Who are “the Called”? Mission, Commission, and Accountability
This chapter is an excerpt from Steven M. Fettke, God’s Empowered People: A Pentecostal Theology of the Laity (Wipf & Stock 2011). Another chapter appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Pneuma Review.
We need to recognize that such a sense of call [as Jeremiah had] in our time is profoundly counter-cultural, because the primary ideological voices of our time are the voices of autonomy: to do one’s own thing, self-actualization, self-assertion, self-fulfillment. The ideology of our time is to propose that one can live “an uncalled life,” one not referred to any purpose beyond one’s self. It can be argued that the disease of autonomy besets us all, simply because we are modern people …
If the ideology of autonomy talks us out of our call as it talked ancient Israel out of its call, we too may settle for idolatries that feel and sound like a call. An idolatrous alternative may take the form of a moral crusade in which we focus on one moral issue to the neglect of everything else. It may take the form of dogmatic crusade, which is often a disguised form of maintaining monopoly, an ecclesiastical passion, or an echo of civil religion. These are all diversionary activities to keep from facing the yielding in obedience that belongs to all who are called by this God.1
Introduction
Tilly has served God faithfully in the public schools for almost thirty years, most of that time as a guidance counselor in an at-risk middle school. Few would disagree that middle-school age is a very difficult age, especially when so many kids are being reared by guardians or grandparents or are latchkey kids with little love, attention, or supervision from a parental figure. Often, Tilly serves as a surrogate mother to these kids. Daily she deals with reports of parental abuse or neglect, student sexual promiscuity, pregnancy, and gang activity, along with student surliness, loneliness, threats of suicide, and exhausted teachers. In all of this chaos and despair, she prays daily for God’s strength and direction, and often she senses God’s spirit leading her and helping her love even the worst of the worst.
This is not to say that Tilly’s only concern is ministry. She strives to be the very best in her profession. Her supervisors regularly give her the highest possible ratings for job performance. Doing a good job in all aspects of her work, even the dreaded paperwork and committee work, is also a part of her mission and witness. God-called people do not slack off on those work responsibilities that they find tedious.
Tilly’s day might include kids loved, parents counseled and affirmed in caring for their kids, possible suicides stopped, potential fights between gangs mediated, lonely kids given attention, and exhausted teachers encouraged. Because kids, parents, and teachers have learned to trust her—learned that she truly cares about them—she can pray for them and recommend to them the life of faith in a place where normally such activities are forbidden. In a single day she might do more significant ministry than many professional ministers would do during an entire week. What keeps her going in such a setting? Tilly would answer this way: “It is the call of God and my desire to obey that call no matter how difficult the situation.”
Not once in her experience in Pentecostal churches did professional ministers and church leaders suggest a call to the public schools; as a young person she thought only pastors, evangelists, and missionaries were called. After all, only those people were discussed in church as “the called.” As an adult, she understands that God can call people to various places, including the public schools. However, Tilly has not discovered any setting in the local church in which she might share her struggles and prayer concerns related to her calling. She has never experienced a setting in the local church in which her call is acknowledged and where she is held accountable for her call.
Who is Tilly? She is my wife. She represents all kinds of people in Pentecostal churches who are called to work in the factory, medical profession, business or legal profession, and government service. Like Tilly, they also need to have their callings affirmed and their prayer concerns about their workplace ministries heard. These people may well be the only “minister” whom many of their coworkers, clients, students, or customers will ever encounter. Why wouldn’t the local church want to prepare them for the work of ministry in their workplaces (Eph 4:12)?
The Mission of the Church
The official statement on mission of the General Council of the Assemblies of God says this:
The Church is the Body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the Spirit, is an integral part of the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven. Since God’s purpose concerning man [sic] is to seek and to save that which is lost, to be worshipped by man [sic], to build a body of believers in the image of His Son, and to demonstrate His love and compassion for all the world, the priority reason for being of the Assemblies of God as part of the Church is: (1) To be an agency of God for evangelizing the world. (2) To be a corporate body in which man [sic] may worship God. (3) To be a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son. (4) To be a people who demonstrate God’s love and compassion for all the world.2
It is my purpose to “flesh out” in this chapter the implications of this notion of mission to the world in regard to the role of the laity and of the local church. Everyone in the community, not just the professional minister, can provide an effective gospel witness. The voices (and professions) of teachers, business people, medical professionals, and blue- and white-collar workers can and must be heard. These believers are also ministers in their workplaces. The local church can be a place where their callings are affirmed, where they are nurtured in their faith, where they are trained to do the work of ministry, and where their testimonies can be expressed. These lay ministers will go to places in North American society where the professional minister cannot go, either by law (the public schools) or by social convention (the secular workplace). In those secular places they might be the only “ministers” their fellow workers or students in public schools might ever meet.3 Often, people will never darken the door of a local church or be willing to talk to the pastor, but they will listen to a fellow worker whom they have learned to trust and respect. In effect, the believer who is their fellow worker becomes their “minister.”
Positively, Pentecostalism at its best is missional, in that it believes that the Spirit empowers all believers to work actively in the world for the growth of the kingdom, in mission and witness, by encountering the cultures of this world in redemptive and prophetic ways. At their best, Pentecostals have been able to inculturate the gospel, creating truly indigenous expressions of biblical faith. The spontaneity of the Spirit so valued in Pentecostal structures creates space for new and innovative cultural expressions of the gospel. Negatively, Pentecostals today have been seduced by the institutional model of the mega-church structure, in which the growth of numbers and trappings of success become the priority of mission. Top down leadership with a professional class of ministers who administer the faith is becoming the norm in many so-called successful Pentecostal churches, but at the cost of a truly missional approach that sustains personal formation and empowers all the people of God to work in the service of the King. The emphasis on performance in these churches, in which “professional” ministers, singers or administrators service the institution, has restricted the participation of the congregation in worship and world engagement.4
What is Laity?
