YOUR ARE A BONA-FIDE MINISTER
Bona-fide means genuine, without fraud, Roget’s 21″ Century Thesaurus lists these synonyms: authentic, real, actual certain, factual, honest-to goodness, kosher, legitimate, official, true, and valid.
Try any of these synonyms for the above title: Your are a real minister. Your are an authentic minster. You are a honest-to goodness minister. You are an official minister. Every lay person should be required to write on the chalkboard 100 times, I AM A MINISTER. I have a cartoon of a man with chalk in hand doing just that.
Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of best seller, left Behind, should have to write 100 times, LAY PEOPLE ARE MINISTERS TOO. He wrote in the July/August, 2001 issue of Moody Monthly about Chuck Cilano, whose life focus was money, partying and fun…. that is, until he found something much better: Jesus Christ.
And this is why Jenkins needs to get to the chalkboard: He tells how chuck cilano left his lucrative car salesman job which financed his wanton life style to, along with his wife, begin to “Prepare for a life of ministry.” The two are now missionaries in Italy. In writing that Chuck left his livelihood to “prepare f ora life of ministry,” Jenkins repeats the traditional Christian myth that if you want to really serve your Lord you need to be a minister (missionary or pastor), and to be a minister you have to go to seminary.
The Church of Jesus Christ is in a mega transition. Church culture is being turned upside down as it grasps the biblical teaching about the following terms:
MINISTER – Every Christian is a minister, most are volunteer ministers, a dew are vocational.
MINISTRY- every Christian is given spiritual gifts with which to do their ministry.
CALLING – 99% of the Christians in every church are not called to leave their occupation to become ministers, but are to use their ministry gifts where they work and live.
EQUIPPING – The 99% are to be equipped for their ministries by those whose ministry is to “prepare God’s people for ministry.” According to Eph. 4:11-12 the preparers are pastors and teachers. The church is to be a training center (seminary) for the 99%.
You may find yourself in the roster of ministers listed in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12, or perhaps the list of ministries added to the church since 75 A.D. You are sure to find yourself in Romans 12:3, everyone of you, and in I Corinthians 12:27, each one of you, and in I Peter 4:10, each one.
Lay Pastors, you are bona-fide ministers. I find you in Romans 12 as people given the gifts of encouragement and mercy, and in I Peter 5:1-4 as people assigned the task of being “shepherds of God’s flock.” You have been called, gifted, and equipped. Though not as prominent and not as “full-time,” you are just as authentic and kosher as those who go off to seminary, You will share equally “in the glory that is to be revealed,” and shall also “receive the crown of life which will never fade away” (I Peter 5:4)
There are no second class Christians, only first class specialists. Lay Pastors are specialists in pastoral care – bona fide ministers.