WHAT IS GSE?

Tony Webb, Vision USA

Are you passionate about people in your church being saved?

Isn’t it exhilarating to see people impacted who give their lives to Christ?

Vision USA has seen time and again the power of our GSE Process to identify and inspire Gatherers, lead Shepherds, and develop Elders – key components in any church, including restarts and church plants.

How excited I am for the day when we will be able to look back and see more clearly the fruit of our labors.

I know none of us will regret the time, energy, or financial resources we’ve invested for the sake of the gospel.

IDENTIFYING AND EMPOWERING THE GATHERER

The Power of Potential

by Dustin Godshall – VUSA Field Team

As we recognized God’s call moving us to a new place, we began to pray about what that would look like. The word potential kept coming to mind. We wanted to find a church that had potential: potential to grow, potential to reach new people, potential to see the gospel carried forward.

So as we looked at ministry opportunities, we asked, “Is there potential there? What potential do we see?

I remember one of the questions put to us during a Q & A time was: Why do we want to come – my family and I? Why do we want to come to York, PA?

I told them I had looked at the church, at the community, and the area it’s in, and I believed that the church had potential to reach more people. I believed the church has potential to grow. As the people heard this, there were tears in some eyes because they had gotten to a point where they were struggling to keep the doors open.

Attendance was dropping, people were leaving, the church was struggling to move forward. They were at a loss, but they wanted so much more.

Sometimes churches get stuck. They get in a rut. They get in a spot where they don’t know how to move forward.

We understood that we needed a restart, a relaunch. We needed to educate and train our church in GSE.

In the first three months, Tony Webb come and led a gatherer training with our congregation. He shared with all the adults at our church the concept of gathering, and just recognizing that some people are natural gatherers while other people are natural shepherds.

Tony asked the people, how many would be comfortable inviting people to church, and about half the room raised their hands. Then he asked how many would be comfortable sharing the gospel and leading somebody to accept the Lord, and it felt like the OTHER half the room raised their hands.

We recognized that people are gifted differently. Some people are designed and wired to gather. Other people are designed and wired to shepherd. The power of the church happens when those two people understand their separate gifts and can work together to grow forward.

THE ROLE OF THE SHEPHERD

RELEASING YOUR GROUPS TO MULTIPLY

Finding, Encouraging, and Releasing a Gatherer

Zac Yonko, Vinco Brethren Church

“You really think I am a gatherer?” my dear friend Nancy asked just before our church began to grow last year. Nancy is a congregant at Vinco Brethren Church. She is quiet, observant, and mindful. Vinco is not Nancy’s childhood church, but it is her home church. She loves attending church, and we have built a great rapport. We talk every Sunday morning about anything and everything including church growth: why can we not seem to grow the church?

In truth, the church board talked quite often about how to foster church growth. We talked about how to attract new attenders – how to get people into the building to be the Church – but through the years, nothing seemed to work.

Then one Sunday, Bob came to Vinco. Bob was new, and I was curious how he found us.

“Well, Nancy and I got to talking at Walmart,” he shared.

That’s when I realized Nancy had a gift, a gift she probably didn’t even know she had. I approached Nancy after church on Sunday. “NANCY YOU ARE A GATHERER!” I exclaimed in sheer delight.

“A gatherer, what’s a gatherer?”

I described the GSE principle of gatherers and she replied, “You really think I am a gatherer?”

I went home that day not knowing if Nancy would take her calling to heart. She did.

The following Sunday, Nancy had a young family sitting beside her, and a couple Sundays down the road there was a young man sitting behind her that she gathered. Then there was another young family.

The gatherer was released to do what gatherers do, GATHER. Nancy was doing what God designed her to do.

That conversation with Nancy took place because I believe in the GSE principles and was bold enough to implement them when I heard Bob was in church because of Nancy.

Because of Nancy, Bob was here. Because of Nancy, her family is here participating in service. Because of Nancy, we will see baptisms take place. Because of Nancy a family member of hers is here reading scripture over the congregation and sharing his testimony. Because of Nancy, people are being edified, and souls are being saved.

You might be reading this story and picturing Nancy as a young, charismatic woman who is going out and meeting people. Nope. Nancy is a grandmother, retired military, with a gift God had instilled in her to be a gatherer.

So, who are the gatherers in your church or community? Watch for them. Listen for them. Build genuine relationships with them. Encourage them. Then let them loose. You’ll be amazed at what gatherers will do.

Gatherers do what they do because they are who they are. You don’t need to change them, but you may need to identify them and prompt them with an understanding of the gift they have. That lets them see the awesome ways God is using them and can use them, for His kingdom.

TRAINING

For information about upcoming training cohorts in your area, contact Jason.