SERIES: “GOD-GIVEN GUIDELINES FOR GROWING A GREAT CHURCH”
TEXT: EPHESIANS 4:7-16
TITLE: Guideline #7: “EVERY MEMBER IN MINISTRY”
(bulk of material from Bob Russel’s When God Builds A Church)
INTRODUCTION: A. Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to get a well-established church to get moving
again.
1. We get too comfortable where we’re at and we don’t want to move.
2. We become like the old farmer who frequently described his Christian
experience by saying, "Well, I’m not making much progress, but I’m established!"
One spring when he was hauling some logs, his wagon wheels sank down to the
axles in mud.
No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get the wagon out. Defeated, he sat atop
the logs, viewing the dismal situation. Soon a neighbor who had always felt
uncomfortable with the farmer’s worn out testimony came along and greeted him,
"Well, brother, I see you’re not making much progress, but you must be content
because you’re well-established!”
B. The real key guideline to get an old established church moving is to insist that every
member be involved in some form of ministry.
1. Now, I don’t want to be misunderstood this morning.
2. I heard about an elderly man who went to his doctor for a physical. The doctor
checked him out thoroughly. He told the elderly fellow that he was basically in
good health for his age, but also gave him some guidelines concerning his lifestyle.
A few weeks go by and the doctor is at a restaurant with his wife. The same
elderly man comes in with a much younger, beautiful woman. The doctor can’t
believe what he’s seeing but sure enough, the old fellow is there and having a
grand old time.
The doctor walks over to the elderly man and his companion and says, “I
thought I gave you some guidelines concerning your lifestyle. How does this fit
into my instructions.”
The old fellow coughs and then says, “I thought you told me to find a hot mama
and be cheerful.” The doctor says, “I must not have checked your hearing well
enough. I said, ‘I found a heart murmur. Be careful.”
3. This is not a ploy for me to get someone else to do my work for me.
a. And I’d be untruthful if I told you I’d never tried to get out of work
b. But I’ll be honest and tell you that I take my position seriously and want to do
the best job possible
4. One of my most important tasks is to see that the Scriptures are followed accurately
a. It’s why I spend so much time studying and taking classes and going to
seminars and conferences
b. I never want to stand in the pulpit or behind a podium and tell you something
that has no biblical merit or basis.
C. You need to know that somewhere along the line, from the 1st Century to now, we
have confused the teaching of Scripture concerning how ministry is to be performed in
the local congregation.
1. Somehow, we have developed a “hired gun” mentality
2. The congregation has become an audience watching the “hired gun” do the work
3. We look at ministry as something that happens to us and blesses us instead of as a
service we perform and that makes us a blessing to others.
4. A congregation that utilizes this method of ministry will become stagnant and die.
a. The Dead Sea is so salty that it contains no fish or plant life. What accounts for
this unusual condition? There are absolutely no outlets! A great volume of water
pours into this area, but nothing flows out. Many inlets plus no outlets equal a
dead sea.
b. This law of nature may also be applied to the church, and it explains why many
congregations are so unfruitful and lacking in spiritual vitality.
c. It’s possible for large numbers of people in a certain church to attend Bible
conferences, listen to Christian radio, read Christian books, study the Scriptures,
and continually take in the Word as it is preached from the pulpit, and yet the
congregation be lifeless and unproductive
d. Churches that have a majority of the congregation that match that description are
like the Dead Sea.
(1). There are plenty of “inlets” but no “outlets.”
(2). To be a vibrant and effective church, we must not only “take in” all we can,
but we must also “give out” in service to others!
I. MANDATE FOR MINISTRY
A. Few things are more exciting than to see hundreds of people willingly give of their time and energy to see
that the church’s ministry continues.
--Few things are more frustrating than to be burdened with the majority of the work of ministry yourself.
1. In my first preaching ministry, I did everything:
a. I unlocked the doors to the church before the services.
b. Turned on the lights
c. Checked the water in the baptistery
d. Made sure all the pews had hymnals
e. Typed, printed and folded the bulletins
f. Preached Sunday morning and Sunday night
g. Taught a Sunday-school class
h. Taught a Wednesday night Bible study
i. Led the youth group
j. Attended class functions
k. Was an ex-officio member of every committee
l. Drove the church bus
m. Took communion around to the shut-ins
n. Typed, printed, folded, and mailed the church newsletter
o. Attended the board meetings
p. And even mowed the church grass.
2. I was convinced that if I did everything it would be done well and that those things would cause the
church to grow.
a. I found out that it didn’t matter how much I did.
b. If the congregation wasn’t participating in the work of the ministry, the church was not going to
grow.
