An interview with Tom Tewell
A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Rev. Dr. Thomas K. Tewell is pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. He serves as a Trustee on the Board of Princeton Theological Seminary. Tom has pastored Presbyterian churches in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and New Providence, New Jersey, before moving to Memorial Drive in 1987. He chairs the General Assembly Special Committee to Study Theological Institutions which will report to the 1993 General Assembly of the PCUSA. This interview is reprinted with permission of Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR), from reNews, November 1992.
PFR: Tom, what is the biblical basis for the ministry of the laity?
Tewell: Second Corinthians provides the biblical basis for lay ministry. “Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who helps us in our troubles, so that we may help those in their troubles, using the same help that we have received from God.” I believe the events and circumstances of our lives shape the future direction of our ministry. The things that happen to us are for what God wants to happen through us. I believe it is precisely at those points in life when we have experienced the stresses, problems and collapses of life that God wants to use us in ministry.
Ephesians 4, Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 remind us God wants to use ordinary people in ministry. As lay people discover they do not need a seminary degree to have a ministry, they begin to take the risky step of making themselves available to serve Christ.
PFR: What is the role of the clergy in church?
Tewell: The purpose of the clergy is not to do all the ministry, but to equip lay people for the work of ministry. The pastor functions as a player-coach whose job is to instruct and train laity for participation in the game. The biblical model for ministry is based on gifts of the Spirit and not on ecclesiastical titles, academic degrees or pastoral experience. Within the body of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit are unleashed and distributed to all of the saints. The role of the clergy is to inspire and equip each member of the body of Christ to properly discern and exercise his or her gifts.
There is a rather disturbing “bat boy” mentality in the church. So often people feel the “heavy hitters” of the kingdom of God are the clergy and the laity’s job is to hand the bat to us. The biblical teaching is just the opposite! In fact, the startling revelation of the Bible is that the “Hank Aarons” and “Babe Ruths” of the kingdom of God are lay people!
PFR: How did you discover the power of the ministry in laity?
Tewell: I remember speaking to a group of divorced people in New Jersey. I began my seminar by asking the thirty-five people who attended questions like: From your experience, what is the most painful aspect of divorce? What has helped you to “go on” and eventually find some degree of wholeness in the midst of your pain? How have you dealt with feelings of guilt, resentment, and bitterness? Has it been possible for you to forgive the one who has hurt you during the divorce? I was amazed at their profound answers! As I heard them reflect on their own life experience, I realized they were the ones who should be teaching the seminar!
Near the end of my tenure in New Providence, I trained twenty lay people. In the group, Colleen Fletcher, emerged as one of the most gifted lay people I’ve ever seen. Although Colleen is not a graduate of a theological seminary, she possesses some splendid gifts in pastoral care. She began to help me train lay people in listening and support skills. These lay people did not offer “advice” to people in need. They simply listened to them and offered the supportive presence of Jesus Christ when someone was hurting or broken. When I left New Jersey for Texas, this gifted group became the primary pastoral care-givers in the New Providence Presbyterian Church. Under Colleen’s leadership, this group provided countless hours of time in caring for people facing surgery, divorce or death of a loved one.
PFR: What barriers must be overcome to develop the ministry of the laity in a particular congregation?
Tewell: The key question is whether the pastor and other church leaders really want to enhance the ministry of the laity. Pastors often thwart the ministry of the laity because we are threatened and afraid to let go of certain roles people associate exclusively with clergy. So often, both clergy and lay people resist the ministry of the laity.
I can think of a rather humorous anecdote from my years in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to illustrate this principle. I was teaching a class one evening when a knock came at the classroom door from a layman in our church. He was a member of an Alcoholic Anonymous group that met in the church. He was rather concerned for a woman who had come to the AA meeting that evening wanting “the minister” to pray for her forgiveness. I was right in the middle of teaching a class! I said to this lay person, “Why don’t you pray for her? I’ll be praying for you while you pray for her!” The man was not impressed by what he thought was my attempt to get out of what was clearly my job and not his!
Against my better judgment, I dismissed the class, went to the chapel and saw a group of AA members gathered around this woman. She asked me if I was the minister of the congregation. I indicated that I was one of the pastors on the staff. She began to confess several of her sins and asked me to pray for her to be forgiven. She told me her name and all of us bowed in prayer. As I began to formulate the prayer in my mind, I drew a complete blank on her name! I tried with all my might but could not remember her name! Five seconds went by. Ten seconds. Fifteen. The name wouldn’t come! Finally, the man who had come to get me started to pray. I have never heard such a beautiful prayer. Into his prayer he poured his own struggles with alcohol for over a decade.
At the end of the prayer, the woman said to us, “How can I ever thank you all? Tonight you have helped me experience forgiveness in a new way. I’m very thankful!” Everyone hugged each other and left the chapel, leaving me alone with the man who had come to get me from my class. He said to me, “Tom, thank you for teaching me a great lesson tonight.” I was wondering what I could have taught him… I was still trying to remember the woman’s name! He said, “You taught me tonight that I am a minister. God can use me in setting people free.”
PFR: Tom, what have you learned from lay people about ministry?
Tewell: How much time do you have? I could talk for hours about this! Let me illustrate some of what I have learned by sharing a simple story from one of our outreach ministries.
Early in my ministry here at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, I took a ride on the mobile unit with several lay people who take clothing into inner-city Houston each day and sell them to the poor. As I saw people walk through the unit admiring dresses, shoes, blouses, slacks and other clothing, I was struck by one woman who was admiring a beautiful prom dress for her daughter. The price on the dress was $8. The woman was sad because the $8 price was too expensive. I would have given the woman the dress; however, Martha, the lay woman in charge of the mobile unit, asked her how much she had with her. The woman indicated that she had $2. Martha took the $2 and put a tag on the dress indicating that it had been sold with a down payment. Martha asked the woman to come back each week and bring whatever money she could. By the time of the prom, the woman would have paid the $8 for the dress. As the woman left, Martha gave her some basic articles for her home, telling her it was included in the $2… toilet paper, hand towels, soap, detergent, etc.
I asked Martha why she didn’t just give her the dress. She replied, “Tom, if I just give her the dress, then she’ll be robbed of the dignity of having saved up for it! Don’t you like to have dignity when you buy a suit for yourself or clothing for your children? If people just gave you everything, you would lose your self-respect and dignity as a human being. We have this ministry not simply to provide clothing for people but to help restore their dignity as children of God.”
That day I learned an important lesson from a lay person: ministry to the poor involves a lot more than dispensing clothing and food. It involves meeting some of the deep hunger of their lives.
PFR: Do you have any final thoughts about the ministry of the laity?
Tewell: The key is for clergy and laity to work together in ministry and challenge one another to take steps of faith. I truly believe our churches have as many ministers as we have members willing to commit themselves to serve Jesus Christ. All of life is the arena of serving Jesus Christ. God is looking for lay people and clergy through whom he can rebuild a broken world. This is what the ministry of the laity and the church is all about!