The priests are waiting in the wings.
I taught on campus for fifteen years in a Christian seminary. During that time, I watched hundreds of young ministers accept their first preaching post with a congregation. A year or so later, many of them were back in my office. Most of their idealism was shattered. What happened to them? What was happening in the congregations they served?
During those years of teaching, I kept working along the lines of a basic premise. I felt the problem with most ministers was their inefficiency. I reasoned, “If the average minister gave more attention to organization, worked more diligently, and if he dedicated himself more completely to God, then he could emerge triumphant in the local church situation.” Meanwhile, I studied the New Testament more carefully and began to rethink the minister’s actual role today in the congregation. Gradually it began to dawn on me that our basic system of ministry itself is largely at fault.
Let us look for a moment at the current situation. The young minister leaves the college or seminary with the idea of accomplishing great things for God. He tries to adjust to the expectations which the congregation has for him. They want him to preach inspiring messages at every service. They expect him to visit the sick without fail. They want him to lead in raising finances. They expect him to keep up the attendance. They intend for him to be present for the social functions of the congregation. Also, they usually expect him to take an active part in community affairs.… Some ministers are able to work sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. They seldom take a vacation. They are never sick. By extraordinary labors, they are able to thrive with the one-man-ministry concept. They seem to enjoy it. These leaders, however, are not the rule. Their example often places a heavier burden on others, less gifted, who cannot keep up their pace. In some instances, conscientious ministers, who tried to measure up to their example, have gone to a premature grave.…
While the preaching minister is feeling the burden of leadership for the congregation, others in the pews are frustrated in another way. They faithfully attend worship services Sunday after Sunday. Here they are exhorted, row on row, to live better Christian lives, give more liberally to Christian causes, and be more faithful about attending tending church meetings.… The anesthetizing effects of repeated worship services Sunday after Sunday is well known. A congregation begins to operate under an illusion. Having been reminded so many times of their duty as Christians, the hearing itself is equated with the performance.…
Some congregations are frustrated because the preaching minister is constantly involving people in “busy work.” Without consulting anyone, he keeps dreaming up ideas for everyone else to follow. Then, when people do not give him an enthusiastic response, he sometimes thunders at them from the pulpit or finds some subtle way of expressing his disapproval.
To solve the problem of the overloaded minister, some congregations move into a multiple-staff situation. Yet, it should be pointed out, this route is inadequate if the equipping-ministry concept is absent. In fact, adding more staff only makes it easier for a congregation to sit back while they pay others to minister for them. It often perpetuates the whole non-equipping system.
The key, of course, is not to overlook the idea of a paid multiple staff. A growing congregation demands a growing number of professional leaders. Each staff member, however, should be following the equipping-ministry concept. Whether a person serves in education, in music, in clerical work, in counseling, or in evangelism, one of the primary responsibilities of that area of service is to equip others.
Meanwhile, the idea of dedicated volunteers must not go begging. Some folks of retirement age in the congregation welcome a greater responsibility in the church. Many times, they simply need a little instruction and some on-the-field training. Other members are willing to become more deeply involved if they are provided with a genuine opportunity to minister.…
The essential concept of ministry in the church stems from the life and work of Jesus himself. “The son of man,” he said, “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). This summary statement is very important in the study of the equipping-ministry concept.
Although the accounts in the four gospels are tantalizingly brief, we know that Jesus practiced an equipping kind of leadership on earth. How did he go about it? First of all, he found others to minister. “He found Philip,” John records, and said to him, “follow me” (1:42). Jesus was constantly in the business of discovering others who could minister. On the other hand, he turned some away because they could not meet the stringent demands of work in the kingdom (Luke 9:57–62).
