Forming a Marketplace-Friendly Church
“We believe that the church is the primary equipping environment for empowering the whole people of God for their service in the church and the world, and therefore we will work with the church to that end.” (Number 7 conviction of the Marketplace Manifesto which every member of the Institute for Marketplace Transformation signs.)
Will the real minister please stand up!” The pastor announced his sermon title at the beginning of a series designed to raise the consciousness of every-member ministry. What he had not counted on was someone answering his rhetorical question. Seven people stood. “Why did you stand?” The pastor asked. He had intended to be making his first point by now. Instead, he was in a real dialogue as he investigated the truly extraordinary sense of dignity in people-ministry shared by the seven. Eventually, he did preach the sermon and, in the end, invited the seven to stand again to be commissioned to their ministry. Where was their ministry? Yes partly in the church, the gathered life, but mainly in the world, the dispersed life of the people of God. So the seven got commissioned. But from the back of the gathering came a shout, “Why can’t the rest of us get in on it too?” So the whole congregation stood for the commissioning to the work of the ministry and the ministry of work.[1] Would that releasing the full potential of the church were as simple as this true story!
Liberating both the Pastor and the People
In fact, it can only happen when all the people of God—the clergy part and the so-called laity part—undertake a gracious conspiracy whereby each frees the other from the entrapments of institutional Christianity. The Greek word for the people of God is laos but it is used both for the clergy and so-called laity alike. And the Greek word which gives us the English “clergy,” kleros, is not used exclusively for the pastors and leaders. It denotes the whole people of God and it means they are called, commissioned, blessed, and ordained. So we are in the delightful situation in the New Testament, post Christ’s coming and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in which the church has no lay people in the usual sense of that word—unequipped, second-class, non-professional—and yet is full of clergy in the true meaning of that word—called and commissioned to bless people and the world with the ministry. Thus the pastor is liberated from being the minister of the church, embodying the full range of ministries supplied by the Spirit.
Then, what are pastors then supposed to do? They are called, in Ephesians 4:11-12, to equip the saints (a word that describes the ordinary believer) for the work of ministry. This means not getting the saints to assist the pastor in his or her church ministry but rather assisting the saints in realizing their own ministry. And where is that ministry? Mainly in the world. The pastor is an assistant to the people, not vice versa. Would that this was easy.
You may stop speaking of your pastor as “the” minister of the church, but the pastor has been put there by a hundred expectations, cues, and complaints that tell your pastor every day to be different, to be available, to be separated from normal life, to be omnicompetent, and to be the minister of the church. Christ is the head of the church (Eph 4:15).
But further, the equipping task has been misunderstood as enrolling people into the ministry of the church, making them assistant pastors, rather than preparing them for their Monday to Friday ministry in the home, workplace, the hospital and medical clinic, the university, and elementary school. Tom Nelson calls this “pastoral malpractice.”[2] So to quote Kaeminck and Willson in Work and Worship, Sunday services should be a starter experience for a weeklong engagement in worship and ministry.[3]
The weakest link in the gathered life of the church is surely the preparation for re-entry into the world in the dispersed life. Sunday is too separated from Monday. The “work of the ministry” has priority over “the ministry of work.” And, as William Diehl wisely observed, nowhere is the separation of Sunday and Monday more pronounced than in the different spiritualities of Sunday and Monday: Sunday announces salvation by grace through faith; Monday is all about salvation by works and achievement.[4] So I want to go beyond the cursory suggestions I made about equipping ordinary Christians for their life and service in the marketplace in Liberating the Laity.
But there is a further misunderstanding of the equipping ministry. It is not just equipping individuals but equipping the church as a whole so that the church as a whole will by its culture, worship, teaching, and mutual edification equip the members. And this leads me to introduce the idea of the body of Christ as a system.
