What is it going to take for the church in North America to become vibrant, powerful and able to fulfill the mission that God has given it to pursue? Along with the need for a special anointing of the Holy Spirit and a revival of Holiness to fall upon our churches I also feel that there is another major component that has been missing for a very long time. This component comes from a doctrinal distinctive that Baptist and other groups have believed but I have not been fleshed out to its fullest extent in Christian living in these recent times. And that is the doctrine of:
The Priesthood of the Believer.
We talk about it and say that we believe it but when it comes to putting it into practice we are very slow to respond. I believe that if we fully understand and implement this doctrine more fully in our church lives we would begin to see a major movement of God sweeping our North American Continent in the form of a Church Planting Movement.
According to James Leo Garrett Jr.:
Who were the ones who went out preaching the word? Not the apostles for they remained in Jerusalem. It was those ordinary believers who had to scattered due to the persecution. These ordinary believers left Jerusalem and went to other towns and when they got there they began to preach the good news of Christ. As people began to receive Christ and his salvation those same ordinary believers gathered those new followers into small communities of faith (churches) that met in houses.
They weren't professionals! They hadn't received any special training from some fancy institution! They were just your garden variety believers who understood that their responsibility was to faithfully share the good news and gather the people together (church) to learn what they had learned.
We see this same process happening all over the world where there is an explosion of a church planting movement. Churches in India, China, Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America are all being started and multiplying at an exponential rate. The church is growing so fast in those areas that it is out growing the general population. In contrast the church in North America is growing slower than the general population. Why? Why is the church in the rest of the world growing faster than the church in North America? I believe, in part, it is because the church in North America has failed to:
According to James Leo Garrett Jr.:
"Each believer priest has a responsibility to be committed to Christ and to share Christ through word and deed. As Peter stated it: to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)."
We clearly say that we believe it is the responsibility of every believer to share Christ through word and deed. We also see the New Testament believers doing exactly that:
"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria ... Those who
had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."
Acts 8:1, 4 (NIV)
had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."
Acts 8:1, 4 (NIV)
Who were the ones who went out preaching the word? Not the apostles for they remained in Jerusalem. It was those ordinary believers who had to scattered due to the persecution. These ordinary believers left Jerusalem and went to other towns and when they got there they began to preach the good news of Christ. As people began to receive Christ and his salvation those same ordinary believers gathered those new followers into small communities of faith (churches) that met in houses.
Those ordinary believers were the first missionary church planters.
They weren't professionals! They hadn't received any special training from some fancy institution! They were just your garden variety believers who understood that their responsibility was to faithfully share the good news and gather the people together (church) to learn what they had learned.
We see this same process happening all over the world where there is an explosion of a church planting movement. Churches in India, China, Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America are all being started and multiplying at an exponential rate. The church is growing so fast in those areas that it is out growing the general population. In contrast the church in North America is growing slower than the general population. Why? Why is the church in the rest of the world growing faster than the church in North America? I believe, in part, it is because the church in North America has failed to:
raise up, train up and unleash its members into the church planting fields.
Instead of entrusting this vital ministry to our members we have put the major amount of our eggs into the basket of professional church planters. We have become very sophisticated in how we select those who will be start our new churches. And the results have come in from that approach:
IT'S NOT WORKING!
We failed miserably with that approach. There is not enough personnel or financial resources available to start the number of churches that need to be started with that kind of approach. We desperately need a much bigger personnel pool to chose from and a style of church that uses very little financial resources. And from what I have seen in scripture and church history that unlimited pool of personnel are sitting right in our pews just waiting to be unleashed. Ordinary believers were the main workers that God used in the New Testament. Ordinary believers are the workers we see throughout church history as being the primary church planters. If those believers who are part of our churches refuse to take up mantle of responsibility to be the new church planters it will be due to the fact that we trained them to be satisfied as pew warmers. If our church members refuse to take up this church planting responsibility I am convinced that there will be plenty of new church planters found in the harvest if, we train up these new believers to understand that their purpose in life is to be a missionary that reaches their neighborhood for Christ and gathers them into small communities of faith (church).
THE TIME HAS COME FOR US TO RAISE UP, TRAIN UP AND UNLEASHED OUR MEMBERS AS MISSIONARIES INTO THE CHURCH PLANTING FIELDS.
I hear what you're saying and I love your heart for Christ. I just don't know that there is one simple answer in making this happen. Folks are so confused, frustrated, and struggling that the last thing they feel like doing is telling others about Jesus. Their own lives are falling apart piece by piece ~ how can they say to others, "Look at me. Look at my life. That's what being a Christian is about." Unbelievers just laugh. So I think it has to start with Christians getting their own lives straightened out. And I don't know what the answer is for that either. Seems like too many Christians are content to 'barely get by' in their walk with the Lord. I guess the bottom line is we need a great out pouring of the Holy Spirit!
