Ministry for the Whole Church

The persecution that forced the Christian community to flee from Jerusalem was one of the main causes of the rapid expansion of the Christian faith in the early part of the church’s life. Because those who were scattered, everywhere they went, they went proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Now remember, this was the rank and file. It wasn’t the Apostles. It was the laity of the church that was carrying the message abroad of the ministry of Jesus. The task of the minister, of the pastor, is to teach, to preach, to equip the laity for ministry. The ministry of Christ is given to the whole church.

Every one of you who is in Christ is to be a participant, not a spectator, in the outreach ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not just the paid professionals who have been entrusted with the gospel, but it’s the whole church who has been given that task. That’s how the church was built. And that’s how the church always will be built when the people of God are mobilized to go into the marketplace, into their offices, among their friends, into their communities, as Christians proclaiming the Word of God. There’s no place in the kingdom of God for secret service Christians, or for what I call “Clairol Christians,” where only their hairdresser knows for sure. People say, “Well, I like to keep my faith as a private and personal matter.” That’s impossible. If it’s true faith, it must be personal. But the faith of a Christian, beloved, can never be private. But we have been called to bear witness to Christ.