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By: Wyn Fountain

“Do we best influence the world through our various programmes for outreach with radio and television, through mass movements and great evangelistic campaigns filling huge stadia, or the miracle meetings.

Important as all of these may are, in their own right and place, their influence is really infinitesimal compared to the influence of the aggregate of individual believers committed to Christ under the control of God’s Holy Spirit, working wherever they are, penetrating all the social and institutional units of our world between Sunday meetings”

Dr Kevin Dyson
Founder of the New Covenant International Bible Colleges

In a recent survey around 50% described themselves as Christian. Yet in spite of the very encouraging impact that the so-called “para-church” organisations are having, only a few of the lives of that 50% are sufficiently different to attract the attention of the other 50%. Why, as an army of believers, do we not have more influence in moulding the character of our nation?

There are various contributing factors, but I want to deal with one that is fundamental.  

We have failed, because of tradition, to recognise that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are provided to equip us ALL to be change agents of society. Instead we tend to withdraw into our church ghettos to exercise those gifts in that context and, worst still, usually confine the use of those gifts to a special “clergy” class of leadership. I want to challenge that concept.

Ephesians chap. 4:11 tells us that God gave gifts “To equip God’s people for the work of the “ministry”.  “Ministry” has traditionally been limited to what happens in the church context, this has seriously weakened our effectiveness. 

“To equip God’s people for the works of the ministry”.

“Ministry” does not mean “clergy”, “pastors”, church services. A minister (diakonos) is a servant, whether he is a minister of the crown or a minister of the church. Ministry is service, which is a function, not an office. The term “Minister” is not a rank. We are all minister/servants. The essence of the gospel is service. “Let him that would be greatest among you be as he who serves”. In our schools, hospitals, businesses, farms, we are servants. But tradition has restricted “ministry” to a “clergy” class.

Who is a church leader?

Most people would think in terms of pastors who are involved in the leadership of local churches, because of the way that the word “church”, (The “ecclesia”, called out to perform a function), has become misused. It is used to describe four different things:

1. A building. (Buildings are not Ecclesia, “called out”; people are).
2. The people who meet in the building.
3. An institution such as the Roman Catholic Church.
4. The worldwide Body of Christ, or universal church.

If we would use that word to describe No. 4 only, it would avoid a lot of confusion. Because then “church leadership” would embrace all those who are involved in leading the universal church wherever they are and however employed. They are the church; they are not “para”, (alongside) the church. They don’t stop being church on Monday.

Now here is a concept that some are going to have difficulty with because of entrenched traditions, not because of what scripture says. Let’s look at the gifts In Eph. 4:11, I Cor. 12: 7, I Cor. 12:27

Eph. 4:11: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary, , with reference to these functions, under Ministry, says, “NOT in the sense of an ecclesiastical function”. Vine is using “ecclesiastical” here as referring to the institution of the local church, No. 2, not No. 4. Note, they are not “offices” they are “functions”.

Apostle

“A sent one with a message or a task to perform”. Why confine that term to a missionary or church builder. If “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”, why not apply it to people such as Wilberforce, a sent one to abolish slavery or Shaftsbury, a sent one to rectify the awful abuses of labour in the industrial revolution. Politicians as apostles !!

Prophet

“The proclaimer of a divine message”, not necessarily foretelling. Lord Teignmouth and others, because of their faith in Christ, proclaimed that the colonial policy of Britain should not be to exploit indigenous people, but to proclaim the dignity of all human beings as children of God, made in his image, giving them equal status as British citizens, out of which came the Waitangi Treaty, which the missionaries put together in N.Z. as a practical application of the Gospel they were proclaiming, a unique treaty at the time.

Evangelist
“A proclaimer of the Evangel”, Gospel, Good news. A term that today is applied to people such as Billy Graham who bring people to a point of decision. After that decision is made, mentors who guide and instruct the converts are not thought of as evangelists. But they are proclaimers of the Gospel in greater depth than traditional evangelists. An obstetrician does an important job, but the parental nurturing is no less important. Parents who proclaim the gospel to their offspring daily, in their lifestyle, are evangelists. We are all evangelists proclaiming the gospel well or badly, by the way we live, whether we acknowledge that or not. We are the only bible that many will ever read.

Pastor

“One who “shepherds, involving tender care and vigilant superintendence”. Any Christian who has authority, supervision or responsibility over anybody else should recognise that he has the responsibility of a pastor. Limiting this term to the “manager” of a church is one of the most confusing uses of any term in our Christian culture. Many a church planter has displayed more entrepreneurial, or management skills than those of a pastor. A company manager has a wonderful chance of “pastoring” his staff. Most would shrink from thinking of themselves as pastors, consequently this is one of the reasons why Christian executives do not aspire to these gifts and therefore make so little difference in society.

Teacher

In this sense, “one who is teaching Truth from a biblical worldview”. 

THE ESSENCE OF ALL THESE FUNCTIONS IS SERVANTHOOD.

Christ served in many different ways before he proclaimed a message. Have we got our priorities wrong? We send our evangelists out onto the streets, visiting houses and organising meetings to proclaim a message when all the time we are surrounded by workmates, neighbours, friends and family whom we should be serving first. If we can’t serve those around us why go to complete strangers to make a proclamation. We are “Church servant-leaders” seven days a week, whether or not we are leading well and whether or not we hold office in a local church.

For many years I suffered under the frustration that I didn’t really have a “ministry”; I was just a clothing manufacturer. Some of my contemporaries had given up their initial careers and had been accepted as international apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers. I never reached those exalted heights. Then I realised that at various times, I had, in fact, functioned in all of the five above in one degree or another. That didn’t elevate me to the exalted office of a super star. It just made me realise that those gifts are for us all. But that is not the commonly held perception.

We would expect those gifts to be operative on the mission field overseas, not only in the mission churches but also in the context of a mission school or hospital. But how about in the context of a micro enterprise business or any other business such as manufacturing wheel chairs or electronics in order to provide employment for new converts. I would say, “yes”. But if that is so, then shouldn’t we reasonably expect them to operate in any business, school or hospital back home?

Are we any less “church” Monday to Friday, in a business context or school context or whatever? In my own experience I found that it has been in the business context more than the church context that I have had to draw upon the gifts of the Holy Spirit, if for no other reason than that I spent about twenty times longer there than in church.

What has frustrated me however, is that in the church context my experience of God in the business context has not been embraced as part of the spiritual life of the church. If I had been a missionary running a factory to provide employment for new converts it would have been different. When I retired from clothing manufacturing and accepted the office of “assistant pastor “ for two years, I found that not only other pastors, but also the church members, elevated me to a different category. When I retired from that office, I was once again relegated to ”just a businessman”, in their attitude toward me. But I was the same elder before and after. The only difference was that I was paid, as a “pastor”, to do the job I did voluntarily as an elder.

So much for Ephesians 4:11, what about the other gifts, I Cor.12: 7 & 27: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, tongues and interpretation, administration? Are these for operation within the church context only or for the life of the Body wherever it is?

When I asked myself, what Christian initiative has had the greatest impact upon Western society? I always came back to what happened through John Wesley when he was ostracised by the churches, went to the people, where they were, and formed 10,000 small groups in which they were not merely encouraged to understand doctrine and practice personal holiness, but to take their faith back into every facet of national life including the prisons, hospitals, factories and even parliament. They were not welcome in most churches. They were not “Para-church” they were church.

What was the result? Christ was represented in society by ordinary individuals, who went beyond personal piety into applied theology in every day life, at a time when the churches and their pastors, most of which opposed Wesley, were doing a very poor job indeed. Let our modern day churches do what they can, but what is needed more than anything is a change of paradigm or mind-set, whereby every believer recognises that he or she is the church that is the change agent of society seven days a week, not the local churches. Our starting point for transformation is to appropriate the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to serve society, not just the church members.

May I suggest that you discuss the validity of these comments with others and ask them if we have sold ourselves short by relegating the operation of these gifts to the environment of the local church? If so, what should we be doing about it?

Wyn Fountain

Wyn Foundation
New Zealand

shirwyn@woosh.co.nz
www.saltshaker.org.nz

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