The word for lay (person) comes from an adjective (laikos) of the Koine Greek word for people (laos). While the adjective (laikos) is not used in the New Testament, the noun (laos) is used quite often. The repeated use of “people” in 1 Peter 2:9-10—the foundational passage for the Protestant understanding of the role of the laity—indicates the people distinct from pagan Gentiles chosen by God to fulfill God’s purpose in the world. The word for clergy (kleros) appears in 1 Peter 5:3. There it referred to the believers allotted to each presbyter or each God-called church leader. Traditionally, Protestant theology has described the clergy as those who serve as overseers of the people of God in their religious activities. These professional ministers enter into their roles as church leaders by ordination, a process involving the claim and testing of a call to preach and the affirmation of that call by public ceremony.
If the pastor (kleros) is called to preach to and lead the local religious community, who will be the “salt” and “light” going into the world to proclaim the gospel (Matt 5:13–16)? Of course, the answer is the laity. This is the call of the laity: as they go about their daily lives the laity are to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:19–20).
If this call [of the Great Commission] is to be fulfilled, it is necessary that laypeople should be motivated and trained to involve themselves in Christian ministry, because it is only by the laity that the church can reach the whole society through its daily occupations and secular living. They are the bridge between the church and the world to which we have an obligation to minister. The church is a corporate community in which all, not just the clergy, have a ministry.5
Who are “the Called”?
Perhaps the question of who has the rightful claim on the use of the word “minister” has become a question of power in the Pentecostal church. Some would agree with the argument that the apostles’ diakonia (service or ministry) of the Word (Acts 6:4) would give them the right to be referred to as “ministers,” whereas the seven chosen “to serve” (diakonein) tables (Acts 6:2) should be called servants. In other words, those who are specifically called to a preaching ministry should be referred to as “ministers,” while those who have not been called to a speaking ministry should be called “servants.”6 Although all have been called to be servants (diakonos, Mark 9:35), the word “servant” connotes a lesser status in relation to that of the “minister” in our present social context.
While there are differences in the function of ministries, as Paul asserted in Romans 12:4, all Christians are gifted in their own unique ways to be God’s servants, or, better, “ministers.” Before Paul spoke of the different gifts Christians have, he advised that believers “not think of [themselves] more highly than [they] ought” (Romans 12:3). Professional ministers can be secure in their call to preach and not feel the least bit intimidated that lay ministers are called to be “mercy-showers” or “encouragers” or “givers.” Indeed, Peter advised, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet 4:10; italics added). No distinction is made between professional ministers (those who preach) and laypeople. On the Day of Pentecost, when people were filled with the Holy Spirit for service, the apostles were joined by a number of non-apostles (Acts 1:13–15) and all were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). When Peter explained this event in his Pentecost sermon, he said that all who would believe “will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), presumably also to be witnesses to the gospel.
Victor Paul Furnish has called diakonia
one of the vital signs of faith … The church as such is called to ministry; each congregation is understood by Paul to be commissioned for service. Several different kinds of evidence from his letters confirm this and provide us an idea of why he sought to monitor, maintain, and strengthen diakonia …7
People mentioned in various places in the Bible—Epaphroditus, Philemon, and others who were not apostles, pastors, or evangelists—clearly had some kind of ministry for which they are commended. All believers should be considered ministers/servants of God; however, for one reason or another most professional clergy seem to refuse to give permission to or empower laypeople to think of or call themselves ministers. Many laypeople might also feel uncomfortable calling themselves ministers, but the proper understanding of the term “minister” gives all believers a new sense of dignity and power with respect to serving God. Although spiritual power for all believers comes from God, people through their language and institutions bestow political and social power. The language and social construct of a Pentecostal church should reflect respect for the gifts of other believers, regardless of their identity as laity or as professional clergy.
Hindrances to Involvement in Ministry
While it is one thing to make a case from the Bible for ministry for all people, it is quite another thing to convince people that they are one of the “called.” Some common “resistances” to ministry among the laity should now be addressed.
James Fenhagen argues that professional ministers are reluctant to acknowledge as legitimate the ministry of laypeople. This stifles lay involvement. He quotes Peter Rudge, who argues that the organizational style of the local church can hinder lay involvement.8 To overcome this hindrance Fenhagen presents a “systematic” model of congregational life.9 By this is meant a style of leadership in which the pastor teaches others how to do ministry rather than doing it him or herself.
Many have noted the “confounded comma” in Ephesians 4:12 in the KJV. Ephesians 4:11 lists the speaking gifts of the church, which I would identify as those who are called to full-time professional ministry. Then Ephesians 4:12 says they are to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (NASB) or “prepare God’s people for works of service” (NIV).10 Instead, the KJV says, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry …” This seems to describe the duties of those with the gifts listed, rather than to indicate that those gifted were to train others to do ministry (Eph 4:11).11
If only the KJV is affirmed as the “true Bible,” then it is easy to see why professional ministers would want to do all ministry and see the laypeople only as recipients of ministry rather than regard them as fellow ministers. Fenhagen has argued that the professional minister is called to train laypeople to be ministers. Sadly, in many places, there is a kind of “imperial” Pentecostal/charismatic ministry. The pastor or evangelist wants people to look to him for the “legitimate” ministry; “enablement is limited simply because ‘ministry’ is dependent on the institution and gifts of the … leader.”12
Robert Worley says another hindrance to lay involvement in ministry is that the stated goals of a local church often do not reflect the intention or desire or permission of the congregation and so people will not commit to the plans presented.
The nature and intensity of persons’ involvement can be best understood by examining both congregational goals in relation to personal goals, and the use of the various forms of power to achieve congregational goals or the goals of leaders.13
Again, Fenhagen discusses what he calls “the traditional model” of ministry, which is “non-reflective and hierarchical … it does not lead toward an enabling ministry since it keeps the authority and power in the hands of the clergy.”14 Many local churches are organized in such a way that laypeople are not given any political power. They do not have permission to express their views or feelings, so they learn to be quiet and learn to expect that ministry will come only from the professional minister they have hired to be the pastor.
