Priesthood of Believers - Part Five - Ministry is for Everyone, Not just Professionals

The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana, reported an amazing story:  Store Refusing Cash - No Gag.

On Thursday, August 19, Stoner’s Novelty Market in Ft. Wayne on Coldwater Road was robbed and the female clerk was tied up.  That's not the shocking part.  Robberies happened.  What is tragic is what happened next.

Frank Gray from the Journal reports:  "To add insult to injury, shortly after the robber had fled, a woman walked into the shop and the clerk, sobbing, told her she had just been robbed and three times begged her to cut her free so she could call the police. Instead of helping, the woman announced she didn’t want to get involved and left, leaving the clerk tied up and giving the crook more time to get away."

Tragic.  No Good Samaritan that day.  The clerk eventually dialed the phone with her tongue and got the help she needed.  From the “professionals.” 

We have, as a society, professionalized everything.  And you can think what you will on whether that is a good or a bad thing for society, but I want to emphasize that it is a terrible thing for the kingdom of God.  My skills and calling have me serving in the capacity I serve, as a pastor at a church and various organizations in the community.  Your skills and calling have you serving where you serve.  Some of us have positions in life that we feel are inferior to others, but we need to realize that the position we are in right now, will be used by God to bring about His will.  He might not have caused us to be in our position, but he will use us as his priests to bring about His will in your situation. 

When it comes to entering into the presence of the Lord, we can be assured that Jesus’ blood covers our sins.  And because of that, we can have direct access to the lord. 

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matt 27:50-51 (ESV)

When Jesus died for our sins, the barrier between God and man was torn in two.  Each one of us, whether you are a pastor like me or a young kid like Aria, has direct access to the Heavenly Father because of the blood of Jesus.  When we surrender our life to Jesus and His will, we become His.  When we are His, that line of communication is open. 

So when we feel that we might just be a banana salesman on the beach rather than the sexy lifeguard, we need to realize that God can use the banana salesman to save lives just like he can use the lifeguard.   All it takes is a banana salesman who is willing to get wet, to go out there into the water and save people. 

Priesthood of Believers - Part Four - The Bible on the Priesthood

The priesthood of believers is not just a passing comment; it’s core to who we are as Christians.

Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;  but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Isaiah 61:5-6 (ESV)

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:4-5,9-10 (ESV)

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:4-6 (ESV)

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Rev 5:9-10 (ESV)

We, the body of Jesus, are the replacement of the Levitical priesthood.  No longer do we need someone to be the human intermediary between us and God, we have Jesus.  No longer do people need a priest to talk to God, they have you or can go to Him directly.  And people should be able to see God through us, His priesthood.

Priesthood of Believers - Part Three - Prayer and the Priesthood

At Riverside, where I pastor, we have a list of core convictions.  Two of them are in regard to prayer.         

• We believe in praying that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven and desire to follow that prayer by doing our best to change our surroundings to his will.
• We believe that we have a direct line with God with no need for anyone to stand between us and God, although we will gladly pray and help others.

Let’s tackle the first one.  We believe in praying that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven and desire to follow that prayer by doing our best to change our surroundings to his will.

When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  I have previously written about discovering God’s will.  In doing that it bringing it about, we must keep focused on just following one step at a time.  When we pray for something, we need to examine whether there is an action we can do to help bring it about.  If we pray for someone to be saved, follow it up by ministering to them.  If we pray for a safe journey, then look for ways to do God’s will on the way.  If we pray for safety in a time of trial, follow it up with courageous and bold acts that require safety.  When we pray, we need to look for ways to bring about God’s will.  God often answers the prayers we ask by using us to bring about what we are praying for. 

Our focus for fruitful prayer needs to be God’s will.  We need to pray and ask like Jesus taught us-for His will to be done.  If we are trying to bring about God’s will and concerned about the things of God, our prayer life will be revolutionized.

Our next conviction states:  “We believe that we have a direct line with God with no need for anyone to stand between us and God, although we will gladly pray and help others.”

We frequently give lip service to the theological concept of the priesthood of believers.  This comes out in the story I shared earlier about the lifeguard and banana salesmen.

