Equipping the Saints for the Work of Ministry
“There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord” (1 Cor. 12:5).
It is the over-emphasizing and the under-emphasizing of ministries from within the church that is the source of a lot of misunderstanding and apathy among believers today. It sounds inherently contradictory that both could be the same error, but I will explain. I believe that the under-emphasizing on the one part leads to the over-emphasis on the other.
Saint, you have a ministry. In whatever role God has placed you in your life, be faithful in that role and glorify God. Your life is not the result of haphazard events. Through God’s providence He has placed you in a specific geographic location, at a specific time, in a specific family, and in a specific occupation. And these all may change at various times, but no variance will ever negate your ministry. In other words, the details of your ministry may change, but never the ministry itself. God has placed you at your job to glorify and honor Him. You may be the only light your co-workers may ever know. Many think (incorrectly) that because they are not the pastor of a church that they therefore have no role in the kingdom of God. Many think that their secular job is removed from the realm of Christian ministry. But that is precisely why God has placed you there! To minister to those not in the church. That is your ministry. Spurgeon boldly made this point when he said that “every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
Just as the job of a pastor of a church is to minister to the saints, your job is to minister to the people in your sphere of influence. As a result, your ministry may be a little more difficult and hostile since you’re not preaching to people who already agree with you. You are on the front lines of the battlefield. This is not in any way an attempt to exalt the work of some while diminishing the efforts of another—all are valuable and useful members of the body. I’m just illustrating that while the head is often adorned with much attention, the feet are often disregarded even though they too carry a heavy burden. I am so thankful for the loving and caring pastors I’ve known throughout my life. God-fearing and intelligent men. It is a scary thing to preach the Word, which is why James warns us: “let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1).
There is no such thing as a meaningless job. God has placed you where you are to be a light. Or maybe you’re a mother or father—that too is a ministry. You are to raise your children and “bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Every Christian has a ministry; they are all different, but all valuable—”There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.”
In the hundreds of sermons I have heard throughout my lifetime I have never once heard a pastor mention that I or anyone else in the congregation has a ministry. This is a great disservice to the body of Christ, and a neglecting of biblical truths. When you arrive at a church as a first-time visitor, most pastors and/or elders will ask you questions about your family and occupation, and then relegate you to an area of insignificance thereafter. Church members are constantly being asked to pray for the elders and deacons, and rightly so. You should be praying for the church and its leaders. And it would be wrong for you as a church member not to pray for your church and the elders. However, when was the last time anyone in your church asked you how they can pray for your ministry? It is equally wrong to diminish or to view as insignificant the gifts that God has given to one of the members of the body. Perhaps there are resources that the church can offer to assist in someone’s ministry outside the church in their workplace or at home.
Think of the impact this would have on someone in the church. They arrived in the morning perhaps feeling defeated and useless, and then you ask them how you can pray for their ministry. Most would be shocked to even know they had a ministry for which to pray! They would leave with a new motivation for the workplace the following morning. Or a renewed sense of diligence at the home. Everything would take on a greater sense of importance and meaning. More on this later.
As a result of the neglecting of this truth there tends to be an over-emphasizing of ministries on the other extreme. Because the church neglects the importance of the individual ministries of its members, they feel worthless and unused. To combat this, they seek positions within the church. This is due to the false dichotomy held among most members and reinforced by the church leaders—that if you are not directly involved in a leadership position within the church then you serve no true importance, and do not have a ministry. Everyone feels that they have to be a “minister” of this or that, and the church gives in to the pressure and resigns to assigning positions to every disgruntled member. This is why we have “pastors” of everything. No one wants to be a Sunday school teacher anymore…they now desire the title of pastor before they will agree to teach a Sunday school lesson. This is absurd and unnecessary. But again, it has been falsely promoted throughout most churches that you’re either an elder or nothing. Instead of desiring to be a “minister” of a position in the church, be a genuine minister in the calling to which God has given you. In other words, God has placed you in specific situations in life, where you live, where you work, where you worship…all according to God’s providence. Don’t neglect this important responsibility.
Paul addresses this false dichotomy in 1 Corinthians 12:15-19:
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
Each part of the body is significant and useful but serves a different purpose. Moreover, it is one body, but many members. As Paul continues:
And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary (1 Cor. 12:21-22).