This leads to another hindrance to lay involvement in ministry—the lack of recognition or appreciation of lay ministry among the laity itself. Perhaps this occurs because the people have been taught that legitimate ministry happens only when the professional minister is involved. Others may be afraid to ask God what their gift might be for fear that doing so would lead to the pursuit of professional ministry. My wife used to be afraid to ask God what God wanted her to do for fear God would send her overseas to be a missionary. Mission service was not dishonorable to her; she just did not want to be a missionary. She had the mistaken idea that God’s call always involves professional ministry and that this ministry is unpleasant. When she discovered that she was called to public school teaching and, later, to public school guidance counseling, she found great joy in serving as a minister in her place of call.
Finally, some laypeople might be resistant to involvement in lay ministry because they just do not want to be bothered with these things. They are content to view the pastor as the one who does ministry. Having a consumer mindset, they attend church for what they decide is important and useful to them. They do not understand that all people who have become a part of God’s family are enlisted in God’s service with those gifts given by God. It is easier to write an offering check to pay others to do the work of ministry than it is to face the trials and difficulties that come with accepting a call. Doing so might also mean the painful task of personal transformation that makes believers better servants of God.
Two pastors met weekly on Monday mornings for breakfast to talk about their churches and their ministries. One week one pastor complained to another, “We are having trouble with bats in the church attic. When the worship starts and the guitars and drums used by the worship band get loud, the bats are disturbed, fly through an open-air duct, and bother the congregation. We have tried everything to get rid of them but can’t.” The other pastor replied, “We had the same problem a couple of years ago, but solved it.” “Really?” said the first pastor. “What did you do?” “Well,” replied the second pastor, “We went up to the attic, got to know the bats, invited them down for the service, got them baptized and had them join the church. Haven’t seen them since!”
Discovering Ministry
The process of discovering one’s ministry gift(s) does not have to begin with the local church leadership, but it should. The local church should be the place where every person can receive support, energy, and education for ministry.15 In this regard the pastor should develop a political/organizational style that enables people to discover their ministry potential. Also, pastors can highlight their own search for ministry and help others search for theirs. “The greatest gift a pastor has to give to another is not the right answer but the authenticity of his or her own search.”16
All members of a local congregation can be involved in appreciating the ministry of all others. If the “ministry” is not solely the professional clergy, then the ministry of all laypeople needs to be affirmed and supported. Richard R. Brohom has called for the local church to have a service of confirmation of lay ministry in a way similar to how some local congregations confirm people called to professional ministry.
Unless we are prepared to suggest that the calling of the religious professional is a higher calling than that of laity and is worthy of special recognition and confirmation, we must either be prepared to do away with the ordination of clergy or move to provide for the ordination of all Christians to their ministries of service in the world.17
Once an atmosphere of “every member ministry” has been established, the local church can begin to help people find their particular ministry gift(s). The work of educating people concerning their gifts exists in many forms. For instance, people can be taught that ministry gifts are not confined to the local church, but can and should be a part of people’s everyday existence. In fact, one’s daily work may be the ministry to which God has called him or her.
Through sermons on lay ministry, Bible studies, and personal testimony by successful lay ministers during worship services, believers are invited to begin their search for their call to lay ministry. Special services can be planned in the church’s annual calendar to emphasize such a call. Special prayers can be given in worship services each week for people who have begun the quest to learn what God’s call for them might be.
In an article entitled, “Ministry in the Work Setting,” Carolyn MacDougall speaks of how she experiences a call to ministry: the overall direction and use of her talents, the setting in which she chooses to use her talents, and the daily and sometimes hourly decisions that are a part of her job.18 In elaborating on these, she discusses the joys and conflicts in her work. It is evident that she feels called to and enjoys her work. Celia A. Hahn has said, “What an exciting witness could be made if the prayers of the people voiced on Sunday mornings included thanksgivings for achievements, new technical skills, small triumphs of justice in the workplace!”19
The church can affirm those who feel their daily work is their ministry, and the church can help others who feel stifled in their present work to discover whether or not they should change jobs or correct some problem in their present work situation. A pastor might allow brief testimonies of lay ministers who have successfully navigated the journey to discovery of their gift and place of lay ministry. The authentic voices of other lay ministers are powerful aids in the process believers experience in discovering their own calling. Fenhagen suggests two ways this can occur: (1) making our own journey available to others and (2) creating educational settings in which there is both trust and a spirit of exploration.20 People need to know that they have a community of trust in which they can express their joys and frustrations, and that other people are experiencing similar feelings. In chapter 5 I will describe what I call Spirit-enabled fellowship, by which believers might create a community of trust [Editor’s Note: Chapter Five: “Forming a Community of the Spirit: Hospitality, Fellowship, and Nurture” will be featured in the Winter 2011 issue of The Pneuma Review].
The educational settings that contain trust and a spirit of exploration are myriad and diverse. Mentoring relationships, Bible studies, internships, Sunday school classes, youth meetings, and men or women’s retreats are all places where such “education” about lay ministry might occur. It is important not to confine the quest and exploration just to what are considered conventional settings: worship services, Sunday school, small group meetings.
Discovering ministry can also occur in the local church by way of recognizing the gifts/talents of people. Often this has meant that people acknowledge and commend others for their particular abilities, but it can also mean that the abilities of certain people are appreciated even when those people were unaware that they were thus gifted. People in the congregation can serve as a kind of sounding board in hearing and seeing what kinds of things people like to do, and they can be like assayers in recognizing others’ abilities. Sometimes, people need to be coaxed and prodded to share what they are thinking or experiencing as they seek God for their callings. Wise counsel needs to be available in the local church so that people are neither coerced nor neglected. Fenhagen suggests that there needs to be “a regularized system of support.”21 By this he means that people need to be sustained and enriched in their ministries over the long haul. Consistent peer communication is necessary; it can take the form of some setting in which there are one or more believers who care, who are honest, and who can be trusted. In a succeeding chapter I will describe the vital roles of testimony and loving nurture in regard to this notion of support.
Still another way people can discover their place of ministry is for the local church to make the congregation aware of various kinds of local church, parachurch, community, and work-related opportunities that are available. People can be “matched” with some kind of ministry opportunity that is in keeping with their abilities and about which they may be unaware. Spiritual-gifts tests are available in various forms. Although these cannot replace the work of the Spirit as God brings to mind gifts and callings, these can be “conversation starters” that encourage believers to start thinking about what it is God might be doing in and through them.