ReplyDeleteI agree we have to move past the professional clergy/laity divide. I believe both sides have responsibility in this problem. The laity has the mind set that the professional clergy is responsible for all "ministry" that takes place in and through a local church. After all, they are paying the pastor to do all the work.
ReplyDeleteI think several issues revolve around the professional clergy. One is church size. How will my church get bigger if I release my members to plant house churches? Another is control. If I release my members to plant churches, I lose control of them. I am no longer "THE pastor". A third is economic. How do we pay the bills and maintain facilities if we release our people to work in other fields? Real concerns, real fears. It takes mature, secure professional clergy and laity leaders to address these and change the culture of a local church to get outside the walls and into the world where the people are.
Jay,
ReplyDeleteYou are right on, on this one. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. 2Pet. 2:9. As believers we are all to preach the word in season and out of season. 2 Tim. 4:2.
But the institutional church has let down the new believers, instead of sound Bible teaching, the modern church has erroneously tried to teach them they can have a better family life, control their finances, be a better person, have a better sex life, etc. Teach anything but sound doctrine for the fear of offending anyone or being perceived as irrelevant. Jesus is an offence to the disobedient and even to them which stumble at the word. 2 Pet. 2:7,8. No modern preaching is going to change that! The fruit of this modern preaching is that the “laity” is ill equipped to preach the Word and if by chance they are if they haven’t improved their family, finances, etc. they don’t think they are worthy to preach the Gospel.
I find it interesting that the church in Jerusalem was complacent until it experienced persecution. Then the church departed and preached the Word. The modern American church is so worldly and compromised that replicating it would be detrimental to the church at whole. I am afraid it will take persecution to separate the wheat from the tares and prompt the modern American church back into action. So I would take the big “P”s to be persecution and preaching the Word. I thought the big man at Saddleback replaced planting churches with promoting reconciliation. No wonder we’re confused and ill equipped. Forgive my pessimism I have faith that with God all things are possible but the "Church" needs to remember, repent, and return befor there can be healthy growth.
Jay thanks for your effort to issue a challenging call to discipleship. You asked for a reply, here are my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that many laypeople in the US today are complacent and have allowed their discipleship responsibilities to slip, from my perspective, the solution is not merely to send out every Christian as a missionary or as a church planter or preacher.
I'm a big fan of the church-as-institution and pastoral-ministry-as-vocation. This, to my thinking, is an extension of the metaphor of the Body that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians and elsewhere.
I also believe that promoting the specific vocation of trained pastoral ministry serves to underscore the importance of some kind of continuing apostolic ministry: trained Christian service based on the teaching of the apostles.
(Full disclosure: I myself am a trained minister with the diploma hanging on the wall to prove it; just call me Rev., please.... :-) just kidding.)
Seriously, though: I don't think this view of the pastorate is in conflict with the priesthood of all believers principle.
But it does oppose what has become for some a radical (and foreign to the Bible) individualistic model for Christian living.
Having said all that, I'm not endorsing every aspect of current pastoral and church planting-training (or over training). Nor should this be taken to advocate for seeing kingdom expansion only in terms of budgets of $100K or more.
I think its clear that church plants and church planting movements fail when they do not mobilize and engage significant numbers of laypersons in the work of establishing churches.
Our compartmentalizing tendency is to relegate ministry work to professionals; but who are the professionals? Piper's book challenges us with this statement: Brothers, we are not professionals.
Paul strongly claimed he had the right to take an income from his work, to dedicate himself to that work completely, and that this pattern was one that others ought to follow.
Your article reminds me of some concerns I have--and I think we're in agreement here.
There is often a disconnect in the maintenance ministry mindset that has settled in upon many church boards and among many pastors and Jesus call to "go into all the world." I struggle with it myself.
Ultimately the goal of church planting is discipleship--I think you may have touched on this before--not "building an institution."
Discipleship is hard, no matter how you look at it. While church planting may be taking place at record pace in some parts of the world, we would do well to ask how is discipleship progressing in those areas?
Sad to say--and I think we agree here--many American disciples are often not worthy of the name "disciple." Because that term means "learner" and too many of us have stopped learning and have grown complacent.
For such as we, Jesus still stands at the Laodicean doors of our complacent hearts and knocks a knock of warning.
Even though I may take issue with you on some particulars, I do pray and hope your article stirs up some lukewarwm believers to their calling to be fully devoted to the work of the Lord, whatever work that may be for them.
Keep up the good work. Thanks again for writing.