Systemic Equipping
For counseling people with relational difficulties, family systems therapy is currently “in,” and seems bound to remain so. Systems thinking means that every member is related to every other member, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12 in such a way, that if one suffers all suffer, and if one rejoices all rejoice. It is like the mobile of fish-elements over a baby’s crib. Move one element of the mobile and all the other elements must adjust. So every member influences every other member. The whole is more than the sum of the parts, so said Aristotle long ago. And the whole needs to be equipped. Equip the whole and the members will be affected. And, in a system, each member influences the whole. Of course—and this is not always obvious—for a pastor to influence the congregation he or she must actually join the church! The insight that dysfunctional individuals embody, reflect, and carry forward the dysfunctionality of the whole family that produced them is so obvious that once you see it you wonder how anyone could have missed it. Virginia Satir, the founder of family systems theory said that the identified patient is in fact the whole family, not the teenage son who is acting out. So it is not good enough to equip a few of the believers and leave the church unequipped and patently dysfunctional. So the local church is the “identified patient.” And the question is: wherever we are in the system/body how can we affect change in the systemic life of the people of God. Here are some ideas that I have tried and found to bring about some changes in how the church functions as a system.[5]
Interviewing Marketplace Ministers. Some do this with a different member each week, but even once a month has an impact on the culture of the church. The culture speaks more loudly than the pastor about who and what is important. This can be brief, from three to five minutes. A careful selection of the members is critically important—those who believe that God has called them into the marketplace and who find they are serving God and their neighbors. Four questions can be asked (in advance and then in the service): (1) What is the nature of your work? (2) What kind of problems do you encounter in your daily work? (3) How do you relate your faith to these problems and challenges? (4) How can we pray for you for your ministry in the workplace? A brief prayer of blessing for this worker would follow. If you could do this, without prioritizing the interview time slot with returned missionaries, visiting pastors, or professors from theological colleges (who also need prayer), you will in the course of 52 weeks have turned the church inside out.
Intercessory Prayer for Members in the Marketplace. Typically, the pastoral prayer or the “people’s prayer” covers the sick, the bereaved, and the missionaries with the prayers of the fellowship. But why not pray for people in teaching, in business, in the trades, in homemaking, in government work, and in IT. Some churches select a single occupation and get all the people who are doing this to stand up and be prayed for (for example school teachers at the beginning of the academic year). But, if you do this, be sure to include everyone including the retired, retreated, and volunteers.
Marketplace Preachers. Personally, I encourage every pastor-preacher to spend some of her time equipping a college of preacher-teachers, especially people who have some gift in communication. People tire of hearing the same voice every Sunday for 52 weeks a year. But the occasional involvement of a person working in the world can have a multiple effect. In a church I served we had a physician bring a sermon once or twice a year. He would almost always start his sermon by saying that he has just been, yes Sunday morning, in the hospital doing “rounds” and seeing the patients he had operated on. And his illustrations came from life and work. It can be a powerful incarnational ministry even if it is not as “polished” as the regular preacher. But of course, such worker-priests, to use a Roman Catholic phrase, must not be tempted to become pastors and to neglect the first arena in which God has called them to serve—unless God so calls.
Ordination of Worker-Priests. This is a touchy question and I have written elsewhere on how biblically we should view ordination or commissioning.[6] I have concluded that ordination as practiced in mainline churches has historical validity but has a very shaky biblical foundation, at least in the New Testament where there is a priesthood, prophethood and kingly rule of all believers (Acts 2:17-19; Luke 22:29). In a fine historical, exegetical and theological study of ordination, Vancouver scholar Marjorie Warkentin concludes that:
The vocabulary of the New Testament permits no pyramidal forms, it is the language of horizontal relationships…. Ordination can have no function in such a system, for it sets up barriers where none should exist, that is between one Christian and another and hinders the mutual service by which the church is edified.[7]
Why do we gather? Not to watch a performance and not even primarily for worship. Biblically we gather, as Robert Banks shows in his Paul’s Idea of Community, primarily for mutual edification and mutual service (Heb 10:24-5; 1 Thess 4:9-12; 5:11).[8] This usually happens before and after “the service” in most churches in the foyer. But does this mean there is no place for ordaining pastors? Of course. But if we are convinced that ministers in pastoral work should be commissioned (as in Acts 1:1-2; 6:1-7), then we must find a way to ordain non-pastor members of the congregation to their proven and called ministry. And for many, that will not be the work of ministry in the church gathered but the ministry of work in the church scattered. For example, Frank Lim was ordained by his home church in Vancouver to serve as a marketplace missionary in his business in Taiwan where he spends two weeks each month. So, while it is appropriate for churches and denominations to set part, with the laying on of hands and prayers, a leader who equips the saints (Eph 4:11-12), it seems equally appropriate that others should be ordained. But I have some important provisos.
First, we should not ordain indiscriminately! Paul tells Timothy not to lay hands hastily on any one ( 1 Tim 5:22). Just as no one should be ordained to pastoral ministry or to eldership without a proven ministry in the home, neighborhood and church (1 Tim 3:1-13), so no one should be commissioned by the congregation to a mission in the workplace without a long period of apprenticeship. We should single out those who have a proven sense of call over a long period of time and give them the same recognition we give to pastors and overseas missionaries. Further, it is important that any church considering this should have a long-term view. To ordain one or two, and then give up would be a serious mistake. James Garlow in Partners in Ministry gives us a pattern for a lay commissioning service in an out-of-print book which can be found in the appendix of The Equipper’s Guide.[9]
Congregational Study and Learning
Since work occupies about one-third of a person’s life and one-half of his or her waking hours, it Is essential that the Word of God be brought to bear on this crucial topic. Here are some ways to do it.