In a similar way, the church community can help people to discover ways to do ministry at their workplace—ways that they may not have considered. For instance, how can people be ministers to their fellow workers when they work all day in a cubicle in front of a computer screen? Can the congregation help them to discover new and creative ways to be an example of Christ? How might lay ministers share their faith in a corporate, judicial, or public school setting where national law mandates a strict separation of church and state? Gifted ministry should not be limited to any one setting.
The local church would do well to prepare to enable people in their ministries wherever those ministries may be found. Many believers are probably doing the work of ministry in all kinds of secular settings. They can give testimony about their work and provide much needed wisdom in dealing with the potential legal dilemmas of trying to do ministry in places often perceived as hostile to religious outreach and personal ministry.
Validating a Call
When believers begin to sense their calling from God, then the local church community must affirm their ministry and affirm them in their place of ministry. Timothy was encouraged to exercise his gift, which was affirmed by the laying on of hands by church elders (1 Tim 4:14). This is a powerful way of recognizing publicly the kinds of ministries in which laypeople are actively involved, including those opportunities in their workplaces. Although Timothy was probably a full-time pastor, the model of public recognition and affirmation of a call to ministry can guide congregations in bearing witness publicly that laypeople do have a legitimate ministry gift.22
Jim Stockard, in the article “Commissioning the Ministries of the Laity: How It Works and Why It Isn’t Being Done,” proposes that a local congregation commission laypeople for ministry. He suggests five points for consideration when commissioning them.23 The first is that the commission involves the whole congregation. “The entire congregation confirms the challenge and promises support. Thus, the whole community is concentrated on one person and his or her ministry.”24 It allows the person to write the particulars of his/her commissioning ceremony, and allows others to help him/her in its composition, thus allowing them to say for the congregation what support will be given and what responsibilities are expected.
The second aspect of a commissioning is that it is part of a public worship service. Stockard noted that a public commissioning is a source of power and support; it stimulates congregational concern for one another’s work; it lets visitors know this congregation takes seriously the work of ministry.25
The third aspect of a commissioning is that it is a two-way street. The one being commissioned is given ministry responsibility, and the congregation commits to ongoing support. The fourth aspect of a commissioning is that the commission is theologically grounded. It is the Great Commission that differentiates believers from a social or political club.
The final aspect of a commissioning is that it is specific. Not only does the commissioned one need to tell the congregation the exact nature of his/her work, but the congregation also needs to know exactly how to provide the support he/she needs to accomplish the work to which he/she has been commissioned.
It is best to keep the work of commissioning as simple and direct as possible. It might be counterproductive to complicate things unnecessarily. Significance and meaning can be given to public commissioning of the laity in ways understandable to all! There can be two parts to the commissioning process:
1. What the person being commissioned promises.
2. What the congregation promises in response. In simple yet profound ways the callings of the laity and the affirmation of the congregation can occur so that everyone understands what is happening.
In terms of the first part, the person might be asked to promise these things:
1. To be faithful to God’s call.
2. To give periodic reports on her ministry through public testimony in settings made possible by the church.
3. To practice faithfully the spiritual disciplines emphasized by the church. In terms of the second part, the congregation might be asked to promise these things:
1. To offer training in and emphasis on the spiritual disciplines (e.g., Bible study, prayer, living a holy life, etc.).
2. To provide regular intercessory prayer for every called person in the church—layperson and professional minister alike.
3. To maintain a caring and nurturing atmosphere in the local church where both mature believers and new converts are welcomed and loved. These promises are given by the one being commissioned, then by the united voices of the congregation in a call-response fashion led by the pastor.
The beauty of this plan is that it is easy to understand and remember, and the whole congregation is involved in some way throughout the process of commissioning. The congregation gives a strong signal to the commissioned one that his/her ministry is part of the community. The commissioned one gives a strong signal to the community that he/she is in some way involved in all ministry in and through the church. Thus, one’s work life and church life are linked, as they should be, and people learn how much they need one another in this life of faith. People need the affirmation of others in all aspects of life, but especially in the work of ministry. They can better cope with life’s difficulties and challenges when they have been assured that people in the church community have promised their support.
Accountability
The commissioning process suggested by Stockard has an important ingredient that can help a congregation provide needed support. By writing the commissioning ceremony, the commissioned believers let the congregation know in what way they are accepting responsibility for ministry. If they do not live up to that responsibility, then the congregation can call them to be responsible to their commissioning. I use the word support in describing this effort because church discipline is necessary for the life of the church. After all, if the congregation has entered into a contract with laypeople in their commissioning, then it is only reasonable for that congregation to get what was promised, just as the congregation should give what it promised.
Fenhagen calls this process a “system of accountability and recognition.”26 He suggests that both the person doing ministry and the ones participating in the process write down a plan for ministry. “In this way they are establishing the norms by which they are to be held accountable [and] … if a job isn’t done, there is a clear base on which to make changes, or if done well, to offer genuine recognition and appreciation … ”27 However, again, allow me to emphasize the beauty of simplicity and brevity. This “contract” does not have to be a treatise or a long, legal document. Often, just writing down on one sheet of paper one’s heart for a particular group or setting in terms of a call to ministry to them can reveal one’s passion and desire to please God and love those people. Grammar and punctuation don’t even have to be correct! All that really matters in this is the expression of one’s heart.
An important caveat must be inserted here. While it is very important for believers’ hearts to be heard about their call, it is also important to have godly wisdom in this whole process. Not everybody who has a heart for something actually should be doing that thing. Someone might have a heart to teach in the most difficult public school setting possible, but if he doesn’t have a college degree he just isn’t going to be able to do so. Another person might want to be a lawyer who advocates for the poor, but if she doesn’t have a law degree she isn’t going anywhere. A committee of mature laypeople with successful lay ministries can be established who then will provide feedback and counsel to those seeking confirmation of a sense of call and a public commissioning of their call. This committee can represent the congregation in assisting those whose hearts are burning to serve God. Confirmation of someone’s call by two or three mature witnesses is a good policy for any congregation to establish.
