Last week I mentioned the holy cause and effect found in Ephesians 4:11-13—the reality that if church leaders will train people for ministry, then the church will be healthier.
And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. (Eph. 4:11-13)
Typically, churches hire a pastor to do ministry. Biblically, pastors train people to do ministry. The Lord personally gives His church pastors-teachers to prepare His people for ministry so that the body of Christ is unified and healthy.
In the typical view, if there are more kids in the kids ministry, more people in the hospital, or more couples that need counseling, the automatic, default response is to “hire someone to do ministry.” Some church leaders enjoy the typical view. It can cause us to feel more necessary, even indispensable. The typical view can cause us to preach the “priesthood of believers” for personal connection to the Lord but forsake that sacred doctrine for ministry and service.
The typical view hampers the movement of a church in a local community because ministry is confined to a few “professionals.” God’s people are relegated to the bleachers to live vicariously through those who are “really called.” And those who serve as the professional ministers are crushed with a burden they were not called to carry. The clergification of ministry deeply hampers the growth and mission of a church, stifles the maturation of Christians, and overwhelms pastors. Everyone loses when churches operate from the typical view.
Churches and leaders that operate from the biblical view constantly seek to hand ministry over to God’s people because they realize that all of God’s people are gifted and called. They understand, as Luther stated, “Let everyone who knows himself to be Christian be assured of this and apply it to himself—we are all priests and there is no difference between us.” And they know God placed them in their roles to equip others to live as servants and missionaries.
In recent years, God has used a financial meltdown to help some churches stop the foolish practice of hiring the ministry away. Perhaps He is using a financial crisis to bring us back to Ephesians 4:11-13 type of ministry. In Geneva, before the Reformation, an estimated 200 clergy ministered to 5000 people. After the Reformation, when ministry was handed back to the people, 7 clergy prepared God’s people to serve those living in Geneva. The church won when ministry was given back to the people.
If you are a pastor, your role is not to do all the ministry. Your role, your job, is to prepare others for ministry.
To help church leaders prepare people for ministry, LifeWay is launching Ministry Grid. Ministry Grid will help churches train their leaders. Ministry Grid will provide skillful training that is customizable and is offered to your leaders just-in-time, when they are open and ready to learn. It will provide you with simple tools to help you facilitate discussion, make assignments, and personally track the progress of your team.
Comments
Well said. Although the reasons for the typical view/model are multifaceted, three culprits I have noticed, of adhering to the typical view/model is 1. The ‘this is the way we always have done it’ mentality, whether it is a conscious or subconscious decision and 2. Job security; as you make a congregation dependent on a few church leaders to do everything. 3. One man shows … with the out-of-context application of the scripture that says … ‘I can do all things …’
My goal is to ‘work myself out of a job’. I self-assess my progress by how much of my responsibility I have responsibly delegated so that I can take on new challenges and opportunity … and soon thereafter give that away; so on and so on. The last thing I want to be is a bottle neck of God’s work.
We had a very unconventional youth minister, he didn’t ‘look’ like a minister should, had long hair and earrings. He encountered obstacle after obstacle, yet still trained our youth to lead. If he were absent for some reason, the teenagers he had taught to serve, were fully able to run youth group without him. His stated goal was to prepare our young people to go out into the world prepared to serve.
He was finally forced out by the powers that be, now our church membership is down, our youth is uninspired, it has been devastating to see and experience.
I believe the fastest way to kill a church is to stop training people how to serve, to allow members to sit comfortably in pews, and believe that the money in the plate and the walk down that aisle many years ago is the only ‘fire’ insurance’ they need.
Eric, These words are offered with such clarity. I was inspired to sit and ponder the question, “What if I had it to do over again.” After 38 years in ministry, I realize I failed at a very important point. I did teach. My sermons were didactic but they failed to train or to lead to the calling out of lay persons who would respond to ministry needs. The Great Commission has more to do with the “…teaching them to obey My commands” that it does with “…teaching them my commands.” I did too much teaching “how to” and too little teaching “to do.”
If I had it to do over now, I would focus on training church members (I should say “Christ disciples”) to do the work of the ministry. In saving the salaries of other staff ministers and their assistants, the church could give abundant funding to the ministry needs which the lay ministers were leading. All would be done with excellence and the laity would grow into the full disciples God intends them to be. Thanks for this post.