How to Increase Lay Participation

Many churches struggle with stagnant or declining participation from lay people. Even growing churches want to get more of the congregation active in ministry.

Often that means staff and clergy pick up the slack. This often leads to church members slacking more.

The reason lay people are notoriously passive is because of the very distinction between laity and staff/clergy. Laity are amateurs, while clergy are professionals. Lay people volunteer to support ministry, but the truth is the ministry belongs to the church, and the church is run by the professionals.

There are various strategies to boost lay ministry, but I believe they are ultimately short-sighted. When a particular mission is accomplished, laity will default back to a passive mentality until prodded into action again. The goal should not be specific participation but a perspective change that empowers laity to pursue mission without waiting for approval.

The first step for pastors and staff is stop doing ministry! As long as you’re willing to pick up the slack, laity will feel they have permission to leave slack.

Ministry is the job of the whole church, not a specially appointed caste of ministers. Pastors often see their calling as “doing ministry” when this actually robs the church of its full functioning.

Instead, pastors must become equippers of the saints. This does not happen through sermons, meetings, counseling, or educational opportunities. It happens through one-on-one or small group mentoring, to help members discern their personal gifts and callings, then coaching them on pursuing that calling with integrity. The goal must explicitly be to train and release a Christian missionary into the field.

The second step then is to train small group leaders. Leading the groups yourself maintains the perception that it’s the territory of professionals. For your first mentoring small group, seek out one or two people gifted and called to equip others for ministry. Focus your attention on them. Go to lunch, do hands-on mission together, talk to them about your work and ask for their thoughts. If you’ve stopped or at least reduced your time “doing ministry,” you’ll have time for this.

The third step will be getting out of the way. Depending on your polity and particular congregation, control is held by different people. If Christians are being released into mission with integrity, and continue to be supported and held accountable through small groups, they will need a streamlined process to gain permission. Ultimately, this should not require asking for it.

Christians will find true motivation only through pursuing Christ. The church’s job is to help them hear Christ’s call, discover Christ’s gifts, equip them for excellence, and keep them on track as they “run the race.”

Slavery of Sentiment

Do you have gifts you can’t get rid of, because it would be an offense to the giver? Does your church have a prized stained-glass window in loving memory of some long-gone member’s dead relative so-and-so, and no one would dare consider besmirching their generosity by removing it?

Get rid of it.

Yes, I know we all want to honor our fellows by cherishing their gifts. But these are not truly gifts if we are not allowed to discard them or give them to someone else.

Suppose I meet a homeless man on a park bench and give him ten dollars, and he sets the money down on the bench before leaving. My first reaction is to get offended or disappointed, because the gift was not received in gratitude. I needed his gratitude in exchange for my money. It was not truly a gift, but a purchase.

Without meaning any harm, the givers of these gifts have purchased us into the slavery of sentiment. They expect to be appreciated. They may not care about thank you cards or shout-outs from the pulpit, but they expect folks to be glad to have received.

God knew the kind of reception his Son would receive, and sent him anyway. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. I daresay Christ knew what kind of a mess we, the church, would be – and he married us anyway. Be glad for grace, and be glad to give, but be beholden only to Christ.

Not Being Fed

Christians often talk about “being fed” or “not being fed” from a worship service. There’s a subtext I always hear in these statements – it’s the leadership’s job to feed me.

Maybe some of these Christians take some active hand in trying to ‘receive’ the spiritual ‘food’ from the leadership, but ultimately if there’s no leaders there’s no food.

Babies need to be fed (or at least provided for). Let’s grow up and pick the fruit of Life ourselves for a change.

What Is Worship For?

The obvious answer – worship is for worshiping God! – is not my answer. Not exactly, anyway. I think the real trouble is we’ve misappropriated the word “worship” to apply to regular church gatherings, of which worship was only part. I’ll keep using “worship” to refer to church gatherings because it’s familiar language, so please just bear that in mind while you read.

I believe there are three distinct kinds of worship we can find in the New Testament. Unfortunately, I find only one – or at best two – in modern churches. We have a lot to learn from our past.

Regular Meetings

We have to start at the regular weekly gathering of the early church, particularly because the other two won’t make sense without this foundation. 1 Corinthians 11-12 give some specific images of these gatherings. They’re small, intimate, and most noted for their participatory nature. Everyone is involved through their gifts to make the concept of a unified Body of Christ a legitimate reality.

The central purpose is expressing Christ as his Body. The main event is the Lord’s Supper, which for them is a genuine feast. Everyone comes together to share the meal equally. The meetings are also marked by a mutual sharing of spiritual gifts. All the believers are gifted, and all are exhorted to use their gifts in the meeting, as led by the Spirit. Paul is clear this shouldn’t be chaos – Christ guides the church in its meeting with unity, as one guides their own body. Sometimes the early churches messed it up, but were always encouraged to continually seek to be more faithful.

