VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 11/01/06)-Searching for a ministry opportunity involves waiting on the Lord and understanding his will, but knowing which positions are available through American Baptist Personnel Services (ABPS) now involves little waiting. A premier service of ABPS that is called "Ministry Opportunities" (MO) just became available online at www.abpsconnection.org/mol/.
Every day, new ministry opportunities of which ABPS has been informed are accessible online. Detailed information is available for every opportunity and, whenever a ministry has a Web site, even more information is immediately available through a link to its site.
By using online features, ABPS subscribers can readily answer "What's your MO?" Previously, a report of position listings, 12 to 13 pages in length, was available to subscribers once a month. "People don't have to wait a whole month to know what's out there, because position listings are updated on a rolling basis," said Chris Pappanastasiou, ABPS Data Editor. "It's so much easier!"
A Web-based system has one great advantage of providing more complete listings than is possible in a paper report. An even greater advantage is that online subscribers can search and sort listings, which enables them to find opportunities based on desired criteria, such as particular types of location - small city or center city - or specific areas of service, such as youth ministry.
"This is right in line with National Ministries' ministry of transforming leadership, transforming lives," said the Rev. David Cushman, National Ministries' Research and Information Services Officer, who designed the system. "Here the transformation of leadership is that more people are placed in a right position to employ their ministry gifts. They can find out as much as they can early on in the process of looking, which facilitates self-screening - whether toward or away from a position."
While the Web site home page has opportunities anyone can view, only subscribers can view church-related listings. Once subscribers pinpoint suitable positions, they can print them out for future reference, including information for the contact person, which is provided with each listing.
"I think search committees are going to find it extremely helpful, because applicants can be in touch with them much more quickly," said Lynne Eckman, ABPS Coordinator and publisher of the site. With increased provision of information about ministry sites and position details, they also should hear from applicants who meet their criteria more closely.
Current subscribers to Ministry Opportunities only need an e-mail address to access the system. New subscribers go through an approval process in order to obtain an ABPS profile and then are added to the professional registry.
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/