Is your church leadership running on 80 percent or 20 percent?

Feb. 1, 2018

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Much of our struggle in church-world and in discipleship results from the implications of a deeply-flawed model of ministry. Greg Ogden asks, “What chances of survival would you give an organization in which 20 percent of its members do the work while 80 percent pick and choose their level of participation…[and fail to] make regular efforts to understand the mission of the organization and their part in carrying it out?” 

Little or none. How has the Church survived and even thrived? By God’s grace. But wouldn’t it be awesome if we could supplement God’s grace with 40 percent or even 80 percent participation instead?

This scripture passage, Ephesians 4:11-16, is a key and it is a command. Church leaders (4:11) are “to equip” their people—individually and corporately—“for works of service” (4:12a). Why? “So that the body of Christ may be built up” (4:12b) and all believers would “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge…and become mature” (4:13a). As such, they will be “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (4:13b). They won’t be akin to infants or unstable folks who are tossed by the waves and blown by the winds of poor teaching and crafty schemes (4:14). Instead, they will be able to speak “the truth in love” and “will grow to become...the mature body” of Christ, growing and building in love as everyone works together (4:15-16). 

Wow, that sounds like awesome people and a great church!

Instead, we often get it backward. We want people to act mature without going through a process of significant spiritual growth and investment. We want unity in the body, but we settle for conformity. We want people to give and serve, but we can’t get them to imagine what’s possible in their walk with the Lord. In a word, we keep trying to get non-disciples to do disciple things.

This is not logical—and more important, it’s not consistent with the ministry model of Jesus. 

In the passage from Ephesians, Paul lays out a clear goal of vital importance: leaders are to “build up,” so their people can “grow up.” Sermons and osmosis are not sufficient for the task. People must invest in their own discipleship and have Pauls to walk alongside them as Timothys.

If you’re not aggressively and purposefully making disciple-makers, catch a vision for making thoroughly-equipped disciples and disciple-makers—and put together a plan to make it happen. Strive to run your church on 80 percent, not 20 percent.

Photo source: istock 

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