This kind of meeting is absent from modern churches, and I mean entirely. There are ways to use one’s spiritual gifts in various ministries, but not in any communal setting like this. If a brother or sister is gifted for teaching, they can either teach a class or (if they’re either clergy or in a particularly open church) preach a sermon. Other gifts, like prophecy or tongues, in these settings would be disruptive.

Preaching

The second kind of worship we can talk about is marked by preaching sermons, large crowds, a mix of believers and non-believers, and (if it’s successful) baptisms. This is most familiar to us, because it looks almost exactly like a modern worship service.

The central purpose here is evangelism. We can see the marked absense of spiritual gifts and sharing. There is generally one preacher talking to a large crowd. While it isn’t described as such, I can easily see other brothers and sisters leading songs or prayers for the group. It’s also likely brothers and sisters were mingling in the crowd, talking one-on-one with non-believers or new converts, praying with them, baptizing them, and connecting them with a local church.

While we see leader-to-audience services with a focus on teaching the gospel, there’s usually a greater expectation that members attend than newcomers. Not that visitors aren’t welcome, but they’re only part of the puzzle. Members going deep in faith – however that happens at each church – are expected to get their primary spiritual experience from what is intended as a sort of newcomer’s seminar.

Church Planting

The last kind of worship gathering is when an apostle is planting a church. The church isn’t ready to be led exclusively by the Spirit, so an apostle mentors them – usually for a handful of months – in functioning properly. The work is never truly completed, as the epistles show us, because the apostle continues communication and coaching in Body life. However, a point always comes when a church is mature enough to function independently, without constant supervision.

The central purpose here is discipleship. Newly converted Christians are guided into the full experience of Christ’s church through his Spirit. They find their gifts, learn to express them in an orderly, Spirit-led way, and comprehend living Christ as a group instead of as an individual. They are also taught in how to live all of their lives in Christ, how to serve the poor, and how to spread the faith and make more disciples.

This kind of meeting happens in some modern churches, but not all. In the ones it happens in, one or more facets are still missing. It’s usually done as a small group ministry, but may be a bible study, outreach or service mission, or membership class. Small group ministry is most akin, and most effective, as a small group can practically function as an early house church. The trouble is, there’s never a separation from apostolic leadership. The church is never allowed to truly mature and grow up; they’re trapped as spiritual children, or perhaps even teenagers.

The Full Measure of Christ

We’ve lost focus on why we do the things we do, what the purpose is. All three kinds of gatherings are vital to the whole church, but church leadership needs to reclaim the apostolic traditions of evangelism and planting. We also need to acknowledge each other’s spiritual gifts, and create space for their proper use.

Spiritual matters don’t come naturally to our sinful flesh, which is why it takes time to learn. Since the apostolic traditions are so lost among most of our churches, it will be a messy process.

I don’t want to discourage anyone reading this, especially those part of an institutional church. I believe we are a long way off, but rather than condemn I want to help shed light on the Way of Christ. We Christians have a long and famous history of making mistakes. Rather than fall prey to guilt, instead we must affix fresh eyes on Christ. His Spirit is a guide to us, guiding us ever closer. There are small steps you can take at your own church now to pursue Body life. Seek them out always, and pray in the Spirit constantly.

Do Anything, Go Anywhere

A lot of Christian teachings focus on discerning personal calling or mission. This is usually discerned through and grounded in spiritual disciplines like prayer, reading the bible, and small group participation. These are all good things, and I wholly recommend them despite what I’m about to say:

If you love the Lord intimately – in every breath, at every moment – you can do anything.

The ancient monastics did far more than pray in monasteries. They were equally at peace gardening as leading armies, equally pursuing Christ begging on the street as shaping politics, equally at home in a monastery as a jail cell. The monastic life wasn’t about ritual, sacrifice or isolation – although it often included these. It was about perpetually dwelling in Christ, living through his life at all times.

And so they went everywhere and did everything.

Much as Paul said, this freedom in Christ is not license to sin. On the contrary, if you live in Christ you die to sin, which means you just plain don’t want to sin anymore. When it is by his life, you won’t be led astray.

Rather than focus on personal calling and mission, focus on the living Christ and find true freedom.

The Death (and Resurrection?) of the Mentor

Most of us grew up in the modern era, which is now coming to an end. Modernity was defined by the Industrial Age. The “first world” modeled the machine as the new paradigm. Society was a large, complex system composed of interlocking smaller systems which could each be broken down into a hierarchy of parts down to people, the cogs of the social engine.

Machines are factory-built, so education came to resemble an assembly line. Move from grade to grade at the correct rate, taking the required courses, until you were a perfectly interchangable widget. From there you might go to be specialized in college, but you’d gotten all the essentials to “fit in” by high school.

