INTRODUCTION
At the outset let me express my deep sense of appreciation and thanks to the Board of Trustees of HITHA, Rev. Sudhakar Mondithoka, the Director and especially my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Augustine Pagolu for inviting me to be here for this inaugural event and celebration of launching HITHA. Above all, I am thankful to God for making this vital avenue a reality – a dream, and a vision, to be sure which has lived long enough to see the light of day. Glory and praise be to God for “He makes ALL things beautiful in His time”
My task this evening is to speak on the topic “THE CHURCH AND THE TRAINING OF LAITY FOR MINISTRY”.
Key terms of this lecture include:– CHURCH, MINISTRY, LAITY AND TRAINING
PRELUDE
Before I get into the core of the subject matter, I would like to make a general statement, that has to do with the Call of God. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures reveal the nature of God. God is revealed as the One who Calls. Abram was ‘called by God’. So was Moses and the whole School of Prophets. This Call of God is personified in the NT in the person of Jesus the Christ. Jesus begins his earthly ministry in the region of Galilee by CALLING his disciples to follow him. “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” Mark 1:17
The determinative word here is “Come-Follow Me” The Call is not for privilege, but for service
If you choose to respond to the call, there is work to do. I will make you (Training) fish for people (Mission and Evangelism)
The call of God has been extended to every person on two levels:
The call to salvation – relationship
The call to God’s purpose – ministry
God has a purpose (Ephesians 1:9-11) and we have been called to play a vital role in that purpose. In its essence, this is what ministry is all about – playing your part in helping God’s plan and purpose to be outworked in our own lives and other people’s lives.
Writing to Timothy, Paul says,”…But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” 2 Timothy 1:8-9.
FOUR KEY CONCEPTS FOR OUR CONSIDERATION
There are basically FOUR fundamental concepts we must consider.
THE CHURCH
What do we mean by the term ‘Church’?
While sometimes we may speak of the Church to mean a particular denomination, like Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, etc that is not what we mean in this particular context. Sometimes the term ‘Church’ is used to refer to a particular geographic region, such as The Western Church or the Eastern Church. We commonly hear phrases like the ‘Asian Church’ or the ‘Indian Church’ but we are not making such a differentiation in this instance. Nor are we using the term ‘Church’ to speak to a theological position as it is done sometimes, for instance, “The Evangelical Church” or “The Liberal Church”.
Another pragmatic use of the word Church is to address linguistic concerns. In this regard we may speak of the “Telugu Church” or the “Tamil Church”. Even Race plays a part in similar ways as we see in the reference to ‘The Black Church’ or ‘The White Church’ or the ‘Hispanic Church’ The essential use of the term ‘Church’ in the present context is the understanding that the Church is a ‘Body of Faithful Disciples of Jesus Christ’. Such a ‘Body’ or ‘Corpus’ might exist and manifest itself in various forms and expressions based on history, tradition, language, region and doctrine. The understanding of the Church as essentially a ‘Body’ is Biblical in general and Pauline in particular. In his letters to Churches/Congregations located at various places, Paul clearly delineates what the Church is.
I do believe that there is a great need to recover this biblical sense of Church for an effective ministry to take place today. Post modern World is not really interested in the nuances of theological distinctives of particular denominations while those might be deemed quite significant to many people inside it. In Seminary, I felt a certain level of ‘discomfort’ whenever students were broken up into separate groups based on their denominational affiliation.
Today, secular people are no longer concerned about staying loyal to a name brand. A man in his fifties recently called me on the phone and asked if we could meet to discuss some problems he was facing in life. When we did meet in my office, I asked him why he called me and he said, “I was driving by your church and saw your name and wanted to get some help” This man had never before entered inside a church building. When he was in trouble, it did not matter to him that he came to a Methodist Pastor – he just needed help and I happened to the one he called. Today he attends church regularly with his wife.
Businesses are acutely aware of this changing phenomenon and go to extreme lengths to protect and promote the ‘brand’ idea. Look at the advertisements that bombard all of our senses by the commercial media. Too often the targets are not the adults but youth and even children. Corporate mergers create new ways of producing and marketing products. What can the Church learn from this trend in Business and industry?
