SMOKY MOUNTAIN RESORT MINISTRIES 2008 ANNUAL REPORT
(Insights on longevity in ministry)

Bill Black
Director, Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries
1981- Present

I have been here a long, long time.  I have seen it all.  I have experienced more than you can imagine. 
I have been in place in resort missions and in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries (SMRM).

I have been here a long, long time and cherish each new day as a fresh beginning for ministry.  My prayer continues to be "Lord, bring me to the one who needs you today and give me a lick of sense to recognize them."   I see it all and see the needs, hopes, and possibilities for mission with continually fresh vision.  I experience resort missions as my call and experience God's blessings in this place.  I am in place with calling and vocation.  I am blessed to be here.

My tenure with SMRM has been from 1981 to the present.  The progression of ministry for me as Director of SMRM has been deep community presence marked with three distinct styles within my ministry and three distinct chapters for SMRM.  These three movements are ministry as (1) program designed, (2) vision driven, and (3) a deep community presence.  The purpose of this report is to identify the purpose and function of each of movements as they are expressions of longevity in resort ministry.

Program Designed

The early years of my ministry and of SMRM were devoted to building the best program of resort missions that could be found.   The goal was to care for people through active programs that established our presence in the community and in specific resort settings such as the ski area, campgrounds, or the shops on the Parkway.  Identity was needed for both me as a young minister in the area and for SMRM.  Further, to have purpose in ministry required that the programs be valid and valuable.  Programs provided identity, purpose, definition, presence, and a vehicle for evangelism and ministry to take place.  A program approach served to get me known and earn SMRM's right and role in the community.

My personal role was defined as the minister who ran certain programs in the community.  I identified myself with those programs and was received by ministry sites and ministry participants as the "minister who does ______."  Even though programs were volunteer based, I was the person identified with them and interpreted by them.   These programs served to give presence for SMRM through their action.  Further, they were valid and valuable vehicles that led many people into the presence of God for their lives. 

The program approach established us in the community.  When I spoke of SMRM in churches, I spoke of our ministry programs.   This served to establish resort missions in the mission culture of the Church.  The common language we developed worked to legitimize our presence as a professional approach to missions.  This was an important first expression of my ministry and of SMRM.

Vision Driven

During the 1990's an intentional move was made to identify, define, and work SMRM through a vision driven approach to ministry. This paradigm shift was done through a change in definition from ministry site programs (campground ministry, ski ministry, etc) into vision statement, mission statement, core value, and character.  The result of this conscious change was to enable SMRM to be more flexible to God's leadership and responsive to the moments and movements of the Holy Spirit. 

We were able to take advantage of our community recognition and reception to move into this new expression of ministry.  In some ways, it seems slightly more vague to speak of being vision driven, however, the openness to God's leadership that results from this approach has created a responsive and moving ministry.  We are able to follow what we understand God's plan to be and to utilize the persons God has called to work that plan.  We are required to seek God's action rather than to plan our programs.  We are taken deeper into God's revealed presence and find ourselves more deeply involved in people's lives.  The programming still takes place while the purpose of it is celebrated.  Further, those programs are only done in response to the possibilities and needs discovered around us.  Individually, I am known as "the minister in the community" as opposed to the "minister who does _______ program."

We utilize this vision statement material to define who we are and where God is taking us.  The material organizes our hopes and thoughts and serve to guide this ministry and reveal the heart of its ministers and volunteers. 

Slogan

ASHAN  God's presence in smoke.

Mission Statement:

The mission of SMRM is revealing the presence of God to those who live, work,
and play in the resort settings of Sevier County and the Smoky Mountains.

Vision:

Creatively sharing Christ with others, ministering to their needs and hopes, and growing the Church through mission involvement.

Core Value:

"The call to salvation is at one and the same time a call to mission." Finley Edge In SMRM we enable non-Christians to say "yes" to the call to salvation and Christians to say "yes" to the call to mission.

Deep Community Presence

The third expression of longevity is a season of having a deep community presence.  Incarnation becomes a theme and a model for this point of ministry.  At this level I move into and through ministry moments and relationships with an accepted presence that is comfortable, anticipated, and received.  At this level much of my work is involved in interpreting the Holy moment and movement for people and providing the stability for trust that enhances their trust in God.

This phase means that SMRM is included into the mindset of the community in that it is part of the normal conversation and is viewed as a stable contributor to the community.  Personally, it means that I am called upon to participate in discussions by community leaders and that the insights of ministry are received by them.  SMRM and I are received as contributing parts of the community.   We are actively involved in shaping community life and in adding the Christian context to that life.  Our presence is anticipated as a working element of the community.

The work of this deep community presence takes me into the meaning of the ministry event.  I reveal the presence of God to those involved through my presence.  The incarnational aspect of ministry becomes an active force in my work.  I move through relationships that are rich in history and I interpret the current ministry point both through that history and through the active and vital work of the Holy Spirit.  SMRM continues to provide both programming and inspirational vision yet it adds to those elements of ministry an intentional interpretation of the meaning of the event.  The added impact on peoples' lives is wonderful to experience.

Intentional Ministry

A distinctive mark for resort missions has always been that of intentional ministry.  Revealing the presence of God to those who are involved in a leisure lifestyle happens when we are sure of our actions and purpose and when we take the initiative to accomplish that purpose.  Through the years of my work as Director of SMRM and through the years of SMRM's active role in the Smokies, we have been intentional about what we are doing.  This has been the key for us to stay focused and to make sure of our calling.  This has been the key for us to accomplish our mission. The holy fun of resort missions is in the surprising initiative of this intentional purpose.  Intentional ministry has kept me in place for a long, long time.  I am in place with calling and vocation.  I am blessed to be here. Thanks be to God.