A series of Sermons on Work. My book, Work Matters: Lessons from Scripture covers stories of workers in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I strongly recommend Tim Keller’s, Every Good Endeavor and IMT offers a couple of free courses on the theology of work. In addition, the Theology of Work Project published the complete Bible with reflections on every book of the Bible as it pertains to work.
An Adult Elective in Sunday School. One useful study guide for this was coauthored with Gerry Schoberg and myself entitled Satisfying Work: Christian Living from Nine to Five. It contains thirteen inductive Bible studies from Genesis to Revelation on the subject of work.
Congregational Integrated Study. One of the best ways to bring marketplace perspectives into the gathered life of the church is to develop an integrated study program each week with the sermon topic matching the small group Bible study curriculum. Each week small groups in the church study the same passage that will be preached the following Sunday, perhaps using a study guide like Satisfying Work. The Sunday sermon is on the same passage. Contrary to what most people may think, these will hardly ever overlap. They reinforce one another and there is synergistic learning. We may learn more this way than having very different Scripture passages being considered in small groups and Sunday sermons.
Research on Marketplace Engagement. Nelvin Voss suggests as series of questions that can form the research basis for a marketplace ministry in a particular congregation. These questions can be used in small groups or even as a questionnaire to the whole congregation. (1) Describe your main daily activity—what you do and where you do it? (2) About how many people do you meet in the average day? (3) About how many of these persons do you “minister to” in as broad or narrow sense as you wish? (4) How do you minister to these persons? (5) List at least three kinds of decisions you make in your daily activity. (6) Does your Christian faith affect your decisions? How? (7) How can you be better equipped and supported in your ministry in the world?[10]
Doing Case Studies—Doing Theology from Below. Actual case studies of situations encountered by members of the congregation can be explored in small groups. For example, a group of teachers in the public school system could work through a situation in which they are required to teach matters in the areas of sexuality, gender and race about which they have reservations. The case needs to be written descriptively, without using people’s names or disguising the location, but in detail. Ideally you put the dilemma at the very beginning. But the issues are left open-ended. First you get people to ask clarifying questions. Then you name the issues, noting the top three issues in the case. You ask what is at stake in this case if various differing approaches are taken. Then you explore Scripture to see if there is a story or a text, taken in context, which speaks to this issue. Failing that and usually alongside the textual study you explore the major theses of biblical theology—creation, fall, redemption and consummation—in the light of the issues or issues.
A Marketplace Ethics Course. A great elective in an adult church school would be to explore ethics using various texts noted in the footnote or viewing the two short videos and discussing them in IMT’s “Doing God’s Business.”[11] Case studies often deal with ethical issues and they can be discussed using IMT’s video on “Doing Case Studies.” IMT has a hundred case studies that can be obtained from imtglobal.org.
Networking in the Marketplace
Worker-priests need one another, especially when dealing with the grey areas of their occupation or profession. Many believers find that a noon hour or an early morning meeting with other Christians is a major resource for living out their lives to God’s glory in the marketplace. Some churches are large enough to have several members in one geographical location, thus rationalizing a local network. Indeed some churches are large enough to have several people clustered around their particular occupation which strengthens the immediacy and value of their meeting. The pastor is fortunate indeed if he or she is invited to be part of this group. The ministry of the pastor in this situation is simply listening and asking questions since people tend to turn to their pastor for definitive answers, and this short-circuits the essential learning process. Business and professional people, as well as laborers and tradespeople, can effectively equip their pastor for ministry to them by inviting the pastor to join the group, especially if the pastor visits some of the members in their workplaces.
Several churches in an area could join to provide a discussion, prayer, and study group for people in the workplace. The temptation of these groups is that they will merely study the Bible and pray devotionally (I find it hard to write these words) without bringing the hard questions from their work life to the illumination of God’s Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Institute for Marketplace Transformation has lots of resources for this networking.[12] InterVarsity Christian Fellows has marketplace resources for students on campus. But particularly young people, and especially university students often approach Christian leaders and pastors for vocational guidance, to which subject we now turn.