The point here is that in commissioning people for ministry the entire congregation accepts responsibility for ministry, not just the person being commissioned. When people fail to meet their responsibilities in ministry, the whole congregation should feel the disappointment and hurt that can occur. If a congregation accepts the credit for the fine work of one of its members, so it should share the blame for the failure of one of its members. The erring one needs the love and correction of the church community just as much as (or more than) the one who does well needs the approving embrace of the community.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
The distinctive doctrine of the Pentecostal church is that the spirit of God is available to all who ask God to be filled so that they may be effective servants of God. A strong tradition exists among these groups to rely on the strength of God by the Holy Spirit to do effective ministry. This work of the Spirit cannot be contained in programs developed by well-meaning and successful preachers or controlled by the efforts of well-meaning believers no matter how sincere they are. The spirit of God remains unrestrained, uncontrolled, and unharnessed by any human powers. Instead, the Spirit has been given as a gift and an expression of God’s love. Furnish has said,
… the quickening power of the Spirit is nothing else than the enlivening power of God’s love to which faith is the response and by which faith finds concrete expression in the believer’s life … If there is any doubt about the importance Paul places on diakonia as one of faith’s vital signs, that must finally be dispelled by his words in Galatians 5:13–14, where love’s service is presented as the essence of God’s law.28
All believers are called to submit to the unmanageable spirit of God so that they might go where the Spirit sends them and minister in love to those for whom Christ has died. No program, no matter how well conceived, could ever anticipate the nuances and subtleties encountered in the ministry of any believer or any one local church. Relying on the spirit of God will mean that believers are called to intercessory prayer, suffering for and with those to whom they are called, and believing with and for them that God might help them. It also means they must wrestle with the complexities of modern life and the mysterious work of the Spirit.
The commissioning service of laypeople can include a prayer for the Spirit’s empowerment for service and a reminder to the congregation that God is present in God’s servants and will help them in their work. The apostle’s command to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Eph 5:18) is expressed in the present active imperative tense in the Koine Greek text (i.e., “keep on being filled with the Spirit”). It is an ongoing process of being filled with the Holy Spirit daily that enables God’s servants to serve God faithfully and thus fulfill God’s call.
Spiritual formation is vital in developing successful lay ministry. Before the fruit of the Spirit can become evident in lay ministers, they will need to submit to the Spirit’s work in developing them into faithful servants of God. The Spirit’s work can be tedious, painful, and time consuming because of the pruning and purging that occurs when the Spirit enters lives. Believers might be eager to get on with their lay ministries only to discover that God wants to work on them deeply first before they can experience any significant success in their callings. Fanciful programs purchased at the local Christian bookstore might make promises of “instant” success; however, submission to the Spirit’s work will mean a long process of sanctification and growth rather than instant “success.”
It is one thing to be excited about being filled with the Spirit to serve God, especially in an emotional worship service; it is another thing to be faithful to God’s call in a tedious job when no worship band is playing and no inspirational singing can be heard. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given so that people might praise God appropriately, but also that they might become the people God wants them to be. How can lay ministers serve their coworkers when the coworkers may be hostile, backbiting, proud, and ambitious? It is by the Spirit’s work that believers overcome the obstacles in life.
Pastors and congregations should remember that the gift of the Spirit is available also in times of tedium, grief, and pain. Successful lay ministry—all ministries—will have times of great difficulty and strain. This does not mean the Spirit has departed; the gifts and callings of God have not been taken away. Believers will face hardships and difficulties, but in such times the Spirit helps them in their weakness and even intercedes for them with deep empathetic groaning (Rom 8:26–27).
What is meaningful is that the work of the Spirit in empathizing with weak believers through intercession and a sense of God’s presence can itself be an example to be followed. Believers so assisted by the gift of the Spirit can in turn empathize with their coworkers as they face their own difficulties, even—or especially—those coworkers who are difficult or hostile.
A former student of mine works for a large company whose regional headquarters are located in central Florida. He told me a story about a department headed by an avowed atheist. Just under him as his assistant was my former student, “Mike,” a committed Christian. Many of the other workers in the department were Christians who made known their faith by keeping to themselves during break time, having private Bible studies with each other during lunch, and prominently displaying religious trinkets on their desks. One of these coworkers contracted an aggressive form of cancer and passed away just six weeks after the diagnosis. The avowed atheist boss asked the other workers in the department for volunteers to gather on a Saturday to collect the deceased worker’s things at work and at her apartment to ship to her family in another state. When Saturday arrived, only “Mike” and the avowed atheist boss showed up. He made a point of asking “Mike” about the validity of the Christian faith of the other workers who had so publicly expressed their faith but were so notably absent from this organized attempt to help the family of the deceased coworker.
It can be easy and convenient to produce a “witness” that is most comfortable to believers rather than to provide a kind of sacrificial service that may be very inconvenient and even difficult. It is important for the local church to make those believers who are interested in true lay “missions” in their neighborhoods and workplaces understand that serving others often can be difficult and may require sacrifice. If “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), then Christians who want to be like their Lord can understand what true service may entail. The gift of the Holy Spirit is what will remind them that true service might require personal sacrifice.
Finally, it is important to note that the gift of the Holy Spirit is no substitute for a good work ethic and a concern for excellence. Far too often some Pentecostals have thought that just lots of prayer and worship time are sufficient for preparation for all things. While I certainly do not want to discount prayer and worship, I also do not want these to become a kind of excuse for not doing one’s very best. People who hope to gain the trust of coworkers so that they might serve them in the name of Christ will want to prove their worth as a worker who can be admired for the mature and appropriate manner in which tasks are completed. A concern for doing a good job is also a characteristic of someone filled with the Spirit.
A varsity public high school basketball team played against a local Catholic high school team. Early in the game the public high school players noticed the captain of the Catholic team making the sign of the cross before shooting a free throw. “Hey, coach,” one of the players on the bench asked, “what does that mean?” The coach’s quick reply was, “Not a thing if he can’t shoot!”
The God-Called and the “Necessary Other”
Kathleen Norris’s description of the formation of her art speaks volumes to those called by God.
