“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care” (1 Pet. 5:2, NIV)
“God said it! I believe it! That settle it!” Bumper sticker faith is not always reliable, but this one certainly is. How dare anyone doubt that lay people are to pastor when God speaks so clearly. His Scripture: 1. Reveals the concept; 2. Calls us to care for one another; 3. Teaches that His Spirit gives pastoring gifts to believers; 4. Provides models for caring for His people.
So far I have done a lot of talking about pastoring. It‘s time to define what I mean. Pastoring is: caring for another by giving one’s self in Christian love to a relationship in times of weakness and times of strength. My definition assumes the following: everybody needs another who cares for him or her; the strength of caring is in the relationship; Christian love is giving love; and, people needs somebody who care for them consistently, both when they are in need and when all is well.
THE FIRST LAY PASTORS: The concept of lay pastoring originates in the Scriptures. Peter was still a fisherman at heart when Jesus called t him: “Take care of my sheep“ (John 21:16, NIV). He had gone back to fishing after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The elders whom Peter pressed into pastoring with the words, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care” (1 Pet. 5:2, NIV), were not formally schooled for pastoring. When Paul write to the “saints” at Ephesus to instruct them that every one of them was given gifts for ministry, gifts that were to be enhanced and directed by pastor-teachers, he was writing to people who had no professionally designated role (see Eph. 4:7-12).●
COMMENTS
in relation to IT’S IN THE BOOK
Daniel Patrick, Ghana, says
“And He gave some as Apostles and some as Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some as Pastors, and some as Teachers. For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry to building of up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to God the fullness of Christ”.(Ephesians 4:11-13 NASB).
God has called both the clergy and the laity to serve Him and His People in the Body of Christ. The laity and clergy are called by God to work together in the Church together as partners in ministry with God (1 Corinthians 3:9). The equipping, training and mobilization of the laity or lay leaders for a significant ministry is the central key to church growth, health and renewal.
The primary role of the clergy is to equip, train, encourage and enable the laity or lay leaders to discover, develop and exercise their spiritual gifts and skills for the work of the ministry. Biblically, every Christian has been called by God to participate in the ministry of the church. Every Christian is called and gifted for the work of ministry in the body of Christ. The prime role of the clergy was to equip and mobilize the laity for ministry, rather than doing the entire ministry alone without the help of the laity or laity involvement(Ephesians 4:11-13).
The Laity or lay Leader is to be trained, equipped and mobilized for ministry rather than merely been a passive recipients of ministry. According to Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesian Church above, it is noteworthy to that God has entrusted in the hand and shoulder of the clergy and Church of Christ with the primary responsibility or duty to equip, train, empower, mobilize, enable and enlist the laity or lay leaders in the body of Christ for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12).
Biblically, Lay leaders or laity does not need to be ordinary spectators in the Church, but must be involved in a significant ministry in the Body of Christ as to enable the whole body of Christ to function properly, effectively and grow into healthiness, prosperity and maturity to the fullness of the stature of Christ. But over the years, this primary responsibility or duty of the Clergy to equip and train the laity or lay leaders for the work of the ministry has been neglected by the Clergy and few church professionals, who occupies the church leadership position in the most churches of Christ around the world over the last 250 years till this our present contemporary times. It is against this background, that there is a great need to equip and train lay leaders for the work of ministry in the church as to fulfill the biblical command given in the book of Ephesians. (Ephesians 4:11-14).■
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
Did you that there are two kinds of caring: general care and specific care. Identify the major issues in those sentences that you have read. Write a page on each care. And how they are impact on your church and people?
What does that mean? This is also one of key concepts of lay pastor’s ministry. This is just like evangelizing and being an evangelist. Most of the church says about evangelizing to be out there, but many people neglect and think it but not seriously, why? It is just too ordinary an announcement so they think that’s not their job to do, maybe others conclude saying nobody is going to do that or just a few.
Just like that, the same happens in the lay pastoral care situation. In short, people care for others generally, just say “hello,” “how are you doing.” Of course many Christian is doing well at this level and they are very kind people, very polite to others, but they are not interested in other people’s real life. Of course today’s society is very ego-centered, so churches are affected by those outer phenomena. Anyway, most people are doing general care. In some sense it is not real care, it is just interested in something surface.