Vocational Discernment
Pastors and other leaders of the church are often sought out for vocational advice and counseling. And why not? For there to be a callee there must be a caller. We know who is calling. And calling is central to a person’s life. We have many models of excellent preachers, missionaries, and pastors. What we need today, and only the church can provide this, are models of people in the marketplace who have been transformed by Christ and stayed where they were because they discerned that God had called them to the marketplace. Too often they become circuit-riding preachers and tell their “punch press to pulpit” stories. The intertestamental book of Ecclesiasticus reflects on those who work and minister on farms, in homes, and in cities. “All these rely on their hands, and each is skillful in his own work. Without them, a city cannot be established, and men cannot sojourn nor live there…. They keep stable the fabric of the world, and their prayer is the practice of their trade” (38:25-32,34). But how do people find out their calling?
Calling is revealed in how we are made, and how we are remade through Christ. Our life circumstances, God’s providential work in our lives, our innate passions and gifts/talents, and occasionally by the direct leading of the Spirit (the Spirit leads through all the previously noted factors of a person’s life.) The critical question is, “Whose voice are we listening to?” Our parents? Our society? (in that certain occupations are very well remunerated and held in high esteem.) IMT has a short Certificate course on “Vocational Discernment” which is free for access and can be credited towards a Certificate in Marketplace Transformation for a modest fee.
Work cannot be a mission unless, as Dorothy Sayers said, “one really gets into one’s work,”[13] doing it heartily with all one’s might as a ministry, for the sake of the work itself, which is worth doing, even if it is not a people-helping job. This is not likely to happen unless one develops a contemplative lifestyle with some reflection on the meaning of what we do. As Alfons Auer says, “Meditation will… enable a person in the technological world to discover the sense of transparency in worldly matters over and above the rational realization of their function.”[14] It is just this “transparency” that allows us to see the desire of God for the kingdom to come that makes work into a ministry of faith, hope, and love, making amateurs—in the true sense of that word, people who work for love—out of us all, rather than mere toil or a disappointing idol.
As the Russian Orthodox theologian Berdyaev said, Easter which is the eighth day of creation would be prolonged indefinitely as Christians participate in the ongoing life of the resurrected Jesus in the world. With a single eye Christians would love and serve God and neighbor from nine to five, or from eight to eight!
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I pray for everyone reading this article that they may know that they are precious people in God’s sight, providentially placed in the church and the world by a good God who has a good purpose for their lives; that they may know they are a prophet, able to bear God’s word to others and to see clearly what is happening in the world; that they are a priest, bringing the touch of God into life situations and bearing people up in prayer and intercession; that they may know they are a prince or princess in God’s lovely kingdom with Jesus as King, undertaking some coordination, communication, and work that needs to be done with God to bring in a little of God’s kingdom on earth. So we pray by our lives, “Your kingdom come.” Amen.
References:
[1] This story is found in R. Paul Stevens, The Equipper’s Guide to Every-Member Ministry (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1992) from which some of this chapter is abstracted in chapter five “Worker-Priests in the Marketplace,” 91-112.
[2] Read Tom Nelson’s confessional forward to R. Paul Stevens, The Kingdom of God in Working Clothes: The Marketplace and the Reign of God (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022), vii-ix.
[3] Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson, Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 46.
[4] William Diehl, Thank God, It’s Monday! (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 171.
[5] Stevens, The Equipper’s Guide, 106-111.
[6] R. Paul Stevens, The Other Six Days; Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 30, 31, 45, 54, 151n, 155-6.
[7]Marjorie Warkentin, Ordination: A Biblical-Historical View (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 187.
[8] Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community (Revised Edition)(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 88-98.
[9] Stevens, The Equipper’s Guide, 184-5.
[10] Nelvin Vos, Seven Days a Week: Faith in Action (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 15.
[11] Alexander Hill, Just Business: Christian Ethics for the Marketplace (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997); David W. Gill, Workplace Discipleship 101: A Primer (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 2020); It’s About Excellence: Building Ethically Healthy Organizations (Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011); Doing Right: Practicing Ethical Principles (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004); Becoming Good: Building Moral Character (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000). In the IMT video, “Doing God’s Business” available free with a study guide, there are two episodes in section two, # 9 on “Dealing with the Gray Areas” and #10 on “Making Ethical Decisions,” available through imtglobal.org click on resources-videos.
[12] See our website: imtglobal.org for films, videos, podcasts, blogs, conferences and Certificate courses.
[13] Dorothy L. Sayers, “Why Work?” in Creed and Chaos? (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1949), 46-62.
[14] Alfons Auer, Open to the World (Washington DC: H.A. Gil and Son, 1966), 230, italics mine.
