What I really came here burdened to discuss was of course something completely different. Lately, I have been wrestling with the entire meaning of pastoral ministry as I face the soon coming move into full-time professional ministry (by soon of course, I mean in two years, probably).
I look at the churches I have been a part of growing up, and those around me, and I struggle with wondering how we ended up where we are. Our society is consumer-driven. We are told from the day we are born that we exist to consume stuff. And consume we do, even in the hospital we're born in. That's it, and one day, we'll stop consuming, and someone or something will consume us, probably a funeral home and their profit-guided endeavor, so from beginning to end, hospital to funeral home, we are consumers. (I have nothing against funeral homes themselves by the way, or hospitals.)
And it hasn't stayed in the culture. It has crept into our churches. Everyone I know has either left a church themselves or knows someone who has who said "We just weren't being fed" or "No one every noticed me" or "They just aren't that nice, I didn't feel welcome". These are all symptoms of consumerism creeping into the churches.
I have decided, the next time someone says something along those lines to me, I need to ask them: "Well, did you feed yourself? Or introduce yourself? Or make yourself feel welcome?" That is what we need to be asking. So many people come to church like a baby bird expecting to just open their gullet and have "mama bird" (the leaders/pastors) pour regurgitated food down their throats, when the Pastor and other ministry leadership is not there to feed them, to make sure they stay spiritually alive week to week. And we've done nothing, for too long, to prevent it. I can't tell you how many sermons and lessons I have heard about needing to have quiet times because church isn't enough to feed you for a week, giving the idea that this is the purpose of church, an infusion of critical dietary supplements for the starving believer.
We need to get radical about how we do church if we want to keep on doing it for very long. I am not going to go so far as to say we need anything like a "Reformation", but we sure do need something drastic.
If we seriously believe Ephesians 4:11-14, then the leadership in our churches is meant for the "equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (NASB), or as the HCSB states it "for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ". Either way, it is training/equipping the church for the work of ministry/service. Now I don't know about you, but I hear all the time how 10 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work, or similar statements. When did it stop being 100 percent doing 100 percent? Why is that okay with us? Why has it been okay for so long? How are we going to change? Is anyone changing?
I seriously hope and pray things do change. I fully intend to do everything I can to help those I will serve as an "equipper" to realize I don't do the ministry of the church for them. I only equip them so they will go and do the ministry of the church. If you want to know why we aren't reaching the culture, it is because we haven't even reached the people in the pews with the full message of the Gospel. Baptism doesn't mean a free ticket to sit on a bench every Sunday and Wednesday. Its gives you the punch card for God's timeclock. I see some churches that are giving the people the tools they need to minister to the world around them, I hope we are succeeding in this at my church. But the time has come for it to no longer be and issue of this church or that church that is doing it well. We all need to get better at it (and I include myself in this), as leaders, as ministers of the Gospel, because it is our calling. It has been said you are immortal until God's purpose for you is complete. I wonder how many people in our churches, leadership included, end up leaving their purpose half-completed?
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