{"id":92,"date":"2009-08-24T06:49:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T06:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/?p=92"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:02:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:02:30","slug":"quickstart-for-ministers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/?page_id=92","title":{"rendered":"Quickstart for Ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers have a special responsibility to ensure that our gatherings are ordered in accordance with the teaching of God&#8217;s word.  A contemporary style of service gives us freedom to be creative, but we must exercise that freedom with thoughtfulness and theological reflection. Otherwise, our services may become nothing more than an unthinking reflection of the prevailing culture and whims of the world around us.  This page contains resources to assist you in preparing services that glorify God and edify the church.<\/p>\n<p>Many ministers now share the task of preparing and leading services with a team of people. These teams need teaching, feedback and encouragement. Consider using this website to train and equip such people.<\/p>\n<h3>Training your Service Leaders<\/h3>\n<p>Nobody cares about better gatherings more than you do, and you have been equipped by your training for this ministry. So if you are going to delegate this to others, you will need to think carefully about how you will train, encourage and equip them for this task.\u00a0 We have put together some suggestions to help you do this&#8230; see <a href=\"\/?page_id=138\"><span>Train Service Leaders<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Using Service Builder<\/h3>\n<p>ServiceBuilder is a tool that helps create God-honouring, meaningful and biblical gatherings. It allows you to arrange &#8216;resources&#8217; (like confessions, creeds and prayers) into services that glorify God and edify the church.  You can use predefined &#8216;templates&#8217;, or you can adapt the standard templates to create your own.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"index.php?option=com_servicebuild\">Click here to start ServiceBuilder<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/?page_id=116\"><span>Click here for help to get started<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/?page_id=74\"><span>Click here for help to create your own templates<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Communion-lite and Baptism-lite<\/h3>\n<p>Self-contained segments for the <a href=\"\/?page_id=117\">Lord&#8217;s Supper<\/a> and <a href=\"\/?page_id=118\">Baptism<\/a> which are designed to be incorporated within the framework of a non-liturgical service.<\/p>\n<h3>Resources for Occasional Services<\/h3>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\">\n<tbody style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<tr style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=95\">Baptisms<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=96\">Weddings<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=97\">Funerals<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=98\">Confirmations<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=95\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-88\" src=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/baptism.jpg\" alt=\"baptism\" width=\"120\" height=\"80\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=96\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-89\" src=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wedding.jpg\" alt=\"wedding\" width=\"120\" height=\"80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wedding.jpg 320w, https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/wedding-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=97\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-90\" src=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Cemetry-Roses.jpg\" alt=\"Cemetry Roses\" width=\"120\" height=\"80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Cemetry-Roses.jpg 320w, https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Cemetry-Roses-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/?page_id=98\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-91\" src=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Confirmation.JPG\" alt=\"Confirmation\" width=\"120\" height=\"80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Confirmation.JPG 320w, https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Confirmation-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Seasonal Services<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"\/?page_id=142\">Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/?page_id=144\">Easter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers have a special responsibility to ensure that our gatherings are ordered in accordance with the teaching of God&#8217;s word. A contemporary style of service gives us freedom to be creative, but we must exercise that freedom with thoughtfulness and theological reflection. Otherwise, our services may become nothing more than an unthinking reflection of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88,"parent":0,"menu_order":30,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-92","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Quickstart for Ministers - Better Gatherings<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bettergatherings.com.au\/?page_id=92\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quickstart for Ministers - Better Gatherings\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ministers have a special responsibility to ensure that our gatherings are ordered in accordance with the teaching of God&#8217;s word. 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