The best measure of a church is how many people walk out to be the royal priesthood on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. The basic product of the church is people in ministry.
—Bruce Larson
I had a chance to meet Donald Peterson just before he retired as chairman of Ford Motor Company. He’d been chairman when Ford ebbed to its lowest point economically and also when the company had turned around and reached its apex. “How do you account for what happened?” I asked him. “Was it robots, mechanization?”
“No,” he said, “it was two less tangible things. First, we redefined our goal. We said our goal was to build a car free of construction errors. Second, we gave our people the power to build it. We gave all our workers the authority to stop the line whenever they found something wrong. When we did that, we went from an average of forty-seven flaws per car to one flaw in every two cars.”
The key to renewing Ford Motor Company was getting back to basics—building a flawless car. In much the same way, pastoral care for church members begins when the congregation is brought back to its basic mission.
What is the bottom line for the church, the true measure of its success?
Some churches measure success by buildings, size, staff, budget, or how many missionaries they support. Some churches inspire, inform, and educate. All that is fine. But to me the church is not primarily an institution and not primarily in the inspiration business or the information business or the education business. Great sermons or fine buildings don’t matter if the church isn’t becoming a kingdom of priests.
In the Old Testament, God chastised his people because they refused to be priests. The best measure of a church is how many people walk out to be the royal priesthood on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. To me, then, the basic product of the church is people in ministry.
Unlike Ford’s product, the church’s product cannot be precisely measured. But keeping that goal clear remains crucial for me. People in ministry becomes the goal of our worship and education.
And people in ministry becomes the measure especially of pastoral care. Pastoral care includes visiting the sick, weeping with the grieving, praying with the concerned. But to me its ultimate purpose is to get lay people involved in ministry to one another and to the world. Pastoral care is not just care done by the pastor but care given in a pastoral way by anyone. People involved in ministry, then, is not only a goal of my pastoral care but also the way my pastoral care is broadened geometrically.
What Is Ministry?
If people in ministry is the true measure of the church, then we need to define ministry. When I did a Bible study of “ministry,” I found more models than I expected.
- For the servant girl who spoke to her master, Naaman, ministry was simply bearing witness: “There is a place where God does business where you can get healed.”
- Elijah’s greatest ministry was to disciple Elisha: “Come join me. I won’t be around long. Learn what I know. Do what I do.”
- Mary and Martha had a retreat-center ministry. Jesus could come to their home and take off his sandals and eat matzo ball soup and enjoy the company of two women and their brother, Lazarus.
- Then there’s the ministry of Lydia who opened her home, which became a strategic center as the first Christian church in Europe.
- Priscilla and Aquila were two lay people who dared to take on the training of Apollos, a gifted preacher, and say, “Do you understand the theology? We think we can help you improve your ministry.” I saw the same thing happen in a former church of mine, where for years the people trained their pastors to be better pastors.
All these biblical examples of ministry have at least one thing in common: they show that lay people did—and can do—every one of them.
Barriers to Ministry
If none of these kinds of ministry takes professional training, if lay people can do them, then why don’t we find more lay people ministering? I think there are a couple of reasons.
One barrier to lay ministry is the feeling of inadequacy. We tend to feel that only those with great wisdom, knowledge, and skill can heal and bless and release people. We think. Who am I? I’m no Mother Teresa, no Saint Paul!
We may feel we’re being humble, but it’s really a way to avoid responsibility. Those who put the professional on a pedestal are at the same time relieving themselves of any involvement in ministry. They ask, “Why isn’t the church (meaning the pastor) doing something about this person or that situation?”
To say “I’m only a lay person; I’m not worthy” is copping out. Who is worthy? God says, “Do it!”
Fear of failure raises another barrier to lay ministry. What if I pray with somebody and there are no visible results? I’m sure that occurred often in the New Testament era, too, but only the miracles were recorded. I once heard Oral Roberts say, “Nobody has ever experienced more unanswered prayers for healing than I have.” We don’t always see immediate answers to our prayers.
When we first started healing services at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, some of our elders were uneasy. We worked in groups of three—one pastor and two elders—and people came forward and sought prayer for physical and mental healing, relationships, and addictions. When we prayed, we knew there would be miracles, but we couldn’t say where or when or how.