Priesthood of Believers - Part Two - Drawbacks and Roles of Pastors

My friend leaving the ministry might even be able to do more for God’s kingdom because pastors have some inherent disadvantages due to our position.  One of our main jobs is to write lessons and prepare sermons.  I do that away from people with the hope that the words that I share here in these twenty minutes and eventually post online will empower people like you to bring about God’s will in your world.  A pastor’s normal work week does not put us into contact with people who have not surrendered their life to Jesus like the people we are equipping to do God’s will.  You are on the frontlines, serving God in your places of work, in your homes, and your schools while I sit in a church preparing a sermon and a lesson in the hope that it will help you bring about God’s will in your world.  If you are not bringing about God’s will in the world around you – if you are just going through the motions of church attendance or some other religious rituals, then this is all meaningless, and I am failing at doing this ministry. 

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.  Eph 4:11-16 (ESV)

The work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (that’s elders), and teachers is to equip those they are ministering - that’s you guys - to do the works of Jesus.  You have a great advantage over us apostles, prophets, and evangelists.  Those of us who are in full-time ministry have inherent disadvantages to transforming those around us because of our position.  People think we are paid to do the things we do.  They act fake around us because we are men of the cloth.  They keep their distance from us in the fear we might see who they really are.  Although I do my best to be involved in the community, the most detrimental thing to the life of a minister transforming the community they minister in is that we don’t work alongside people on the frontlines.  We don’t have work to develop relationships through.  In preparation for ministry, we have been trained how to properly study the word of God and effective forms of communication because one of the main roles of our calling is to teach.  We teach right doctrine so that people will have right living.  You sit through a sermon like this or a lesson like we had earlier, not so you can win some Bible trivia contest or fulfill some religious ritual, you do it so that you can be who God wants you to be in the workplace, in school, and in the neighborhood you live in. 

Paul concluded the section we just read by saying that the leaders equip – you are here to be equipped – so that this church will grow and be built up by us loving one another and those outside the church. 

So we must realize that everyone might not be called to be a lifeguard.  Some are called to be banana salesmen, sunbathers, surfers, sandcastle builders, and more.  We just need to make sure that we are focused on doing God’s will no matter what our second job is because our first job, if we have surrendered our life to Jesus, is to do His will.  A Christian is never unemployed; sometimes the earthly pay just isn’t good, but the spiritual peace of mind is always worth it.  I love being a pastor, but that does mean that my calling is a higher calling than yours.  Each one of us has an important calling.   You are called to be an influence for God wherever you are.

Priesthood of Believers - Part One - Doing our Callling Well

The other week, a friend of mine who has been the senior pastor at a church for the past twelve years let everyone know that he was going back to college to pursue a degree in communications rather than ministry.  He had been looking for another church to minister at, but this was the culmination of that failed search and an exit from the ministry for the time being. 

Another one of my friend’s in the ministry was talking to him and tried to encourage him to stay in the ministry.  The minister told my friend that was resigning that God had just lost one of His warriors.  He then proceded to tell a story about a lifeguard.  This lifeguard was inspired to be a lifeguard as a child, and he was good at it.  But then a swimmer drowned, so he decided to better himself and go get more training.  While training, the lifeguard forgot the urgency and importance of his position.  He saw that there was money to be made selling bananas on the beach.  So the lifeguard quit his job as a lifeguard and started to sell bananas.  My friend attempted, through the telling of this story, to show to the minister leaving the ministry that he shouldn’t stop being a lifeguard to become a banana saleman. 

My initial response to that story was that God will gladly use a banana seller who is also trained as a lifeguard.  Just because someone is not in the paid ministry, that does not mean they cannot be used by God to save people.  A banana salesman might be in the right place at the right time to save someone rather than stationed as the lifeguards are. 

My friend in the ministry struggles with clergification, that’s the idea that clergy can better bring about God’s will than anyone else.  This leads to ministers trying to be superChristians and burning out, probably like my resigning friend did.  Cause what happens in these scenarios is that the clergy is the only one that can call on people, the only that can teach.  His presence is necessary, in this tainted to view, for the church to be represented.  But a healthy church is much different.  In a healthy church, everyone takes on the responsibility of representing Jesus at functions.  And the minister does not need to do everything or most things. 