3. Even though I had made a fairly thorough study of the Scriptures, for some reason I had missed this
important teaching in the New Testament.
a. Believe it or not, the congregation was perfectly happy allowing me to do anything I wanted.
b. I could work just as hard and as long as I wanted to at doing ministry work.
c. They encouraged me in it and sat on the sidelines and watched.
--They enjoyed the performance.
4. It’s taken me quite awhile to recognize the scriptural principle that I’m teaching about today.
a. For too long, the church has been like a football game.
--A small percentage of the people in the stadium are playing their hearts out and 60,000 people are
sitting in the stands cheering or booing.
b. Scripture teaches us something completely different.
B. One of the keys to advancing the gospel is for the church to be made up of individuals who consider it
their task to do the work of the ministry, rather than having a congregation of people who expect a paid
person to minister them.
1. According to the New Testament, the purpose of church leadership is not to do all the work of the
church, but to equip the church to minister to one another.
2. Under the Old Testament Law, the Jews understood that there were certain things that only the priest
could do.
a. Only the priests could offer certain sacrifices and perform certain rituals.
b. And only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies.
3. But at Jesus’ death the veil of the Temple was torn, symbolizing that all worshippers may now enter
into the very presence of God.
4. No longer is there to be a distinction between clergy and laity.
--All God’s people are supposed to be ministers; we are all called to be priests.
a. 1 Pt. 2:5, 9 – “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy
priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…You are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises
of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
b. As was read earlier this morning from Rev. 1:5-6 – Jesus Christ “loves us and has freed us from our
sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom AND priests to serve his God and Father.”
II. MODEL FOR MINISTRY
A. Our passage this morning spells out a definite model for ministry within the church
1. The sad thing is that for hundreds of years, a grammatical error was made in translating part of this
passage.
a. The error was a misplaced comma in v.12.
b. Now how much damage could a comma do?
--A lot.
2. The passage concerns leadership gifts within the church.
--With the misplaced comma, leadership gifts existed “for the equipping of the saints (comma) for
the work of service (comma) to the building up of the body of Christ.”
3. According to John R.W. Stott, in his commentary The Message of Ephesians, Armitage Robinson
discovered the mistake in 1903
-- The first comma did not belong.
a. The former translation said that the leadership gifts of the church existed for three separate reasons:
(1). Task #1: To equip the saints
(2). Task #2: To do the work of ministry
(3). Task #3: To build up the body of Christ.
b. The way it reads, only the professionals are responsible for accomplishing the growth and maturity
of the church
4. The better translation (the one that meets the guidelines of proper Greek and matches the teaching of
the rest of the New Testament) removes the first comma and reads in the NIV: “To prepare God’s
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
a. NKJV reads: “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry…”
b. NASB: “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service…”
B. In a lot of churches, the preacher and a handful of volunteers usually do most of the work themselves,
and they directly oversee the rest of it.
--The leaders are often exhausted and near the point of burnout.
1. That method of operation is based on a wrong vision of the church: The congregation sees the
church as a PYRAMID
--One person at the top, meeting everyone’s needs, and doing all the work.
a. That concept of ministry limits our vision and makes us extremely ineffective.
b. With that particular style of ministry, the pyramid can only grow so large and the ministry from
the top doesn’t reach everybody at the bottom.
2. The New Testament shape of ministry is made up of a CIRCLE in which we all minister to each
other.
a. Inside the big circle is a series of smaller concentric circles, each one representing a different
ministry.
b. The church grows not by adding people to the bottom of the pyramid but by adding more circles of
ministry inside the encompassing circle of your church.
3. Christ is glorified with that style of ministry.
a. If I’m the only person ministering to the needs of the congregation and the community, then I can
only minister to a maximum of 150-200 people.
--But if the congregation is involved, we can minister to thousands.
b. If I’m the only minister, your going to hear people say, “Mike was good to us when my wife was
sick.”
(1). Now I like being good to people.
(2). I like being told I was a comfort or help when someone was sick or in trouble.
c. But if the congregation is involved in ministry, you’ll hear the people say, “The church was really
good to us when we went through a rough time.”
d. Which statement is better? “Mike was really good to us,” or “The church was really good to us”?
--Since the church is the Body of Christ, then the head of the Body, Jesus Christ, receives the
recognition.
4. When the church becomes a circle instead of a pyramid, Christ gets the glory instead of the guy at the
top of the pyramid.