Art is a lonely calling, and yet paradoxically communal. If artists invent themselves, it is in the service of others. The work of my life is given to others; in fact, the reader completes it. I say the words I need to say, knowing that most people will ignore me, some will say, “You have no right,” and a few will tell me that I’ve expressed the things they’ve long desired to articulate but lacked the word to do so.29
It is the phrase, “the reader completes it,” that so fascinates me and resonates within me as well as convicts me.
In describing this “completion,” Norris uses the phrase, “necessary other,”30 by which she means the process that completes the “transaction” (my term) between poet and reader. As a God-called teacher, I can become so enamored with my learning and research I can isolate myself and become entirely self-serving in both my research and teaching. In my selfishness I can say, “I am the only ‘necessary other’ and the ‘others’ in my sphere of influence will just have to adjust to me.” It is this attitude that poets—and teachers and all God-called people—have to resist. The Spirit who calls us also calls us into a community in which others are necessary. We resist that call to community to the detriment of our call and the Spirit’s work. Here is how she describes it:
How dare the poet say “I” and not mean the self? How dare the prophet say “Thus says the Lord”? It is the authority of experience, but by this I do not mean experience used as an idol, as if an individual’s experience of the world were its true measure. I mean experience tested in isolation, as by the desert fathers and mothers, and also tried in the crucible of community. I mean “call” taken to heart, and over years of apprenticeship to an artistic discipline, developed into something that speaks to others.31
It is in the community to which we have been called that the “transaction” among all in the community occurs. Isolated individuals may create wonderful “art,” but they cannot complete their work without the necessary others, without whom the art—or ministry—will be lost.
All of this may seem obvious and elementary; however, sadly, many operate within organizations, programs, and plans and remain oblivious to those people affected by those plans. A worship leader can lead in all his personal and favorite music and be oblivious to the fact that few are participating or identifying with him or his music. A pastor can preach or lead from his own agenda and be unaware of and even uncaring about the feelings or willingness of the people in regard to what he is doing. Remaining connected to these people—these “necessary others”—is the heart and soul of our callings!
A Suggested Confirmation Ceremony
As I have already noted, it is important for the congregation to affirm the callings of the church members. A public confirmation ceremony has the power to give the ones being confirmed a sense of community support and affirmation, but it also has the power to emphasize to all—to witness—that these people are declaring publicly their commitment to be carrying out the mission of the Church and that the mission of the Church is very important. At the center of the ceremony is the pastor whose leadership in the ceremony during worship services also sends a strong signal of affirmation and support. In fact, pastors who lead these ceremonies might also first preach on the call of every Christian to fulfill the mission of the Church: the Great Commission. At the conclusion of the sermon, those who have been “examined” previously by the lay committee concerning their sense of call and whose callings have received the “witness” or the “amen” from the lay committee are called to the front for the ceremony. As a part of the ceremony, they will be asked to read or recite their part of the commissioning ceremony.
Please note here that instead of having half the congregation commissioned in just one service, each commissioning service might be better limited to four or five laypeople at most. Limiting the number involved each time makes the ceremony shorter, it gives each person being commissioned a chance to speak, and it suggests more such ceremonies to come. This can be a monthly event with four or five laypeople commissioned each time. As the months go by, previously commissioned laypeople might participate in future ceremonies by giving a brief testimony about what the ceremony meant to them and how their lay ministry has been fruitful.
The pastor will then read appropriate Scriptures related to the idea of God’s call (e.g., Eph 4:12, called to do the work of ministry; Mark 9:35, everyone is a servant; Matt 5:13–16, be salt and light; Matt 28:19–20, the Great Commission; Acts 1:8, filled with the Spirit to be a witness; etc). These passages (or parallel passages) might also be used as the biblical text for that day’s sermon by the pastor.
Next, the pastor will ask each layperson being commissioned to read their brief statement written especially for this ceremony. Those who are embarrassed to do this in front of the congregation or who are not able to speak well (or not at all, like my autistic son) might choose someone to speak on their behalf. What is important here is for the congregation to hear the heart of those being commissioned to their ministries, to describe how they have sensed God’s call to their specific place, and how much they care for their coworkers. It is a form of testimony in that it is an opportunity for them to share how God has worked in their hearts and to give praise to God for gifts and callings. The emphasis here is on “brief” statements as it is important not to drag out the ceremony and thus make everyone dread its future occurrence.
While I prefer “live” presentations of laypeople reading or reciting their statements of call, I also recognize that some larger churches can afford to record these statements on DVD so that they might be played during the commissioning service. Each person could be recorded reading or reciting a statement of call and while speaking, scenes of their place of call could be shown, including scenes of him/her there “in action.” Special music could be added by skilled video editors, which would make for a very nice video presentation. A few presentations of call (or even several, if the commissioning service were a large group) could be played at this point of the service, leading then to the next step.
The pastor will then ask the ones being commissioned to respond with “I will” to each of these three questions:
1. Will you be faithful to God’s call as you have described it to us?
2. Will you bring testimony regularly to the congregation of God’s work through you?
3. Will you practice faithfully the spiritual disciplines taught in this church? Next, the pastor will turn to the congregation and ask it to respond with “We will” to each of these three questions:
1. Will you make sure there is training in the spiritual disciplines in this church?
2. Will you regularly pray for these lay ministers?
3. Will you make sure there is a caring and nurturing atmosphere in this church where both new converts and mature believers might be welcomed and loved? The pastor will then lead the congregation in prayer for the commissioned ones. It would be a nice gesture to have other laypeople surround and lay hands on those who are being commissioned as the pastor leads in prayer. In fact, previously commissioned lay ministers might be asked to join the pastor in this part of the ceremony. The pastor might include in his prayer a call for a fresh awareness of God’s spirit as each one engages in Spirit-empowered ministry.
Finally, the service can conclude with a hymn or choruses that are appropriate to the ceremony. An especially appropriate hymn for this occasion is “Take My Life and Let it Be, Consecrated, Lord to Thee”; however, no doubt there are modern choruses or songs that would be appropriate for this occasion in place of a hymn. After the singing, the congregation might be dismissed with the benediction but with the added invitation to congratulate those who have been commissioned.