We need to recover the NT understanding of Church as a “Body of Faithful Disciples” fulfilling the mandate of making new disciples for Jesus Christ. Too often the focus is ‘inward’ and not toward the world. A Membership oriented, Privilege based understanding of Church must make way to a Discipleship oriented, service based approach. The only qualifications in the NT were that one needed to profess faith in Christ as one’s Savior and obey his Call and serve him as Lord. Quite simple and effective. We do well on the ‘Savior’ part but fail in the ‘Lordship’ part of our walk with Christ.
Definition of the Church
An important element in any definition of church must be the purpose of its gathering: to do the work of the gospel or to be “in mission.” As someone rightly said, “when the Christian community loses sight of its mission, institutional goals may become primary concerns”. The profile of the Christian community is, in fact, shaped by its prevailing sense of evangelization and mission in view of the in breaking of the Kingdom of God. It has been asserted more than once, that the mission of the church is both a response to and a proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
The New Testament word for “church” is ekklesia, which means “the called out ones.” In classical Greek, the term was used almost exclusively for political gatherings. In particular, in Athens the word signified the assembling of the citizens for the purpose of conducting the affairs of the polis. Moreover, ekklesia referred only to the actual meeting, not to the citizens themselves. When the people were not assembled, they were not considered to be the ekklesia.
(In the New Testament, we discover that ekklesia is used of the community of God’s people some 109 times (out of 114 occurrences of the term). Although the word only occurs in two Gospel passages (Matt 16:18; 18:17), it is of special importance in Acts (23 times) and the Pauline writings (46 times). It is found twenty times in Revelation and only in isolated instances in James and Hebrews. We may broach the subject of the biblical teaching on the church by drawing three general conclusions from the data so far.)
First, predominantly ekklesia (both in the singular and plural) applies to a local assembly of those who profess faith in and allegiance to Christ.
Second, ekklesia designates the universal church (Acts 8:3; 9:31; 1 Cor 12:28; 15:9; especially in the later Pauline letters, Eph 1:22-23; Col 1:18).
Third, the ekklesia is God’s congregation (1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1; etc.).
The Nature of the Church
The nature of the church is too broad to be exhausted in the meaning of the one word, ekklesia. To capture its significance the New Testament authors utilize a rich array of metaphorical descriptions. Nevertheless, there are those metaphors that seem to dominate the biblical picture of the church, five of which are: the people of God, the kingdom of God, the temple of God, the bride of Christ, and the body of Christ.
The Dictionary of Theology presents two senses of the term Church: “the visible and the invisible church. The visible church consists of all the people that claim to be Christians and go to church. The invisible church is the actual body of Christians; those who are truly saved.
The true church of God is not an organization on earth consisting of people and buildings, but is really a supernatural entity comprised of those who are saved by Jesus. It spans the entire time of man’s existence on earth as well as all people who are called into it. We become members of the church (body of Christ) by faith (Acts 2:41). We are edified by the Word (Eph. 4:15-16), disciplined by God (Matt. 18:15-17), unified in Christ (Gal. 3:28), and sanctified by the Spirit (Eph. 5:26-27).”
I think that is a pretty accurate and succinct understanding of CHURCH.
II. Let me move to the second concept, namely, MINISTRY. What really constitutes Ministry?
Ministry is “Ecclesial praxis” which refers to the actions of a Christian Community and their implicit meanings.
In its essence, ministry is about – playing your part in helping God’s plan and purpose to be outworked in other people’s lives.
The first call (to salvation) is extended to every person (the “many”), but only those who respond to God’s call (the “few”) are actually chosen (note the parable in Matthew 24:1-14). In the same way, the second call (to God’s purposes) is extended to every person who has already responded to the first call, but God will only use those who personally respond to that call.
What is Ministry?
“Almost anything” seems to be the answer judging by what Churches are doing these days. When the Church loses the vision about what is our task, our goal, our purpose, our mission, our reason for existence, there is a real danger of becoming irrelevant or ineffective.
Today, the Church enterprise espouses and exercises a ministry model that is untenable and unrealistic. I am not making a universal indictment here but a careful observation. If you take a look at the budget allocations of any given congregation, it tells you a lot about their understanding of ministry. 80-90% of many church budgets cater to the people who are already a part of the church. Education, Nurture, Pastoral Care, Worship, Music, Building maintenance, consumes an enormous portion of the resources of the Church. Swimming pools, basket ball courts, gymnasiums may serve the needs of valuable members, but where do we draw the line?
