One of the most thought-‐provoking articles I’ve read lately is “8 Reasons Most Churches Never Break the 200 Attendance Mark.”1 Now the author Carey Nieuwhof is not saying that it is a sin to be a small church. He just analyzed why it stays small.
Nieuwhof clarifies that it is not about a lack of desire to grow. Most leaders want their churches to reach more people. It is not about a lack of prayer. These small churches are incredibly faithful in prayer. It is not about a lack of love. Smaller churches enjoy closer fellowship more than mega-‐churches. It is not about a lack of facility. Nieuwhof wrote, “Growth can start in the most unlikely places.”2
So, why do these churches never break the 200-‐ attendance barrier? We will not look at all the 8 reasons. But according to Nieuwhof, the number one reason why “churches who want to grow end up staying small [even if they] have a solid mission, theology and heart to reach people” is that “[t]he pastor is the primary caregiver.”3
He wrote, “Honestly, if you just push past this one issue, you will have made a ton of progress. When the pastor has to visit every sick person, do every wedding, funeral and make regular house calls, he becomes incapable of doing other things. That model just doesn’t scale. If you’re good at it, you’ll grow the church to 200 people and then disappoint people when you can’t get to every event any more. Or you’ll just burn out. It creates false expectations and so many people get hurt in the process.”
If God truly called the pastor to be the primary caregiver, I have no problem with that. But we really have to make sure that that is his responsibility. This morning we will look at Ephesians 4:11-12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 to see what leaders are called to do—not just the pastor but also all the church leaders as well. Here we will see that LEADERS ARE EQUIPPERS, not caregivers. Let us pray first...
The Apostle Paul wrote most of his letters to deal with specific problems in the churches. However, the book of Ephesians was different. It was not to settle an issue in the church but it was to show an ideal of the church.
Now that’s a very important distinction to remember. We cannot just apply a solution to every situation in the church because we have to make sure first that we have the very same problem that called for that solution. But, since Paul wrote Ephesians to show God’s original intent for the church, it is directly applicable to us.
In Ephesians 4:11-‐12, we see the job descriptions of both the leaders and the members of the church. “And [Christ] gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ”.4 For the sake of time, we will not discuss why I believe we no longer have apostles and prophets today. I just want to highlight some important words here. I also want to clarify that when we say “leaders” we are not just talking of the pastor but the church board and the rest of the leaders such as ministry heads.
First, note the word “some.” That means not one and not all. Some... not just one. Some... not all. We have to have more than one leader. In the book of Acts, we see that there is a team of leaders in every church. For example, Acts 20:17 goes this way: “From Miletus [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.” Note that we read “elders,” not “elder.” Plural, not singular. It’s “the elders of the church,” not “elders of the churches.” A team of leaders in a church. Not a solo flight leader in every church. As we say, TEAM stands for “Together Everyone Achieves More.” One leader can only do so much. But a team can do so much more. So, the word “some” means that there is more than one leader in the church.
Also, the word “some” means that not all are called to be leaders. There are those who called to
be members. That doesn’t mean that the leaders are more important than members or that the members are less gifted than the leaders. We are all equal before God. We just have different callings. The only reason why there are leaders and there are members is so that there would be order. If all are leaders, we will have a power struggle. If all are members, we will have a waiting game. Either way, we will not accomplish much. But, if we follow that order, we will be the church that God intended us to become. Not all are in charge. But all of us are responsible to fulfill whatever God called us to do.
To be more direct, the leaders are actually not the ministers of the church. Ephesians 4:12 tell us that Christ gave us leaders “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ”. Note the clause “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service” or, in the ESV, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry”. So, who are the real ministers of the church? The members! That’s why Rick Warren said, “Every member is a minister.” Yes, we leaders can do the ministry ourselves. But we will not be as effective compared to everybody doing the ministry that God gave each of us to do. Leaders are equippers. Members are ministers.