I cannot finish this section without anticipating what might happen in certain churches. It must be emphasized before, during, and after the ceremony—hopefully in clear but discreet ways so as not to upset people—that this ceremony is not a legal process by which laypeople are being “ordained” into professional ministry as happens with professional ministers in some churches with a congregational polity (e.g., the Southern Baptist Convention). No doubt, some laypeople will try to use the commissioning ceremony as a way to get IRS approval for the tax benefits provided to professional ministers. In teaching on this, in the interviews with the lay committee, and even cited (in small print) in a ceremony certificate that a church might choose to give each layperson commissioned, wise church leaders should provide clear statements that express the “lay” part of the ceremony versus the professional part. Churches will do well to specify in their literature and in public statements that the commissioning ceremony is not an attempt to give every member special tax benefits designated for professional ministers. The ceremony is only the church’s way of recognizing that all believers are called to serve God in the place to which God has called them.
A Groundswell Begins?
I have been teaching at a Christian university for over thirty years. In discussing the issue of lay ministries with generations of students, I have learned that in their churches they have not been taught about lay ministries other than those ministries directly involved with volunteer service in their local church. They also say that they are not taught about integrating their faith with their secular part-time jobs other than to invite coworkers to a church special of some kind or to try to talk to them about Jesus.
Often, these students are confused about how they are to share their faith or they are frustrated because they do not know what to say to coworkers who challenge their faith. They usually have not considered that there might be for them a call of God to a secular workplace—they usually just complain about how poorly they are treated as part-time workers. This frustration needs to be addressed so that when they graduate they do not become full-time workers who are still frustrated. So many churches are doing a poor job of preparing members to find their place in God’s kingdom, even if that might mean a call to the secular workplace. Many of these students want to serve God but do not sense any call to be a professional minister. Increasingly, they are becoming disenchanted with the idea of traditional professional ministry. Instead of choosing a ministerial major as so many did in the past, many students are now choosing majors in business, education, and psychology; however, they lack an understanding of how these majors can provide opportunities for them to fulfill their call.
For some time, Christian liberal arts colleges and universities have sought to help students integrate their faith and chosen profession through courses designed to get them to think about ways their faith impacts their secular work. At the university where I work, I have been involved in this process from the religion side of the equation. In helping to design the coursework that makes up the curriculum, I am troubled by the forces from both the religion faculty and the faculty in non-religion majors who are unhappy with each other and the choices made. Religion faculty want non-religion majors to have a thorough intellectual knowledge of the Christian faith in the hopes this will translate into Christian spirituality. Non-religion faculty want fewer required religion courses, and the courses they do desire they want to be designed specifically for their majors and focused on how to make moral and ethical decisions related to their professions.
I think the opposing opinions have valid strengths and weaknesses. It is important for students to understand their faith—faith seeks understanding—and to have and be able to articulate at least a solid rudimentary Christian theology. It is also important for students to understand how to deal with the moral and ethical dilemmas they might face in their professions. However, it is most important for students to understand that they are called of God regardless of their chosen profession. It is not the right intellectual knowledge about theology, morality, or ethics that is the foundation of their faith. It is their relationship with God that is most important. From this relationship with God they will begin to grasp God’s mission and their call within God’s mission. Once that is grasped, there will be a newfound enthusiasm for being able to articulate a clear message of faith as well as to be able to decide properly about moral and ethical issues. They need close contact with mentors in their future profession, mentors who can help them grasp what it means to be called to be business people, teachers, and psychologists.
What seems to be happening apart from the efforts of local churches and Christian universities is a groundswell of activity from laypeople that want to make a difference in the place where God has called them. If the Christian university and the local church cannot find ways to help them define and do that, then they will begin to find ways to do those things themselves.
Business as Mission
One such effort is called “Business as Mission” (hereafter referred to as BAM). While it has become a buzzword among religious missions programs led by missiologists, Christian business people themselves have taken on the task of defining BAM differently. In examining this phenomenon, I am indebted to the excellent work of C. Neal Johnson.32 His book begins with a very revealing interview:
The idea (of BAM) is … simple: It assumes that the main players in overseas kingdom work are not trained cross-cultural missionaries or NGO professionals, but laypeople who take their current expertise (whether it is teaching, plumbing, electronics, or so forth) and use it to serve people in other nations … I view the church as an army of missionaries sitting in the pews. My job is to utilize them … Some people talk about “business as mission,” how we’re going to use business to do mission work. That’s an insult to the businessman [sic], because to him business is his mission. His mission is the kingdom of God.33
Johnson is careful to distinguish in his book his understanding of BAM from those of others who develop a business to get into countries where they could not enter as Christian missionaries. Sometimes those “businesses” are shams, only “covers” for covert missionary activity. Sometimes businesses claim to be “Christian” in the hope of profiting from church people patronizing their business; they are hoping to exploit the Christian part of “Christian” business.
At a conference at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2004, made up of sixty-eight BAM activists from twenty-eight countries, Johnson described how difficult it was to come up with a definition of BAM.34 The participants managed at the conference to find some key characteristics with which they could agree.35 Johnson’s own definition reads:
BAM is broadly defined as a for-profit commercial business venture that is Christian led, intentionally devoted to being used as an instrument of God’s mission (missio Dei) to the world, and is operated in a cross-cultural environment, either domestic or international.36
Johnson is insistent that BAM should be understood as involving legitimate for-profit business enterprises, not missions’ organizations or charities disguised as businesses.
While the participants in the conference might have quibbled about proper definitions of BAM, what is important to me about this whole process is that it was lay led with a clear desire to fulfill God’s mission as business people. It was an effort from the grassroots to define mission clearly in terms of a secular business enterprise with the goal of “the greater glory of God.”37 Johnson’s book is full of insights and success stories from various business enterprises established around the world. This is an amazing resource for lay businesspeople who feel called individually to be the best businessperson and/or have the best business for the glory of God. Interestingly, Johnson speaks about call and spiritual formation in very similar ways to the ones I have articulated in this book.38 Pastors and local churches will find a rich mine of material as they attempt to help their lay businesspeople find their callings in their communities.