Jesus also equipped others to minister by loving them (John 13:1), by teaching them (Matt. 5:2), by praying for them (Luke 22:39), and by training them on the job (Matt. 10:5; Luke 10:1). He was steadfast in the work of preparing others to minister.…
The mission of the twelve and the seventy gives us crucial insight. Matthew says, “these twelve Jesus sent out” (10:5). Luke writes, “After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of them” (10:1), “Called” … “to send.” Here we have a significant key to the ministry of Jesus. He equipped others to have a ministry of their own.…
The apostle Paul also practiced an equipping ministry.… He surrounded himself with those who could later go out on their own. At Lystra, he found Timothy to accompany him (Acts 16:3). Later, Luke recorded other members of the Pauline band: “Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus” (Acts 20:4).
Here was a small congregation Paul took with him as he traveled. Later Crescens and Demas joined the group along with others. Mark, who started with him on the first journey and went home, later returned to the work. After mentioning Demas who deserted the cause, Paul wrote, “Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus” (2 Tim. 4:9–12).
We see clearly in these Scriptures the kind of equipping ministry which Paul practiced. He found potential leaders as he traveled from city to city. In many cases, they were invited to accompany him, learning as they traveled. Later on, they were directed to their own place of ministry. How else could he be true to the “equipping concept” which he sets forth in Ephesians 4:11?
In his writing, Paul kept in mind those whom he was equipping for ministry. He insisted that Timothy pay strict attention to “scripture” since it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16).
The church will always be in debt to Barnabas who helped sponsor Paul in his early ministry. Shunned by the disciples because they knew his [Paul’s] reputation for persecuting Christians, Barnabas paved the way for Paul’s rise in leadership. Here is a real test of the equipping ministry. What happens when we recruit someone whose abilities eclipse our own? Do we encourage them or seek to thwart them in their mission?
In order for a congregation to begin operating on the principles of the equipping ministry, some adjustments may need to be made.… Fundamental to our thinking must be the radical idea presented in the New Testament—every Christian is a minister of Jesus Christ. Peter refers to his readers as a “royal priesthood” and calls them to the responsibility of declaring “the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). In the book of Revelation, John spoke about the ascended Christ who has “made us a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (1:16). The idea of every Christian being a minister for Christ has yet to dawn upon the American church.
Meanwhile, we continue to be hampered by the “one minister-one congregation” concept of ministry.
Faced with the idea of an equipping ministry, some preaching ministers go through a kind of identity crisis. If everyone is a minister, they reason, then what is important for me to do? They ask, “What distinctive role do I have with a congregation?”
This attitude misses the whole point. The work of the preaching minister takes on new lustre when he is fulfilling his rightful vocation. He is the one who has usually received special training for his work. He is a “professional” in the best sense of the word. There will always be the need for a paid career ministry in the church.
His work now is to set about helping others in the congregation to minister. He must know something about the spiritual qualifications and the capabilities of each person he “equips.” He should love people for their sake. Most congregations refuse to follow someone who does not love them. He now sets out on his tremendous task of preparing those in the congregation for their ministry.
The equipping-ministry concept refuses to negate biblical and sociological principles of leadership. It is not a leadership leveling process. Every person has a different degree of leadership. Every shared leadership within the church is certainly a biblical concept, but the idea of “mutual influence” is not. Some have more influence than others. Paul had more influence than Barnabas. Peter, James, and John evidently had the most leadership ability among the twelve. The writer of Hebrews is not denying the concept of the equipping ministry when he admonishes his readers to “remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God” (13:7).…
The longest journey begins with a single step. The preaching minister who is accustomed to making all decisions must gradually begin to relinquish some power to others. A “ruling elder” may need to do the same. Members of the congregation who have been the “sheep” must work together for the purpose of “building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).
Early attempts to bring about an “equipping ministry” in the life of a congregation may be checked by “starts” and “stops.” Most of us do not change overnight. Churches must have time to adjust to a new style of leadership. I am thoroughly convinced, however, that the equipping-ministry concept, given a fair chance by the American churches, can unleash new impetus for the gospel which most of us have only dreamed about. Furthermore, I believe it can change the world.
D. Bruce Lockerbie is chairman of the Fine Arts department at The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York. This article is taken from his 1976 lectures on Christian Life and Thought, delivered at Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado.