We have seen some tragic cases of extremism in our times and have suffered the just condemnation of the Church’s critics both secular and from within. At best most churches allocate 10-20% toward Mission/Evangelism and Outreach. The numbers may be worse in some cases. While Education, Care and Worship are important in the life of any church, they must not come at the expense of outreach. The reason the Church is in existence is to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. If this is NOT happening, then we are failing, regardless of how good we might look on the outside. This is the point Jesus drives home to the disciples with the illustration of the fig tree. It is one thing to appear to be successful, but quite another to actually bearing fruit. The fig tree exists to bear figs. The Church exists to make disciples for Christ and deploy them to obedient service in the world.
See II Corinthians 5 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
What is Ministry? It is the activity and process by which The Church of Christ is enabled and empowered to bring about the RECONCILIATION of all creation.
Three Levels of Calling
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” Romans 1:1.
In introducing himself to the Roman Church, the Apostle Paul describes the three levels of his call and ministry. These three levels of calling also apply to every Christian’s ministry.
The General Calling
Paul introduced himself first of all as a servant of Christ Jesus. The Greek word Paul uses for servant is doulos,which actually has the deeper meaning of “bond servant”, (see Exodus 21:5-6; Deuteronomy 15:16-17; Psalm 40:6-8). This is the general calling of every believer – the starting point and foundation of all ministry.
The Special Calling
Paul then identified his special calling – “called to be an apostle”. God’s grace is given to each believer for a particular kind of function, and here we begin to see the wonderful variety in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27-30).
The Particular Calling
Finally Paul specifies the bounds of his ministry – “set apart for the gospel of God”. Paul was an apostle, like Peter and John were apostles, but the particular calling upon his life outworked differently to each of the other apostles. Peter was an apostle to the Jews, while Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7-9).
“Now there are distinctive varieties and distributions of endowments [extraordinary powers distinguishing certain Christians, due to the power of divine grace operating in their souls by the Holy Spirit] and they vary, but the (Holy) Spirit remains the same. And there are distinctive varieties of service and ministration, but it is the same Lord [Who is served]. And there are distinctive varieties of operation – of working to accomplish things – but it is the same God Who inspires and energizes them all in all” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (Amp).
Four Dimensions of Ministry
There are at least FOUR dimensions of the believer’s ministry:
1. Ministry to the Lord
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” 1 Peter 2:9 (see also Matthew 22:37-40; Psalm 150; Hebrews 13:15). Prior to any expression of ministry we need to realize that we owe it all to the LORD.
2. Ministry to Ourselves
We build our outreach ministry on the foundation of our commitment to the LORD. This must be followed by a conscious inreach to care for our own self. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another. (with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God”) Colossians 3:16 (see also Jude 20-21; Psalm 42:1-2,11). As ministers of Christ, we are to take good care of God’s resources entrusted to us which includes our body, heart, mind and soul. “How is it with your soul”? “Are you taking care of your health”? “How is your Sabbath practice”?
3. Ministry to the Church
“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” Romans 1:11-12 (see also 12:13; 14:19; 15:1-7; Ephesians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 5:19; 6:18-19).
4. Ministry to the World
“You are to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere” Mark 16:15 (Living Bible) (see also verses 17-18; Luke 10:2; Acts 1:8).
Attitude in Ministry
Writing to the Philippian Church, Paul delineates what our attitude ought to be in Ministry. He writes: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” Philippians 2:1-2.
To be an effective instrument of Christ’s ministry, three things are needed:
Being like-minded (to Christ)
Having the same love (as Christ)
Being one in spirit and purpose (with Christ and together)
Ministry is not competitive. We measure the success of our ministry not against each other, but against the ministry of the Lord Himself (Ephesians 4:13; 3:19). He is the yardstick of all
III. The THIRD concept we need to consider is LAITY
The term laity is a word derived from laos, a Greek word meaning people. In the biblical sense, it includes all people who believe in and are committed to Jesus as Savior and Lord. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is the church’s fundamental belief. This belief presents a paradox to all thinking leaders in the Church of God: we acknowledge the “priesthood” of ALL, but still it is a sacred few who actually do the work of ministry. The doctrine of the laity is so important, that if adequately understood and properly expressed in the life of God’s people, it could bring about a spiritual awakening that would revolutionize the life and ministry of the church.
