Sport is big
business. Whether ice hockey, soccer or tennis, professional sports attract
enormous crowds. Spectators pack stadiums and arenas around the world to cheer
on their favourites. Someone has humourously written to the effect that sport
is largely a matter of tens of thousands of fans desperately in need of
exercise watching small groups of athletes desperately in need of rest.
Spectator sport!
Christians often
approach church as if it were a spectator sport. Since we have our own set of
heroes, churches that schedule well-known preachers or personalities quickly
fill with eager listeners. And listening is, after all, a spectator phenomenon.
Don't take me wrong. I enjoy listening to God's gifted servants. Unfortunately,
the opportunity to listen to good preaching is one positive aspect of a system
with many problems. Consider for a moment the weekly worship service.
Early Sunday
morning lights come on in widely scattered homes. Soon the aroma of freshly
brewed coffee wafts up the stairs. After a careful shave, Dad flicks lint off
his Sunday suit and picks a conservative tie. With breakfast laid out on the
table, Mom shouts at Dad to wake up the kids while she takes her turn in front
of the mirror. The kids straggle down the stairs and wolf a hasty breakfast.
Soon the revving of the family car shatters the Sunday stillness as Dad tries
vainly to control his desire to blow the horn at his tardy brood. With the
family finally on board, Dad speeds away to deposit his well-scrubbed cargo at
the door of local church or chapel, cathedral or rented hall.
The faithful
greet each other at the church door with a cheery, "Good morning!"
Before slipping into their well-worn pews, they comment about the weather or
last night's game. The more enthusiastic have already preceded the
"worship crowd" by over an hour to participate in Sunday School.
The hour
approaches. A deacon's frown freezes giggles from squirming children. The
rustle of bulletins and the murmur of voices stills as the choir files in.
Several dark-suited men men take their places on the platform. Radiating
confidence and authority, one strides to the pulpit. All eyes focus on the
pastor as another Sunday service begins.
Sports and
sacred service--you may ask what they have in common. Although church seldom
attracts the crowds which clamour for tickets to a game, both are largely
spectator phenomena, dependent on hired professionals for their popularity.
Commenting on this phenomenon in Revival,
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones writes, "Now that, of course, is a complete
denial of the New Testament doctrine of the Church as the Body of Christ, where
every single member has responsibility, and has a function, and matters."
Fortunately, all
over the world, more and more emphasis is being laid on personal participation.
In sporting circles many people are taking up jogging, skiing, tennis or
hiking. In Christian circles many are discovering spiritual gifts.
Down through
history the participation of all God's people in ministry has waxed and waned.
The Protestant Reformation rediscovered, among other truths, the priesthood of
all believers. Unfortunately, the legacy passed down to our generation has
stressed clergy more than laity. The biblical dynamic of the Church as the Body
of Christ with a host of inter-related parts, or as the Temple of God with its
inter-locking stones, has been dimly perceived. We forget so quickly the
lessons of history.
Too often, the
pattern adopted has been more hierarchical and passive than participatory.
Professional clergy ministering to receptive laity has become the accepted
model of church ministry. Churches almost universally practice one-man
ministry; whether that man be called pastor, minister or ruling elder. This
denial of universal priesthood has gouged a chasm between pastor and people
that many accept as normative. As a result Protestant churches have developed a
host of what Earl Radmacher has called, "petty, Protestant, parochial
popes."
I don't aim to
deliver another diatribe against either the full-time pastorate or
professionalism in ministry. Let me hasten to point out that I am a
professionally trained pastor myself! I have no desire to discourage men from
setting the highest standards of excellence in ministerial preparation. Nor is
this an appeal for a moratorium on recruiting full-time pastors. Never! Rather
I appeal for a return to the priesthood of all believers.
Every-member-ministry
is biblically normative. The ascending Lord never proposed that his church
become a congregation of spectators! Paul writes in Ephesians four, that when
Christ ascended he gave gifts to men
that all might participate in ministry. This book, then, concerns those gifts and their use in the local church.
Watch for the publication of this new ebook!