In the Greek, the verb “to equip” carries the idea of preparation, to fit out, to put in order, arrange or adjust. It also means completion or perfection, that is, to make one what he ought to be. Simply put, the leaders are called to bring out the best in all the members to build the church. Leaders are called to equip the members to discover and develop their spiritual gifts and natural talents and to deploy all of them for the work of ministry so that the entire church would grow spiritually and numerically.
Now, let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 5:12-‐13. “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.” Look at the last line: “Live in peace with one another.” When everyone does his or her work, there will be peace with each other. Churches have conflict or they split because either one part does not do its work or one part wants to take on the work of the other part.
Here we see that Paul spelled out what the work of equipping entails.
Paul described them as “those who diligently labor among you”. The phrase “diligently labor” is a work in Greek “that means to work to the point of sweat and exhaustion, to exhibit great exertion and great effort, to work until you’re weary.”5 Equipping requires hard work. The ministry is not for the lazy. The Lord deserves nothing less than our very best. It’s not easy but it’s worth it.
Other than persecution, Paul had to work as a tentmaker while laboring for the church in Thessalonica. According to 1 Thessalonians 2:9, “Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.”6 Paul did not consider it demeaning to support himself in the ministry. For sure, that took away some time from the church work. That’s why Paul had to focus on what is essential. I believe he knew that he did not only have limited resources but that he himself is a limited resource. Thus, he had to work smart and not only work hard. I believe he concentrated on equipping the Thessalonian believers for the ministry instead of doing it all by himself. You know what happened? He and Silas were only in Thessalonica for a very short time (at least for three weeks only).7 Persecution drove them out of the city but, even without them, the church flourished. I believe it was because he prepared them to carry on the work.
Then, he added that the leaders “have charge over you in the Lord”. Hebrews 13:17 commanded us, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” The leaders are accountable to the Lord for every member. Now if the leaders would do all the work by themselves, that will be very difficult, if not impossible. Somebody wrote, “A pastor’s job is not to shepherd all the people; a pastor’s job is to make sure all the people get shepherded.” Equipping renders our work to become more effective. The leaders do not have to do all of it. They are not “Jack of all trades but master of none.” Leaders, you cannot do everything. Yet, we can do something. We can only be effective on a few things. Not one of us is as good as all of us. We are to share the load. The leaders are to train the members to do the work of ministry. That doesn’t mean, for example, that leaders will not be doing visitations. But that means everyone can do visitations. The leaders are not the primary caregivers. We are to care for one another. You don’t have to wait for authorization. You are already authorized. This is the reason why we have small groups so we can take care of each other.
Lastly, Paul said that leaders “give you instruction”. Equipping rests on teaching the Word of God. Of course, we do more than teach. But teaching should be one of the top priorities of the leadership. When the demands of the early church grew so much that it overwhelmed the apostles themselves, they made a very crucial decision. “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”8 The apostles did not say that it’s degrading to serve tables. They just emphasized that there’s division of labor. That’s why we cannot just busy ourselves with church activities. We have to keep the main thing the main thing.
When leaders do what they are called to do and members do what they are called to do, I believe the church will grow not just in quality but also in quantity. All of us will be fulfilled and not disappointed. We will not burn out. We will remain on fire for the Lord. We will have the realistic expectations and not unrealistic expectations. Instead of hurting, people will get healed.
So, what are leaders called to do? Leaders are equippers. It requires hard work. It renders our work to become more effective. It rests on teaching the word of God.
Let us close in prayer...
1 http://careynieuwhof.com/2013/09/8-‐reasons-‐most-‐churches-‐never-‐break-‐ the-‐200-‐attendance-‐mark/
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 All Bible verses are from the New American Standard Bible (1995 update), unless otherwise noted.
5 John MacArthur, Jr., “The Shepherd's Responsibility”.
6 New Living Translation.
7 Acts 17:1-‐10.
8 Acts 6:1-‐4.
