yes, even sometimes how we vote, what that adds up to. So, it’s a theological ethic. In the biblical way to talk about this comes up, actually, in Romans chapter 1. And then Romans 16, the last chapter as well, Paul says his whole ministry is to do nothing other than to bring about the obedien...