HAMPSTEAD- All Saints Parish recently hosted a Joyfully Gifted retreat for parishioners as a part of their ongoing discipleship and evangelization plan focused on the parish themes of stewardship, faith and community. Joyfully Gifted is a process designed to help individuals discern what their spiritual gifts may be and how to use them to bring others to Christ in their daily lives and in their ministries.
As Pope Francis writes in Joy of the Gospel, “The Holy Spirit also enriches the entire evangelizing church with different charisms. These gifts are meant to renew and build up the church.”
The event was coordinated by Jackie Rourke, director of Evangelization and Discipleship at All Saints, and Dana Spillane, a stewardship team volunteer. Participants who attended the retreat also received the Joyfully Gifted booklet to help with ongoing discernment.
All Saints is hoping to phase this discernment and giftedness approach more and more into daily parish life by including materials in new parishioner welcome packets, providing ongoing formation and missionary discipleship opportunities and compiling a database of parishioners' giftedness so parish leaders can call forth each parishioner’s gifts as needed to build the local Church.
“These half-day Joyfully Gifted retreats help each person discover and use their unique gifts to serve God and bring hearts to Christ through their words and actions,” said Terrie Baldwin, coordinator of Adult Formation for the Diocese of Raleigh.