As time passed, the elders were feeling more secure in praying for healing. They were learning not to be afraid of what looked like a failure, because they realized that prayer is never wasted. Even when we can’t see results. God is at work.
So how do we launch inadequate-feeling and fearful people into ministry? The key is to convince them that ministry doesn’t mean having the answers. In fact, coming up with pat answers usually is the worst approach. However, when we minister from weakness, not knowing what answers are needed but actively listening, we model for them the ministry we’d like them to engage in.
Four Kinds of Ministry
I divide ministry into four distinct kinds.
First, there’s material ministry. That involves giving money and goods to bless and heal and help people. Material ministry might be digging wells in Haiti or building a church in Latin America or painting a shelter for battered women. It’s people providing material goods for others.
For example, two retired executive women had a special concern for the down-and-out on Seattle’s skid row. One night a week, these women took sandwich fixings to the First Avenue Service Center, where they made sandwiches while dispensing care and conversation to the street people seeking food. Over the years they have dispensed a lot of love and dignity as well as more than a million sandwiches.
Junior high students in that same parish engaged in what they called “Midnight Marauder” activities. No, it wasn’t vandalism. The Midnight Marauders were squads of junior highers who delivered surprise dinners to single working parents. For example, they would place a couple of hot pizzas on the doorstep, ring the bell, and run like crazy. The single parent, tired from a full day at work, would open the door to find dinner and a note saying, “The Midnight Marauders have struck again!” The recipients were understandably touched that someone understood their burdens.
Second, there is spiritual ministry—introducing people to Jesus Christ and to life in the Spirit.
Our churches, unfortunately, are full of unconverted believers, who ascribe to all the right doctrines but don’t allow those beliefs to impact their lives. They need to move into a vital relationship with the God they believe in. A small group is one way of moving these people toward that goal.
I can think of one woman in particular, a deeply unhappy woman who over a ten-year period endured assorted illnesses and even underwent organ transplants. Although she was only 40, she was already frail. The final blow came when her husband divorced her. When that happened, I thought she might die.
However, she was part of a small group, and when he left her, that group of ordinary Christians ministered to her in many ways. They helped her come to grips with how she would handle life with her husband gone. They encouraged her to return to school to obtain job skills. She got her driver’s license and became more independent. Increasingly, by means of this group, the Lord moved into her life, and I watched her become a new person.
Obviously, spiritual ministry takes place on a one-to-one basis, as well. We can do that by example, certainly, but during kairos times we can speak of life and truth to another in need and introduce people to our Lord, Redeemer, and Friend.
Third, there is healing ministry, or more broadly, wholeness ministry. This includes helping people become medically, mentally, physically, and emotionally whole. After he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told those standing by to unwrap him. There are countless church members who have been raised from the dead but have never been unwrapped. They’re alive and walking, but they’re still bound with fear and guilt. Jesus gives them new life, and it is our job to unwrap them.
A doctor I know told about one of his elderly patients who was suddenly gripped with severe rheumatoid arthritis. When he examined her, her hands were like claws. Trying to understand her sudden affliction, he asked her, almost casually, “Has anything been happening in your life lately?”
“I know exactly what you mean. Doctor,” she replied coldly, “and furthermore, I have no intention of forgiving him!”
Obviously, the physician had uncovered the problem that was producing the symptoms. So many of our mental and even physical problems are rooted in our attitudes.
Glen Warner, a Seattle oncologist, practices a whole-person medicine. He uses traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer, but his immunotherapy operates on the assumption that the human body has two magnificent therapeutic centers: the immune system and what he calls “the pharmacy of the mind.”
Researchers are finding a healthy brain can mix all kinds of medications in the right proportions and at the right times. Natural narcotics and other chemicals of the brain can go a long way toward alleviating discomfort, producing a sense of well-being, and healing one’s body.
It’s even possible for a vigorous immune system to overcome cancers, but unhealthy mental attitudes can severely restrict the healthy functioning of the brain. Resentments, fears, and hopelessness can actually block the immune system, according to Warner. Healing comes with the introduction of positive spiritual qualities: forgiveness, peace, hope, joy, and love.