In the NT (1 Pet. 2: 9–10; 1 Cor. 12: 4–7) God’s gifts, which are of equal value, are diverse to be sure, but necessary to the well-being of the whole body;
I have ministered in the UM church for 25 years. For part of that time at BUMC I was appointed as a “Minister with Laity.” My job description, was to “affirm the gifts of laity and to encourage them to use their gifts in ministry.” I was mainly interested in helping laity explore how they could live out their faith in the secular work world. I was always amazed at how difficult it was for people to talk about their daily work as ministry.
I struggled, with little success, to get beyond the assumption that ministry on the job means holding Bible study at the workplace or approaching co-workers to talk about faith issues. A new Order of Deacons is now established in the UM Church, where any Lay person can celebrate their particular call to ministry in their professional setting, so much so that now there are school teachers/administrators, medical personnel – doctors, nurses, counselors, and persons in Industry and Government who perform their function with a clear view of being a ‘representative’ of Christ in the world.
Here are some practical ways to be a Lay Minister in the secular arena.
Excellence and Honesty. The primary ministry of laity in the workplace that Bill Diehl noted in his book, The Monday Connection, (1991) is doing the job with excellence.
Service and Hospitality. One needs to make a conscious decision at some point in work to be among people as one who were there to serve. Try to respond positively and cheerfully to the routine duties and to the special requests that come to you. Know that your attitude makes a difference for you. Create an open and welcoming atmosphere where your coworkers and visitors know they would be received kindly. The Bible calls for hospitality to all even in the workplace and among one’s colleagues.
Caring and Sharing. Closely related to serving one’s co-workers is caring about them as persons and sharing some of your own life and experiences with them. Listening without offering advice or judgment is a way of valuing people and of offering them a measure of God’s unconditional acceptance.
Witnessing. As God provides the opportunity, talk to people about what it means to you that you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. As you pray ask God for leading and guidance. Your life itself bears a witness, more than your words. St. Francis of Assissi once said, “Preach by all means, and if necessary, use words” Mere words, without a life (behavior and character) are ineffective. A lay person in the church where I currently serve, felt called by God to begin a ministry of sending a bible verse every day to more than 200 of his friends, associates. It takes him less that 10-15 minutes of his time but has met the needs of people in an incredible way. God is blessing this AVAD (A Verse a Day) ministry. What is God calling you to do?
Offer to pray for someone who has illness in the family or has expressed some other concern. Very few people if any will refuse such an offer. This way you send a signal that you are a person of faith and that the door is open for further conversation should they wish to pursue it. Express how your faith has helped you in particular situations. These may seem like “baby steps”, however, they will lead you to become more open to this type of ministry on a larger scale.
IV. TRAINING…is
“The education, instruction, or discipline of a person or thing that is being trained”
Training is essentially a task of equipping the people of God for the work of ministry.
Historically Theological Education was exclusively designed and offered to professional clergy in the making, although this has changed over the years. Additionally, such a model catered to ‘Parish Ministry’ and not to the world. Recent efforts to change and modify this older model has met with resounding success as seen in places like Regent College, BGST and now at HITHA. This is certainly a welcome sign of good things to come.
Theological Training and Education must be geared to prepare an individual to reach and relate to the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and not simply lead to one’s Ordination as a Clergyperson. Yesterday, I had the privilege to visit with a small Bible College right here in Hyderabad, where a small band of young persons is being trained for ministry. The curriculum not only has Bible, Theology, Doctrine, but Computers, Time Management, English, etc. Such a bold approach is necessary today for effective Lay Ministry.
Stephen Ministry is a registered program in the West which utilizes Biblical principles coupled with insights from the field of Psychology. Indigenous models of Lay Training are available.
Training. Training and discipling are needed in the ministry of both clergy and laity. Training is needed in several areas of Nurture, Outreach and evangelism, Worship and Witness, so that lay people can be fruitful in ministry. Somehow the standard of excellence for lay leaders should be benchmarked to that of the clergy. Standards need to be put in place that would measure the quality of lay training on par with training programs for clergy.
Conclusion
The future awaits us, a future which will not tolerate yesterday’s Church in today’s world, let alone the world of tomorrow. The future is in the hands of the leaders in the Church. This is an hour of challenge as well of promise. The choice before the church as we face the future is continue with our present pattern and style of ministry or to allow for a “second reformation” — a reformation of the released power of the laity-God’s people-in the world today. May the Lord truly bless us with Holy Boldness to achieve this in our time.
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