III. MATURITY THROUGH MINISTRY
A. There’s a danger as the church starts to grow.
--It’s tempting to hire more staff to do the work of ministry.
1. Now, don’t get wrong, I believe wholeheartedly in hiring talented and well-trained people for certain
areas.
--But this practice runs the risk of reducing the congregation to an audience: Just sit back and watch
us work.
2. However, if the members of the congregation begin to sense that they are not needed, growth gets
stifled.
a. The erroneous assumption is that if we make life as easy as we can on our membership
(especially new members), the church will grow because all they have to do is sit and watch.
b. But the opposite is actually true.
B. The simple teaching for us today is that when we follow the scriptural “mandate” for ministry and the
scriptural “model” for ministry, the church will grow and continue growing.
1. Thom Rainer studied hundred of churches and wrote a book called High Expectations.
a. One of the marks of a healthy church was that they successfully assimilated new members.
--Meaning that they did a good job of winning and keeping members
b. The way this effective assimilation occurred was through expected more of its members, not less.
2. Listen to his finding in his own words: “Repeatedly we heard about effective assimilation
methodologies that worked only if the ministries carried with them high expectations of those
involved. Such is the primary conclusion and thesis of this study. Effective assimilation churches
have one primary characteristic that sets them apart from churches that do not keep their members
in active involvement. Effective assimilation churches had high expectations of all their members.
C. Along with congregational growth, being involved in ministry helps us to grow in our individual
Christian lives.
1. Nothing helps you grow as a Christian like service.
a. If you want to grow, visit a nursing home, teach a class of young children, go on a short-term
mission trip, or volunteer to a humbling job like cleaning up after youth group on Wednesday
nights.
b. If our church is not providing opportunities for our members to serve, we are stifling our
members’ spiritual growth.
2. Staff people should be hired to direct, recruit, train, and empower the members of our congregation
to do the work of ministry.
D. We also have to recognize the New Testament teaching concerning spiritual gifts.
1. In Acts 2, we’re told that when we become Christians, we receive the indwelling presence of God’s
Holy Spirit.
a. One of the reasons that we receive the Holy Spirit is that He equips us with at least one gift for
ministry
b. You can find the primary New Testament teachings concerning these gifts here in our passage
this morning from Eph. 4 and also in Rom. 12, I Cor. 12, and 1 Pet. 4.
c. I can’t cover this subject this morning or we’d all be here until it was time for evening service
--I know you don’t want that.
d. Suffice it to say that it is biblical and you will hear more about this in the fairly new future.
--Know that these gifts are given to do works of ministry.
e. Rick Warren: “God gave me a gift, not for me but for you, and God gave you a gift, not for you
but for me. If you don’t use your gift, you’re depriving me; if I don’t use my gift, I’m robbing
you.”
CONCLUSION: A. There are many reasons why God shouldn’t have called you. But don’t worry. You’re in
good company.
1. Moses stuttered.
2. David’s armor didn’t fit.
3. John Mark was rejected by Paul.
4. Timothy had ulcers.
5. Hosea’s wife was a prostitute.
6. Amos’ only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning.
7. Jacob was a liar.
8. David had an affair.
9. Solomon was too rich.
10. Abraham was too old.
11. David was too young.
12. Peter was afraid of death.
13. Lazarus was dead.
14. John was self-righteous.
15. Naomi was a widow.
16. Paul was a murderer.
--So was Moses.
17. Jonah ran from God.
18. Miriam was a gossip.
19. Gideon and Thomas both doubted.
20. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal.
21. Elijah was burned out.
22. John the Baptist was a loudmouth.
23. Martha was a worry-wart.
24. Mary was lazy.
25. Samson had long hair.
26. Noah got drunk.
27. Did I mention that Moses had a short fuse?
28. So did Peter and Paul
--Well, lots of folks did.
B. But God doesn’t require a job interview.
1. He doesn’t hire and fire like most bosses, because He’s more our Dad than our Boss.
2. He doesn’t look at financial gain or loss.
--He’s concern gain or loss of souls and the spiritual maintenance of those souls
3. He’s not prejudiced or partial, not judging, grudging, sassy, or brassy, not deaf to our
cry, not blind to our need.
4. As much as we try, God’s gifts are free.
a. We could do wonderful things for wonderful people and still not be...Wonderful.
b. Satan says, “You’re not worthy.”
c. Jesus says, “So what? I AM.”
d. Satan looks back and sees our mistakes.
e. God looks back and sees the cross
--The greatest gift God ever gave was the gift of salvation through His Son
