A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Dr. Melvin J. Steinbron is the Founder and Coordinator of the Lay Pastors Ministry and Network, and pastoral staff member at Hope Presbyterian Church, Richfield, Minnesota, USA. He was the main speaker at the 1993 Annual Meeting and is also pictured on the cover.
We cannot control it. It’s taking place but we haven’t generated it. We can only go with it, ignore it or resist it. It’s happening in our day and it’s thrilling! A paradigm shift is taking place in the church. Very few times in the 2,000-year history of the Christian church has a metamorphosis of this dimension occurred. The church is giving the ministry to the people. So simply stated but so complex to see and comprehend. It is a major shift in the way Christians are looking at themselves, their church, their leadership and their own selves.
A paradigm is a model, theory, perception, assumption or frame of reference. It is the way we see things: perceiving, understanding, interpreting. A paradigm shift is a new way of looking at something. It is a right-angle (or even a 180-degree) turn in how we do something, in how we see something, in what we are or in what we are becoming.
To change from clear eyeglasses to sunglasses is an illustration of a paradigm shift. Now, everything we see is dramatically different. The change is even greater if we add a magnifying quality to the colour.
Three examples from my recent experiences help to see what is happening and the need for it to happen. First, I received a phone call about the Lay Pastors Ministry from the pastor of a liturgically-oriented church. In the course of our long conversation he told me how their denomination was going to have to change their style of worship, church architecture, music, and garments if they are to communicate the gospel to people not accustomed to their paradigm. He said with passion, “If people are to hear the gospel we need to speak their language; we need a major paradigm shift!” He told of how this transition from a liturgical church to non-liturgical is wrenching his denomination.
Second, a member of our pastoral staff told me about walking into a hospital room only to be greeted by, “Where’s Allan?” Allan is our senior pastor. He was on vacation. The patient, who is a member of our church, was saying by the question that his church was not ministering to him unless the top spiritual leader came. Please note that the person ministering was an ordained clergyman, a vocational minister. What if he had been a layperson, a volunteer minister?
The third example is a woman from one of my former pastorates. She was telling how adamantly she was opposed to clapping in church. “There is just too much of that going on for me. Clapping does not belong in church. It ruins the worshipful atmosphere!” But, as in the paradigm shift taking place throughout the church whether in style of worship, in ways of evangelism or in giving the ministry to the people, the change is happening. Even though she strongly voices her resistance, frustration, disgust and hurt, it is happening. She is powerless in its forward movement. Her only choices are to resist it, ignore it or go with it.
Loren Mead of the Albin Institute says we do not even have the terminology to talk about what is happening. For example, the term “lay people.” It is a tired word. It presses people into a boring mold: second class church members, ineffective volunteers, incapable but willing workers, temporary people who are available to do second rate tasks, not the important people in the church, unpaid and usually unappreciated.
“The minister” on the other hand is a first class Christian who is called, qualified, credentialed and honoured – the theologian, orator, administrator, teacher, counselor, evangelist, leader and model Christian. This one has exclusive rights to authentic ministry, runs the church and has special powers with God.
God is the prime mover of what is happening in his church. He managed the shift from Judaism to Christianity by sending Jesus into the world. He managed the shift in location of the church from Jerusalem to the world by sending non-Jews to Peter while sending a vision to Peter; and by changing Paul from persecuting Christians to preaching the gospel and making Christians. He managed the shift of Roman power from persecuting the church to embracing the church. He managed the Reformation in the 16th century by moving the church to give the Bible to the people. He is managing the Reformation in our 20th century by moving the church to give the ministry to the people. This is so striking a paradigm shift that John Stott calls it the “Second Reformation.”
It’s happening and because the shift is the moving of the Spirit of God in his church we need to go with it. The role of the clergy (“pastors and teachers”) is delineated by Ephesians 4:11 & 12 – “prepare God’s people for works of service.” The role of the laity is delineated by the words, “to each one of us grace [to minister] has been given as Christ apportioned it,” and “as each part does its work,” in verses 7 and 16 of the same chapter.
Both clergy and laity must see the ordained clergy (vocational ministers) as equippers of laity for ministry. Both clergy and laity (volunteer ministers) must see laity as authentic ministers who are to be equipped for their “works of service.” As we clergy equip our people to do ministry and, in partnership with them, create structures for ministry we must take the next step which is to relinquish ministry to them. Unless we do this, painful as it is to many, we are passively resisting what the Spirit is doing in his church rather than doing with it.
The pastoral care of the congregation is the ministry I am best acquainted with which is being given to the people. I have led churches of 21 denominations in Canada, the United States, the Bahamas and Australia in giving the pastoral care to gifted and called people by conducting seminars. My book, Can The Pastor Do It Alone? has carried this ministry to hundreds of churches and many countries of the world where I have not gone personally. It is happening! The pastors are in the pew, authentic, gifted, called, equipped and commissioned lay pastors. And I, a professional in pastoral care, see many of them far more effective than I in caring for God’s people.
The paradigm shift going on is seen in the shift from the old mindset to the new:
OLD: The pastor has all the gifts required to nurture and care for a congregation.
NEW: Only all the people together have the gifts required to nurture and care for a congregation.
OLD: The people assist the pastor in doing what he believes God is calling him to do.
NEW: The pastor assists the people in doing what they believe God is calling them to do.
OLD: Seminaries are to educate and train certain “called” people to do ministry.
NEW: The church is to educate and train all the members to be ministers.
OLD: The pastor and people both acknowledge the call of God to clergy to be ministers.
NEW: The pastor and people both acknowledge the call of God to every Christian to be a minister.
It’s happening! This paradigm shift, this Second Reformation, this giving the ministry to the people. We did not start it. We cannot stop it. It is the work of the Spirit of God. If we resist it we are likely to get run over by it. If we ignore it we will get passed by. Let’s go with the flow of the Spirit and give the ministry to the people.