Warner tells of a female University of Washington student diagnosed with terminal cancer. When they first met, she asked, “Can you keep me alive until I graduate?” She wanted to complete her education, which had been one of her goals. Warner couldn’t supply any medical certainty, but he offered hope: “Do you want to graduate? Then we can make it!”
Upon her graduation, her request changed: “Can you keep me alive until my wedding?” She’d become engaged, and her marriage occupied center stage in her thoughts.
“You bet!” was the reply.
In a year or so, she was asking, “Can you keep me alive until I have a child?” The last I heard, she wanted to know if he could keep her alive until she became a grandmother! I wouldn’t bet against it. Glen Warner gave her hope. He was more than a physician; he was a healer.
Lay people can’t do brain surgery, but some of the key words used to explain illness are stress, loneliness, resentment. Healing comes when those negative emotions are replaced with love, purpose, and hope. The staff at the Menninger Foundation believes that if you get hope, you get well. Dr. Viktor Frankl connected healing to purpose. Norman Cousins wrote a book on the salubrious effects of joy. As Christians, we have all of those to offer in a ministry of healing and wholeness.
Finally, there is prophetic ministry, one that changes the way people live within the structures of society. Those practicing prophetic ministry look at the structures and ask, How can they be changed for the better? How can I make a difference in medicine or law or education or business?
Some concerned Christian lawyers in Seattle got together, saying, “The Bible says we shouldn’t sue Christians. Let’s find an alternative to our present court system.” They came up with a plan to offer mediation and arbitration in disputes between Christians. For nearly a decade, the Christian Conciliation Service of Puget Sound has served the Seattle area. They hear cases for free or for a small fee, and they train people to solve disputes without resorting to costly and traumatic court proceedings.
Another man I know is working to find new ways to provide low-cost housing for the poor. He contends that churches don’t have the money to underwrite housing on the scale that is needed, and Housing and Urban Development won’t. His plan is to approach businesses and say, “Let me show you how you can build low-cost housing for the poor and make a reasonable profit.” He’s a prophet in the profit sector!
The Long Reach of the Laity
Another such prophet is a Rotary president and Mercedes-Benz/BMW dealer. I first met him at the Seattle Downtown Rotary, the second oldest and largest Rotary club in the world. We talked briefly about his volunteer work at an orthopedic hospital for children. It was, he said, the highlight of his life.
When he was elected president of the Downtown Rotary, he told me what he planned to do.
“Do you know what the motto of Rotary is?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “Service above self.”
“Actually,” he said, “most of us have spent our lives not having to give service. We’ve made money so we could hire secretaries and gatekeepers. We don’t serve; we write checks. Well, I want to get Rotary practicing its beliefs. I want to get people in Rotary doing hands-on ministry in this city.
“There are many needy people: the hungry, the elderly, the homeless, the illiterate, the drug addicted, the unemployed. In July when I take office, I’m going to make every one of our eight hundred members choose an area to serve in for the next year. They can work in and with any organization they want. But they can’t write a check; they’ve got to give service.”
“Phil,” I said, “are you prepared for the backlash you’re going to get on this?”
His response moved me. “Bruce,” he answered, “I heard you say one Sunday that people spend a lifetime accruing moral capital. I’ve done that. I’ve spent my life building up a good reputation selling cars with honesty and integrity, and doing volunteer work. I want to invest that moral capital before I die.”
Phil did what he set out to do, and people are hearing about it. Other Rotary clubs are inviting him to speak about his plan, and the idea is spreading.
Those Rotarians have already helped many people in their volunteer work, but beyond that, they themselves will never be the same. Phil Smart began to change how those Rotarians viewed the city. I could never reach eight hundred people in Rotary, but Phil could and did.
The real measure of a church is the number of people in ministry, and central to pastoral care is putting people in ministry and supporting them in their ministries—material ministries, spiritual ministries, healing ministries, and prophetic ministries. That’s getting back to basics. That’s effective pastoral care.
Copyright © 1990 by Christianity Today
