Who Is the Ministry?

This is a rewrite of an earlier post that needed to be emended.

In Ephesians, Paul argues that Christ has ascended into heaven, not as an abandonment of His people, but in order to continue God the Father's work of creation as the Mediator on the throne who reconciles God and man through the work of the Word and Spirit.

Hence, when He ascends on high, He gives to the church various ministers of the Word through whom the Spirit equips the congregation for ministry.

Therefore, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (4:11-13)

Notice that the gifts to the church, i.e., these various instructors (apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors) are all given to equip the church so that it does its ministry to one another that leads to the maturity of the Body of Christ.

The teaching of the instructors allows the congregation to no longer be deceived (vv. 14), but to "speak the truth in love" toward one another (vv. 15, 25), so that as an end result the church builds itself up and grows together into a unified Body (v. 15-16), as "each one does his part" (v. 16).

What this means is that the congregation is the ministry, not just the instructors alone. The work of the instructors is to guide the thinking and lifestyles of the congregation so that they can speak truth to one another and develop as teachers themselves in their respective priestly contexts. In other words, the work of the instructors is to equip the church with the truth. The job of the congregation is to repeat that truth, rebuke one another with that truth, counsel one another with that truth, sing to one another with that truth, live out their lives before one another in that truth. Discipleship is the job of the entire church, not just the pastors who guide the church by their teaching so that discipleship on the lay level can be effective.

It is not the job of the teachers to be the whole ministry. They are a ministry to the ministry, the special priesthood to the general priesthood, not the entire ministry/priesthood themselves. This is the mistake into which  Roman Catholicism fell. The teachers play one part, a vital role, of a much larger ministry that is to be carried out by God's kingdom of priests, the Body of Christ. Hence, Christ completes His work through His entire Body, and not through the teachers He gives alone.

What this also means is that if there is a lack of growth in the Body, it may have nothing to do with whether the right teaching is being taught, but rather because the church is confused as to who they are and what their responsibilities are. The teaching may be solid and complete in giving the whole counsel of God, but the congregation may believe that they are hearing it merely to be self-edified and not also to disciple their families and fellow Christians around them. They may think that discipleship is solely the job of the pastors and not also of theirs.

Too many people think that their only responsibility is to bring people to their pastors/elders for every work of ministry. If someone needs to be evangelized, they bring them to their pastors. If someone needs to be rebuked, they bring them to their pastors. If someone needs prayer, they bring them to their pastors. If someone needs this or that or the other thing, they bring them to their pastors. Their pastors, however, are not the ministry. They are. So what is really happening is that the pastors who do not make this clear to their congregation end up doing the entire work of the congregation and the congregation, as a result, abdicates its responsibilities and overworks its pastors into an early retirement or into an early grave. The congregation then becomes dead because all they ever do is hear without obedience to the commands to speak to one another in love. They are like the Dead Sea, always receiving the Jordan but never releasing it to the dry land around it.

But what is worse is that the congregation doesn't grow by the Word alone. The Word by itself results in death and judgment for those who are disobedient. The Spirit must move over the chaotic waters of the individual in order to give life through the Word. The means through which God creates His people, then, is not merely through their hearing the Word, but through their hearing and subsequent ministry of the Word to one another. This is because in the ministry of the Word, the Spirit is involved in filling up the Christian for that work. Hence, with Word and Spirit united, transformation takes place in the individual who is being used as an instrument of God, as the image of God, to create and preserve life in others. But the mere hearing of the Word without the Spirit is deadening, as the Word without the Spirit is dead.

There is a reason why people begin to grow as they preach the gospel, keep one another accountable with the Word, rebuke, encourage, counsel, etc. The Spirit begins to move through them as a river of life and they become alive themselves. They are like the Sea of Galilee with the Word flowing through them like the Jordan and are thus filled with life. The restoration and completion of creation begins to take place within them and within the community as a whole. Men teach their families with the instruction given by their pastors and begin to become the fathers they were created to be. Women teach their children with that same instruction and begin to become mothers as they are restored to their intended role. The older teach the younger by using the truth that was taught to them to encourage others to believe and live out these truths in Christ, and thus, they become fathers and mothers to other younger Christians. There is movement, life begins to flourish, Christ works toward His goal of the transforming His people to maturity. And this is the ministry.

Instead, however, when people think that the pastors are the ministry, they see themselves as needing growth and seek more from their pastors, thinking that if something is off it must be that the pastors need to do more than what they are doing. But the idea that the pastors alone are responsible for the ministry may result in a bad habit of wanting to be ministered to but never ministering. It is like the Dead Sea thinking it is dead because it needs more of the Jordan to flow into it when what it really needs is an outlet to get all of the water flowing into it moving. If the congregation sought to meditate upon, speak to one another, and live out in application what was taught in their lessons each week, the important instruction that was taught would not only be remembered, but it may result in actual growth of the congregation as Ephesians 4 suggests.

It would further place the responsibility of ministry on the shoulders of every Christian, rather than on the few who exist to equip it. Imagine an army made up of only drill instructors. It wouldn't last very long in a battle with an army made up of a vast amount of soldiers of every stripe. And that is how Paul describes the Christian and the church made up of them. It is an army made up of soldiers who must put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:10-17). When a Christian is being taught by his teachers, he is a soldier receiving his orders from his commanding officers who received it from theirs (i.e., Christ), not a spectator at a show.

The idea that a pastor is only doing his job well because he is doing all of counseling, all of the discipleship, hosting all of the fellowship meetings, making sure he does all of the visitation of each and every member of the congregation each week, etc. is rooted in the belief that pastors are the ministry and not simply the teachers who are to guide the ministry by working hard at aligning their teaching and the instruction of the congregation with the teaching of Christ through the apostles.

The truth is that every member of the Body of Christ is vital for growth of the Body. People need to stop looking for more programs and look to the Program that God has already established.