"Lay" Ministry
One of the most
important lessons we can learn from Acts is that Christianity is
a lay movement, and that the work of witnessing was not
committed to a special class, such as priests or clergymen, but
to all believers.
Harnack claimed
that:
"When the church
won its greatest victories in the early days in the Roman
Empire, it did so, not by teachers or preachers or apostles,
but by informal missionaries.
Dean Inge wrote:
Christianity
began as a lay prophetic religion...It is on the laity the
future of Christianity depends...
Bryan Green says:
The future of
Christianity and the evangelization of the world rest in the
hands of ordinary men and women and not primarily in those
of the professional Christian ministers.
Leighton Ford
says:
A Church which
bottlenecks its specialists...to do its witnessing is living
in the violation of both the intention of its Head and
the consistent pattern of the early Christians...Evangelism
was the task of the whole church, not just the "name
characters."
And finally, J.
A. Stewart writes:
Each member of
the local assembly went out to win souls for Christ by
personal contact, and then brought these newborn babes back
into these local churches where they were indoctrinated and
strengthened in the faith of the Redeemer. They, in
turn, went out to do likewise.
The simple fact is
that in the apostolic church there was no such person as a
clergyman or minister who presided over a local congregation.
The normal local church consisted of saints, bishops, and
deacons (Phil 1:1). The saints were all ministers, in the
NT sense. The bishops were the elders, overseers, or
spiritual guides. The deacons were the servants who
carried on duties in connection with the finances of the local
church, etc.
No
one bishop or elder occupied a place as clergyman. There
was a body of elders working together as shepherds of the
assembly.
But someone may ask,
"What about the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and
teachers?" This is answered in Ephesians 4:12. These
gifts were given to build up the saints in order that they (the
saints) might carry on the ministry and, thus build up the body
of Christ. Their goal was not to settle themselves as
permanent officials over a local congregation, but to work
toward the day when the local church could carry on by itself.
Then they could move on to establish and strengthen other
assemblies.
According to church historians, the clerical system arose in the
second century. It was not known in the Acts period.
It has served as a hindrance to world evangelization and the
expansion of the church, because it makes too much depend on too
few.
Believers in the NT
are not only ministers; they are priests as well. As holy
priests, they have constant access by faith into the presence of
God to worship Him (1Pet. 2:5). As royal priests, they are
privileged to tell about the One who called them out of darkness
into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
The
priesthood of all believers does not mean that everyone is
qualified to preach or teach publicly; it deals primarily with
worship and witness. But it does mean that in the church
there is no longer a special class of priests who have control
of worship and service.
- William MacDonald,
Believer's Bible Commentary