Paul makes a similar statement in Romans 12:3-8:
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Not every member of the body is an eye, and we shouldn’t all desire to be. At the same time, those who are an eye shouldn’t look down upon the hand and say, “I have no need of you.” Just as it is wrong for someone to disregard your ministry, it is also equally wrong for you to neglect your own ministry: “let us use them.” The church (universal) is the body of Christ—Christ being the head. Paul beautifully illustrates this in Ephesians:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Eph. 4:11-16).
What does Paul say as the reason Christ Himself gave some to be pastors and teachers? To equip the saints for the work of ministry! And how do they do that? By causing the body to “grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” Too many pastors and church leaders are too concerned with growing the church by numbers rather than in the spiritual growth and health of its members. Their focus should be to cause the church to grow in faith and knowledge.
But the church leaders stunt the growth of the body by condescending to the lowest member. What I mean by that is that many pastors assume that the congregation for the most part is woefully ignorant of the Bible and doctrine, and therefore preach as if they are talking to babes. This approach does nothing for the mature Christian and certainly doesn’t cause any growth for those who are babes.
There is nothing wrong with being a spiritual baby—this is the starting point of every saint. The new birth means you’re a baby in Christ. It is good and appropriate for spiritual babes to receive the milk of the word, just as physical babes need a mother’s milk. But what is the point of milk in both cases? “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word” Why? so “that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). The key word here is grow. Milk is necessary for babies, in that it causes them to grow and advance to solid foods. Just as it would be abusive to feed someone milk perpetually in the physical sense, it is just as unhealthy for Christians to live on nothing but spiritual milk. You need to start with milk, but only so that you may “grow thereby.”
It is from the understanding of a personal ministry that causes the saints to grow. Knowing that you as an individual have a ministry will (or should at least) cause you to grow in faith and knowledge. If tomorrow you were appointed pastor of a church with a large congregation, don’t you think that would cause some significant changes in your life? You would read the Bible more, you would study theology and doctrine more, you would change your conversation with friends and co-workers knowing that now you are seen in a different light. Likewise, knowing that where ever God has placed you is in accordance with His purpose and that you have a ministry, should cause a significant change in your life, which by extension, contributes to the sanctification process. But, conversely, when members of a church think that the only studying that should be done is by the church leaders, this leads to ignorance and a neglecting of ministries. And church leaders do a disservice to the body by not promoting this fact. They are babes, and they are kept as babes through a process of perpetual malnourishment. “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:13-14).
Many churches encourage their congregations to read their Bibles at home through mere suggestion, but why would they? And even if they start, what motivation do they have to stick with it? They already feel useless, so they leave the studying up to the leaders. Yet, encouraging them in their ministries will inspire them to read, for now they have a great responsibility—one to be taken seriously.
With this understanding of individual ministry, instead of viewing your life as just the result of random events you will start to see that everything has been orchestrated by God.
Here are five benefits that will result from understanding your ministry:
- It causes personal growth. By studying the Word, you will progress from “the pure milk of the word” to solid foods.
- It will assist in the sanctification process. If you have ever performed any public witnessing, you will know what I mean by this. When you evangelize in a public arena you instantly become self-aware. For example, if you are witnessing to people at a swap meet it is unlikely that you will be sitting in the beer tents drinking after knowing that you just potentially witnessed to several of the people sitting around you. And so, you become more aware of your actions and words. Because you now feel like you’re on a public stage (just as pastors do) you’ll start to conduct your life accordingly.
- It puts you in a position to evangelize. By reading God’s Word and applying yourself daily to the task of growing and honoring Him, you will be much more readily prepared to witness and evangelize and may start to see many more opportunities to do so. In other words, instead of it being solely the work of the church to reach the lost, you will make it your personal agenda too.
- You will see that you can serve God right where he has placed you. You’re not just some nobody, living in an obscure town, working at a meaningless job. With the understanding of individual ministry, instead of viewing your life as just the result of random events you will start to see that everything has been orchestrated by God.
- It will hopefully prevent you from pursuing unprofitable pursuits. Seminary schools and unnecessary titles at church are not what you should be seeking. The person who sweeps the front steps at church as well as the Sunday school teachers are all glorifying God, and these are blessings to the church, but they don’t require the title of “pastor” or “minister of” to perform them. I don’t like these titles because it seems to be more self-glorifying than God-honoring. If you are the music director, or a teacher, or an usher, it is understood that that is your ministry (since each saint has one); therefore, it doesn’t need to be named as such. Remember, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to (Rom. 12:3).
“but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).