Most schools tend to teach only general care, and they are interested in getting a degree in that area, so real caring is far from their mind. CPE, as you know, is trying to focus on personal care, but it is limited to some particular unit, for instance hospital, correctional center, nursing home, and so on, and they just use those centers as training spots but not real caring.
That’s why Melvin developed lay pastoral care, which means individual care and also not short term care just as Stephen ministries but long-term care and longevity. Individual care is very important, of course some do group care very well, but in some cases it’s not care but a kind of leadership or management. Some people are doing discipleship making very strongly and they think they care for people, but I think that’s not care, just manage people, because most of discipleship ministry is consists with 10 to 12 people in a group, so it not possible for one leader to care for 10-12 people, it is just management or we call it ‘general care’.
Brand of this ministry: Lay Pastors Ministry is also the brand of this ministry. First they, LPMI USA, put the name in the beginning, ‘Lay Pastoral Care Ministry’ which means this ministry is done by lay people, and it is on the pastoral care, but later on they changed the name to “Lay Pastors Ministry (called LPM)”, which means Lay Pastors are doing this Ministry, and its core ministry is PACE; Prayer, Available, Contact, and Example. They focused on the person of Lay Pastors. Why people is the most important to start and to do ministry. Job is less important, and person is more important. Jim Collins says if we are thinking to do something, we have to collect the right people first. Of course, it’s not easy to get right people, but we know what that mean.
Why do we need people first in the front door? Mostly churches think ministry or program first. Then they recruit people to slot it. In this case it mostly failed, because that was not our choice but someone else’s choice. So they do some, but mostly became passive. If they chose it themselves, they will put all of their energy there, but in case of someone’s choice, they don’t think they have ownership.
Ownership in any ministry is very important. Today we call ‘autonomy.’ Daniel H. Pink wrote about this in his book, DRIVE(2009) in details. He mentioned there are three type of motivations; Carrot & Stick (Motivation 1.0), Empowerment (2.0), and Autonomy (3.0). Of course, he referred to the early years people need Carrot & Stick for doing something, just before of postmodern-era, people needed Empowerment, but now later 21st century people need autonomy. These approaches make a sense.■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
Is Failure Necessary? Rev. Melvin, the founder of the American Lay Pastors Ministry Inc., once wrote about failure. He presupposes that no one has ever failed. In the meantime, you can learn from your failure.
There are many people who have failed, and there are many who have succeeded. However, if you look at those who fail, it is often temporary failure.
Thomas Edison as an example: Having enjoyed success only after numerous failures. Edison was criticized by his teacher as “too stupid to learn.” But now everyone knows the name of Edison, who invented the light bulb. It took 1,001 attempts to succeed.
Walt Disney: The head of a global animation company has also had a hard time. He was fired from The Kansas City Star newspaper in 1919, and the magazine’s editor-in-chief pointed out to Disney that he “lacks imagination and has no ideas to write about.”
Vincent van Gogh: His paintings are now priced at millions and tens of millions of dollars. But when he was alive, no one was interested in his paintings. In 10 years, he produced about 900 pieces, selling only one. It’s also very cheap for his friend.
It is said that there are two kinds of failures. Temporary and permanent failure. Temporary failures are forgotten after a night’s sleep.
However, with temporary failures, they often brand themselves as if they were permanent failures, and sometimes they make extreme choices.
Temporary failure is sometimes seen as a blessing, an opportunity. It is absurd to say that God allows his loved ones to fail!
I talked lightly to our students about failure at a Graduation Ceremony. I didn’t think I should do it too hard at the graduation ceremony, so I just touched it a bit. However, I think my meaning was fully conveyed because they listened attentively. The gist of my story to the students was, “Failure is necessary.” It meant that you didn’t have to fail, but if you failed, you should accept it. Furthermore, I even said that failure is necessary. At the same time, I also said, “Failure is the mother of success,” because graduates may now be obsessed with fantasies(unrealistic) that everything will be possible in the future.
Furthermore, does failure really make a failure? Columbus, an Italian explorer who discovered New World America as an example. Because of that, we learned about the New World. But in fact, there was a time when he was imprisoned for it and waited for the day he was executed. It would have been considered a failure. Since then, however, his name has gained a lot of glory. His name was used as a regional name, and the official name of British Columbia in Canada, and even Washington, the capital of the United States, is Washington, D.C., or District of Columbia.
After all, the term failure is not an easy title to be given. There are many cases like Columbus. After all, temporary failure is considered a necessity for us, and for young people who have a lot of future left.