I’m not belittling my training that I received to be a minister of the good news.  I think it is important to have ministers, and it’s essential to have them trained for the calling they are entering.  But it is not just important for pastors to be trained; it’s important for every Christian to be trained well.  Some times that will mean formal training; other times it will mean hanging out with mature Christians, just checking out how other churches do things, or reading a book, but we all must better train ourselves to do what God has called us to do.  This does not mean that my friend will not be doing God’s work because he is stepping out of the paid ministry.  Each one of us has a ministry, even those of you who do not have an official ministry at this church like being in charge of the children’s ministry, worship, teens, or teaching.  Each one of us has an important and essential ministry that God is using to bring about His will into this world.  We must examine whether we recognize the ministry we are called to, are bettering ourselves for that ministry, and are focused on living our life to further that ministry.

Quotes from Elton Trueblood's Your Other Vocation

The following quotes are from Elton Trueblood's Your Other Vocation. You might not completely get it from these quotes, but he takes the stance that a pastor needs to train up and work alongside of an active laity. The paid pastorate does not need to disappear. With that in your head, let's begin.

"Our chief gains now come from the courageous ways of reacting to our losses. The strategy of wisdom consists in knowing so well the location of the points at which we are hard pressed that we concentrate our forces on these points and thereby actually turn defeat into victory."

"The Christian faith cannot survive and be effective unless it can present a coherent picture of reality which faces all of the serious difficulties and surmounts them better than does any alternative system of belief."

Those were just two good quotes that have nothing to do with what we have been discussing. Now let the games begin.

A quote from Henry T. Hodgkin: "Every great religious awakening has been a revolt against authority."

Now that one is powerful. I would love to just let it speak for itself, but I can't. Three great leaders of the church pop to my mind: Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Alexander Campbell. All of them had to become in rebellion to the church in order to remain faithful to the calling God had placed on their lives. The church is much better because of the faithfulness of each of them.

I'm sure the stories of countless servants who faithfully followed God's leading into rebellion to local churches or denominations have not been written. Following God into rebellion is a dangerous place to be, but every reformer has been there. We need to constantly check that we are really following God's calling and not just our own desire, whether we are in rebellion or not. Just as Ryan Dobson said in the interview I had with him, "It is never wrong to do the right thing. It's never right to do the wrong thing, yet we tend to do that all the time." If we are in a church that is not passionately going after God's will, that is not an excuse for us to be lazy and join in the apathy. If following God's will means we have to be in rebellion, then that is what we must do.

"The general assumption, all the more powerful because unstated, is that the position of the layman is the same in each of these situations (medicine, law, and the church) and that the important work in each field is nearly always done by the professional. The movement of lay religion in our time is, in essence, a conscious and widespread revolt against this tacit assumption."

I do believe some of the clergy/laity problems of our time stems from the desire of our clergy to be more legit in the eyes of the public around them. They have spent a lot of time on education to learn their profession. The difference, however, is that their practice can be done without a lot of education.

"If, by the ministry, we mean the religious service of our fellow men, it soon becomes clear that this vocation is potentially universal."

"Just as one man may be both minister and merchant another many be both minister and physician and there is no conflict between the two vocations. The vocation of the ministry is thus different from most others in its lack of exclusiveness."

"Whatever a person's ordinary vocation in the world, whether salesmanship or homemaking or farming, the ministry can be his other vocation and perhaps his truest vocation. Most vocations are mutually incompatible, but the ministry is compatible with all others, providing they are productive of human welfare."

"A second way in which the ministry is unique is that, in performing it, the amateur often has advantages which are denied to the professional practitioner."

"In many fields, such as natural science, the increased professionalism of the individual makes him more trustworthy whereas in the life of religion the increased professionalism may make him less trustworthy. In various succeeding centuries it has been necessary for the religious pioneer to oppose the professionals who had been made less sensitive to religious truth by the very acceptance, on the part of others and themselves, of their authoritarian positions."

"The amateur has certain definite and marked advantages of his own. The first of these is involved in the fact that the lay minister does not have to bear the stigma of being a clergyman. ..Most words of a clergyman are minimized simply because he is supposed to say them. A pastor's convictions are discounted because he is supposed to have a professional stake in the effort to make them prevail...The contrast in effect is often enormous when a layman's remarks are taken seriously, even though he says practically the same words. His words are given full weight, not because he is a more able exponent, but because he is wholly free from any stigma of professionalism."

I felt this minimization of my words and actions when I was a paid minister. People would just disregard what I had to say because I was paid to say that. They would disregard loving service because I was paid to do it. I have seen that response go away since I am no longer paid. It's amazing. I do think it is silly that people don't take the word of paid ministers as seriously as their fellow peers, but it is a reality we have to learn to accept and adjust to.