Efforts similar to BAM in relation to other professions might spring up from the grassroots. It would be exciting to see Public School Teaching as Mission (PSTM), Law as Mission (LAM), Medicine as Mission (MAM—not just doctors or nurses going on short-term missions’ trips but serving their communities “for the glory of God”), Factory Work as Mission (FWM), Government Work as Mission (GWM), etc. Rather than consider such professions as necessary evils in our society or places that are thought to be hopelessly corrupt (lawyers, government workers, and public schools are especially singled out for complaint), the pastor and laypeople can pray that God will call people to those places in society where they might be salt and light there. In addition, pastors and laypeople can pledge to make every effort to equip the called ones and intercede in prayer for them.
It is important in my plan that lay ministers become integrated into the fabric of the local church in regard to the callings as lay ministers. However, it would also be good for local churches to sponsor in their church building groups such as BAM and any others that might spring up spontaneously. Again, it is important that such groups not be isolated from the life of the local church and its mission; however, it is also good for them to be able to meet regularly to “talk shop” about their professions, their callings.
If the formation of BAM is any indication, perhaps this is a new wind of the Spirit blowing on the hearts of laypeople. If the role of the laity has been obscured in the local church,39 which reduces the laity to passivity,40 then the Spirit, free and unrestrained by human control, must descend upon open hearts willing to be called to serve God in places often relegated to and dismissed as worldly, fleshly, and devilish. The laity is working and living in places the institutional church may not enter by law or by social custom. I think laypeople are beginning to listen to what the Spirit might be saying that is different from what they might be hearing in their churches. They just might be hearing God’s call to these places.
It is the daring and provocative preaching of Pentecostal ministers in the past who have insisted that the Holy Spirit cannot be controlled, restricted, or restrained. The Spirit is alive and well and working in ways that cannot be thwarted by institutions, social customs, or even well established traditions. Indeed, pioneers of the modern Pentecostal movement railed against those very obstacles at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, might there be a new outpouring of the Spirit that blesses lay ministries?
I would pray that the Spirit would continue to call and send committed laypeople to the most confounding places of North American society: public schools, political arenas, the legal profession, and the establishment media. Hopefully, pastors and local churches will begin to recognize where the Spirit is working and will join in affirming and commissioning these laypeople rather than resisting this work and insisting on only conventional paths of Christian ministry. The wind of the Spirit is blowing and no one can control the direction.
PR
Next Issue:
Chapter Five from Steven M. Fettke, God’s Empowered People: A Pentecostal Theology of the Laity (Wipf & Stock 2011), “Forming a Community of the Spirit: Hospitality, Fellowship, and Nurture.”
Notes
1 Walter Brueggemann, Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 19-20.
2 The General Council of the Assemblies of God. “Our 16 Fundamental Truths,” lines 1-11. http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Statement_of_Fundamental_Truths/sft_full.cfm#10
3 See W. Rodman MacIlvaine, III. “How Churches Become Missional” Bibliothecra Sacra 167 (April-June), 231.
4 Peter Althouse in a book review of Invading Secular Space appearing in The Pneuma Review 11:4 (Fall 2008), 60-61.
5 Jey J. Kanagaraj. “The Involvement of the Laity in the Ministry of the Church.” Journal of Evangelical Review of Theology 21/4 (1997), 327.
6 Anthony D. Palma, “Who is a Minister?” Advance (1979), 13.
7 Victor Paul Furnish, “Theology and Ministry in the Pauline Letters,” in A Biblical Basis for Ministry, Earl Shelp and Ronald Sunderland, eds. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981), 131.
8 James C. Fenhagen, Mutual Ministry (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977), 101.
9 Ibid., 103.
10Ibid., 99ff.
11 Hendrik Kraemer, Theology of the Laity (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1958), 139-140.
12 Fenhagen, Ibid., 102.
13 Robert C. Worley, A Gathering of Strangers (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984), 38.
14 Fenhagen, Ibid., 101.
15 Ibid., 106.
16 Ibid., 105.
17 Richard R. Brohom, “How Can You Believe You’re a Minister When the Church Keeps Telling You You’re Not?” The Laity in Ministry (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1984), 25.
18 Carolyn MacDougal, “Ministry in Work Setting: A Personal Study,” The Laity in Ministry (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1984), 51-52.
19 Celia A. Hahn, Lay Voices in an Open Church (Washington, D.C.: The Alban Institute, 1985), 17.
20 Fenhagen, Ibid., 109.
21 Ibid. 107.
22 See Mary Elizabeth Moore, “Commissioning the People of God: Called to Be a Community in Mission” Journal of Quarterly Review 23:4 (2003), 399-411. This article comes from the United Methodist Church tradition, but it makes a strong case from John Wesley’s ministry that he practiced the commissioning of lay preachers, class leaders, deacons, elders, and superintendents. “Wesley did not see ordained roles as distinct but defined them in relation to the ministry of the body…The ministry of all Christians was thus central to the words and practices of the early Wesleyan movement” (401).
23 Jim Stockard, “Commissioning the Ministries of the Laity: How It Works and Why It Isn’t Being Done,” in The Laity in Ministry (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1984), 72-75.
24 Ibid., 72.
25 Ibid., 73.
26 Fenhagen, Ibid., 107.
27 Ibid.
28 Furnish, Ibid., 133.
29 Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996): 43; (emphasis mine).
30 Ibid., 42.
31 Ibid., 43; (emphasis mine).
32 C. Neal Johnson, Business as Mission: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice (Downers Grove, IL.: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
33 Ibid., 24 Bob Roberts, Jr., as interviewed by Mark Galli.
34 Ibid., 28.
35 Ibid., 29.
36 Ibid., 28.
37 Ibid., 29.
38 Ibid., 193-213.
39 Miroslov Volf. After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 227.
40 Frank Macchia, “The Struggle for the Spirit in the Church: The Gifts of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God in Pentecostal Perspective,” Theology and Worship Tidings 10 (2000), 16-17.
This chapter is from Steven M. Fettke, God’s Empowered People: A Pentecostal Theology of the Laity (Wipf & Stock 2011). Used with permission.
