Lately, I have been excited to see congregational leaders planning how to best utilise the gifts God has given members of their congregations.

Many of my friends have spoken of using the church weekend away to examine and uncover the gifts they have and thinking about how to use them to promote the name of Jesus within the congregation. Others have told me of courses and workbooks (usually originating from the United States) that have helped in doing this.

I'm all for that, as I am committed to the priesthood of all believers, and am sure God draws us into fellowship with each other so we may share the gifts for the common good.

However, it seems to me that one are of neglect is the "mini cultures" we are part of.

I think I need to explain what I mean by "mini-culture". Very few of us live in just one culture. We inhabit many cultures that don't touch each other.

For example I live in my church mini-culture, and my school mini-culture and the netball club mini-culture and my work mini-culture. It is my hope and prayer that the Christian "mini-culture" in which I exist will dominate all other cultures and change the way I operate in them.

If I can identify which mini-cultures I am part of, then I can think and plan how to use my participation in those cultures to promote the name of Jesus. Being a member of a mini-culture which is not part of my church culture gives me opportunity to speak with people about Jesus, yet I don't often think about this.

Maybe we should spend some time as a congregation thinking about the mini-cultures that we are part of. We can then ask friends in church to pray for our ministry in those mini cultures, and we can consciously attempt to appropriately shape our actions in those mini cultures by the gospel. Doing this exercise may also help in having assistance in reaching my mini cultures. For example I may find others who want to join the netball club, and so together we can pray and plan and dream about how to affect this mini culture.

It might change the shape of my mini-culture. For example a group of us from church may play tennis together, but on our own on Thursday nights. Maybe we should join a tennis club and so have contact with others in that mini-culture.

Sociologists tell us that large-scale changes in thinking often begin when people gather in groups of under 150 start to express a view. If the people we engage with, in say the tennis club, hear that I am a Christian, and they also hear that people in their other mini-cultures are also Christian, it starts to make people face up to where they stand with Jesus.