The problem I came to realize (and I think most folks in my generation are with me) is I have little idea how to really live, or even how that’s different than filling a role.

We’re heading into the “postmodern” era, which is defined by the network. Finding a specific role is akin to locating an electron’s position. The cubicle walls, white picket fences, and any other traditionally modern boundaries are crumbling in exchange for hive-like interconnectivity and mutual participation.

The problem is, while there are still valuable skills like reading or math, our challenge isn’t proficiency but wisdom. This was the job of mentors. Unfortunately, in the modern era this was a colossal waste of resources. Machines need uniformity, but organisms need heterogeneity.

I’m struggling with these issues now because of my daughter, who will eventually need some kind of formal education. I feel let down by mine. There were mentor figures to me, but our time was always brief, constrained by pre-ordained seasons.

I suspect as the Industrial Age continues to give way to the Information Age, we’ll see a return to education-by-mentor. Apprenticeships will be far more valuable than undergraduate programs. There’s still the issue of elementary and high school. To my mind, the necessary academics could be condensed to a handful of years. Specialization is far more valuable in the postmodern era than ubiquity.

The same dynamics are playing out in the church. The modern era saw a one-size-fits-all worship format. Each church was essentially the same as each other. Membership was defined by performing the pre-defined tasks (giving money, volunteering, serving committees) to keep the machine running. Each person’s unique gifts were irrelevant to these chores, as basically anyone could perform them.

Now I think we return to the Apostolic Age, where mature Christians will coach new brethren in the Way, instead of content Christians recruiting brethren to membership.

The Dwindling Power of the Sermon

The more sermons I hear, the less impact each new one has on my life.

Consider going to a motivational seminar and hearing a compelling keynote address. Now consider if you heard a keynote once a week for the rest of your life. They’d have less and less impact the more you heard.

The Body of Christ is meant to be built up through ‘one-anothering’ with spiritual gifts. There’s a wide variety of gifts, and the church is intended to worship through all of them regularly. Sermons are at best two gifts (teaching and prophecy), and at worst a mere human-crafted speech.

Most institutional churches revolve around Sunday morning worship, which in turn revolves around the sermon. It’s okay to keep it, so as not to alienate existing members. Change your focus to intimate small group experiences. Train small group leaders in worship, encouragement, and especially using and discerning spiritual gifts. Each group should feel like a New Testament church, with members ‘one-anothering’ each other weekly in the group, and also regularly throughout life.

With most of your congregation living into their spiritual gifts and experiencing the depths of Christ among each other, leadership will be freed from management to discern Christ’s mission and movement, and truly lead their flocks to God’s kingdom on earth.

Surrender

The gospel doesn’t really make sense until we give up. Our efforts, thoughts, plans, and actions are all ultimately futile.

I have a really hard time with this, as I’m sure others do. I’ve been in control of my life for more or less all of it, and – at the time – thought I was doing pretty well. These days it’s really sinking in that I can’t do all the worthwhile things I want to do for my God until I surrender.

The gospel says Jesus reconciles us to God as adopted children, and Jesus sends his Spirit to cleanse and guide us. It’s a striking picture of love to me, to be adopted. As children our place is one of growth and learning, learning from and obeying our Father who loves us. It’s hard to swallow that level of humility.

Maybe that’s why Jesus called God Abba - effectively “Daddy” – to show us how childlike we need to be.

What’s It About Again?

It’s about the gospel, right? So what’s that? Seriously, tell me.

The point is, it’s good to back up once in a while and reiterate the point. It’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals, so take a minute and make the gospel make sense. I’ll write my answer later.

The Lost Art of Mentoring

The New Testament is rife with personal mentoring relationships. Jesus lived with the Twelve – eating, sleeping and traveling together. There are several examples where he retreats from the crowds to intentionally spend time with the Twelve building them up and revealing secrets. Later we see Paul make the same habits, especially with disciples like Luke, Silas, Timothy, Lydia and Philemon. He takes them under his wing as apprentices, personally nurturing their leadership by using his life as an example.

The modern church has abandoned mentoring in favor of education. Dedicated Christians are brimming over with knowledge but no significant lifestyle change occurs. Mentoring was the biblical model to forge an entire Christian life, grown from the example of a credible mentor.

In a recent post, Tom Bandy illustrates the mentoring experience. It consists of five major parts:

• Sharing - Mentors and apprentices share mutually their experiences, temptations, struggles, victories and concerns.
• Habits - Mentors pass on their habits which guard their discipline against temptation, and help apprentices shape habits unique to their needs.
• Accountability - Mentors and apprentices hold each other accountable to their habits and disciplines.
• Action - Mentors encourage apprentices to engage mission through their gifts and calling, reaching out to needy people.
• Acceptance - Finally mentors teach apprentices how to persevere despite failure and shortcoming, because ultimately we are all still broken people, but cannot let our weakness discourage or diminish our strength in Christ.