Please Stop Using This Word — iWork4Him
"Jim, you're not cut out to be a pastor. You could never handle having 400 bosses. It's ok, you can be a lay minister. The church needs lots of volunteers."
Oh, my church pastor missed a huge opportunity to send me in the right direction there on that day.
On July 13, 1979 I committed my life to full-time Christian Ministry, so did Martha on that very same day (3 years before we met). Now, naturally, I thought that meant that I would be working within a 4-walls church because that is what I grew up hearing.
When I finished college, Martha and I settled in a little town called Lakeville, MN. We joined a local church and we immediately got involved in the youth ministry as volunteers. After Martha finished college, I enrolled in Seminary to get my master's degree so Martha and I could fulfill my commitment to the Lord. My church pastor found out and he spoke those words above to me. I unenrolled in seminary and resolved to be just a lay minister.
UGH! The lies spoken into me that day crippled my attitude towards my work for 16 more years. If only there had been a different approach. Maybe I wasn't cut out to be a church pastor, but I could have been encouraged to be a pastor in my workplace.
What if I had been commissioned to see my work as my mission field and my place of ministry?
I could have grasped my daily work as a high calling on MY life and that I should take it very seriously.
The very term "LAY" minister implies that there are two tiers in ministry. Those who get paid to do minister, and then everyone else: the Lay ministers. This word derives negative feelings in me about a two tiered system of importance in the kingdom. IT IS A WORD I WILL NOT USE ANY MORE. What about you? Would you stop using it too? We need to let everyone know that your work in your office/field/parking lot/warehouse/ hospital – all of that is ministry.
You are not a second tier citizen in the Kingdom because you don't get paid by a 4-walls church organization.
Please encourage your pastors to recognize the hurt and harm that this word causes. It also causes a bunch of confusion, which is why I wrote last week's blog that you can read HERE.
So please STOP using the term "Lay Minister" and START recognizing that you are a minister in your work, which is your mission field. You have been assigned there by God and its not by chance.
I'm grateful to now understand that I am a minister in my work and you are too!
Col 3:23 23 –
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters
