Steve Mills Email: stevem@northwestministry.com Executive Director of Church Ministries Northwest District

Each of us views the church through the lens of past experiences. Our understanding is shaped largely by the kind of church, the ministries, members, leaders, building, style of music, format of service, and organizational structure we have known. Now, however, as we move into the 21st century, several fundamental shifts may affect how the church ministers.

One positive shift for many churches is to a more biblical, appropriate, and effective expression of the scriptural teaching of the "priesthood of all believers." God's plan has always been every member a minister. God's design is that His mission and purposes will be perpetuated through the community of believers as each member assumes his or her ministering responsibility. The effectiveness of the church is in its authenticity and in the interdependence of believers. Community, rather than individuality, is God's primary plan.

Jesus established the community of faith with His disciples. He chose to place the future of the kingdom of God with a group of persons who believed and followed Him.

Robert B. Munger states, Christianity in its beginnings was a lay movement.... Taking fishermen from their boats and nets, Jesus made them fishers of men. He dared to believe that ordinary people could become extraordinary servants of God. He would build His church upon believers like Peter. From among the common people He would call disciples who, in turn, He would send to disciple the nations.

"In our time it may well be that the greatest single bottleneck to the renewal and outreach of the church is the concept of role division. This separation of roles between clergy and laity results in a hesitancy of the clergy to trust the laity with significant responsibility, and a reluctance of the laity to trust themselves as authentic ministers of Christ, either in the church or outside the church." (Munger, Robert B., Training of the Laity for Ministry. Fuller Theological Seminary as quoted in Richards, Lawrence O. and Martin, Gilbert R., Lay Ministry: Empowering the People of God: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1981, 13).

During the Reformation, God's Word was unchained from the clergy's pulpits. Ministry is no longer the privilege and responsibility of a select few. Today God's work/ministry is given to all laos, the people of God.

The church of the future will focus on equipping more people for ministry that takes place outside the building's walls. Ministry will take place all hours of the day wherever believers are. There will be greater partnership between clergy and laity. The distinction will not be in importance nor in hierarchy but in role, relationship, and responsibility.

First Corinthians 12-14 and Romans 12 expressly say that all members are essential and valuable. They differ only in the function or role they serve.

Equality among believers is what God wants. In His plan we are all to serve one another like a body where each member does its part in making it possible for the whole to be healthy and productive.

When our idea of the church is too specific and narrow the results are conflicts over music, type of preaching, length of sermons, expectation of ministers, time and length of services, kind of activities that can take place in the church, whether we use an organ or keyboard.

But we know the church is really not described in these factors. They may be part of a "box," and God's plan will not fit into a box. God is moving the church back into the world to be salt and light. His business is still "to seek and to save the lost." Robert E. Slocum says, "The...church will need to focus on decentralized teams of equipped laity as the church in the world instead of concentrating all activities on Sundays at the sanctuary." (Slocum, Robert E., Maximize Your Ministry; Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1990, 70) as quoted in Petersen, Jim, Church Without Walls; Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1992, 120).

When Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners His response was, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:13, NIV). Jesus was saying, "I desire that you demonstrate love and compassion to the lost and the hurting." He was saying "I want you to be the church, not just do church activities."

The best way to understand our world and the church today is to understand that we are in much the same cultural condition as when Jesus Christ came. The culture is secular, pagan, and unchurched. Yet the church's mission remains the same, "Go and make disciples...baptizing...teaching" (Matthew 28:19,20, NIV).

The lost people in our communities are working, playing, exercising, shopping, and volunteering with us every day. Reaching and relating to them on their turf is essential. Each believer must be equipped and mobilized to be the effective minister God intended.

The church will learn how to be Christ to the lost. By our lives and actions people will see Christ. The most effective strategy the church has is authenticity----being honest and real----not perfection. As believers demonstrate the love of God to one another and to unbelievers in humility and service, they are being the church.

We are "being church" by starting a group to minister to the needs of single-parent families in the church and in the community. We are "being church" when we intentionally train and mobilize members into leadership roles in the community and to be caregivers for community crises and tragedies. Being "Christ" among the lost, hurting, and needy by demonstrating His love and compassion is what James calls "pure and undefiled religion" (James 1:27).

The church of the future will be intentional and aggressive in seeing the lost found, the found discipled, and the discipled equipped and mobilized as effective ministers.

The church that becomes intentional about ministry is able to prioritize and focus on mission. Reaching, discipling, and equipping are to be the focus of all ministry efforts. Accountability systems and standards are established and used to help keep ministries, budgets, calendars and leaders focused on the mission. The church views discipling as a partnership, God working among and in them as the church and its leaders provide ministry processes for God to work through.

In many cases our focus has been on the development and maintenance of ministry programs. The culture shift, combined with a more biblical expression of the "priesthood of all believers" is forcing us to focus more on faith development----placing persons before programs.

Church health is a greater concern than growth in numbers of members. The ultimate goal is to develop fully devoted followers of Christ, not just to develop faithful attendance at church events.

God is taking us to a new level, moving us beyond church as a custom, toward church as He intends it to be. He is saying the same to us today as Jesus said to the Jewish leaders in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (make it more meaningful and raise it to a new level). All we need to do is make sure that we are moving with God. His church will prevail.

For additional study

Barna, George; The Second Coming of the Church, (Word Publishing, 1998).

Hammett, Edward H., Making the Church Work; Converting the Church for the 21st Century, (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1997)

Ogden, Greg; The New Reformation, Returning the Ministry to the People of God, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990)

Petersen, Jim, Church Without Walls, (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1992)

Slocum, Robert E., Maximize Your Ministry, (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1990)

Steinbron, Melvin J., The Lay Driven Church, (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1997)