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The New Testament doctrine of ministry rests therefore not on the clergy-laity distinction but on the twin and complementary pillars of the priesthood of all believers and the gifts of the Spirit. Today, four centuries after the Reformation, the full implications of this Protestant affirmation have yet to be worked out. The clergy-laity dichotomy is a direct carry-over from pre-Reformation Roman Catholicism and a throwback to the Old Testament priesthood. It is one of the principal obstacles to the church effectively being God’s agent of the Kingdom today because it creates a false idea that only “holy men,” namely, ordained ministers, are really qualified and responsible for leadership and significant ministry. In the New Testament there are functional distinctions between various kinds of ministries but no hierarchical division between clergy and laity. —Howard Snyder

When we go back to the Word of God and read it afresh, we see that the clergy profession is the result of our human culture and history and not of God’s will for the church. It is simply impossible to construct a defensible biblical justification for the institution of clergy as we know it. —Christian Smith

For years, we have invited people to come to church. Successful evangelism has consisted of persuading our friends and family to join us at church. We have run special and exciting meetings with professional bands and gifted speakers. Even many of our simple/house churches have had this same mindset; invite someone to church, and pray that the presence of God touches their lives. And, praise God, many have found the Lord in this way. (First Corinthians 14 makes it very clear that there will sometimes be unbelievers in our gatherings.)

One problem: it's not what Jesus told us to do! And it's not the most effective means of changing lives.

Dear Nicolay,

I was so glad to see you in April. Although it was such a short meeting, I am always delighted to see old friends. You seem to be keeping active serving our Lord. Let me tell you about several of the meetings I had on my travels throughout Ukraine.

In the South of Ukraine, I met another man named Nicolay who came to Christ in 1991. In twenty years, he has had many experiences as teacher, pastor and leader. I was encouraged because Nicolay understands that the churches growth has plateaued resulting in the need for change. He is exploring “Organic Churches” because it has spoken to his heart. We had a great time sharing experiences and hopes for a renewed church.

In Kiev, I met one of my first church planting students. He successfully planted a church in 1993, built a building, and received a theological education. He is now a leader in the Oblast. However, he sadly admitted that his church has plateaued and shows little life. He wondered “where did I go wrong?”

As I coach church planters all over the world, I get to evaluate a variety of approaches to this difficult task. God has relentlessly brought two facts to my attention—the two main obstacles to church planting movements across our world.

ONE: What we are doing is too complex. Even though we stress to those we train that they must reduce the “heavy package” of ‘Church As We Know It’ to bare New Testament essentials before carrying it to an unreached people group, most church planters are still struggling to strip away the cultural elements that slow or stop reproduction in the new cultural setting.

For example, dispensing with the need for a special “holy” building to meet in on Sundays may be easier than modeling active ministry by every believer. The church planter often does so much of the work himself that the fledgling church sees ministry as something only full time religious professionals can accomplish. The movement is stillborn since “qualified leadership” can never reproduce itself rapidly enough. One thing we really need is a simpler and more Biblical view of what “church” actually means. When I speak of “church” ...I mean the living organism that corporately forms Jesus’ Body and Bride on this planet, not a religious organization. In practical terms: a gathering of any size, committed to one another and to obeying the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been lugging around a model and definition of “church” that is far too complex and encrusted with layers of nonessential, non-Biblical “barnacles.” We need to get radical in simplification.

If you watched the famous children's film "Adventure of Electronics", it is probably easy to remember how hard the mafia tried to find the "button", which would help them gain control over the electronic boy. No sacrifice of money or effort was too great.. They blindly believed that it would open the door to new opportunities.

Traveling through the labyrinth of pastoral ministry, I also was similar to the one who was desperately trying to find the "button". Sometimes I thought it was very close. This occurred especially in moments of successful ministry, when everyone was marveling at our fruitfulness or after the regular sermon, the words were said, "It was a good sermon." All of this seems so wonderful and it gives an impetus to move forward, but things are not what they seem.

All attempts to find a methodology or the secret of success in building the church lead nowhere. Again and again I was desperately continuing the search for a new system. Now, looking back, I understand what I did not in the past. I was already too deep in the system. I was part of it. It was part of me. I could not escape the system, and the system was using me. My mind was full of models and standard approaches. Moreover, I was not thinking about whether these models and approaches of ministry meet the Biblical principles of the teachings of Christ. And only now I realize I was looking for "button" for ministry success , but the Holy Spirit in His loving hand guided me to find a way out of the system. I think if I had heard this ten years ago, I would have been very terrified and could not even imagine the possibility of pastoral ministry beyond the traditional church system.

*Victor Choudhrie's 15 essential steps for changing traditional churches into New Testament churches.

1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)
2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)
3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)

Editors Note:
This is excellent material that has been used in starting and multiplying churches all over the world. This tool is a great way to start a group with unbelievers, and the principles that are used for studying the Bible are ones that many simple churches use regularly in the life of the church. The principles can be used with any scripture passage and the focus on discovering biblical truth as a group instead of depending on a weekly sermon is very practical and helpful for simple churches. The principles also emphasize the importance of application and obedience.

We hope to provide some additional examples of how to use this ministry tool in the near future.

Thanks to David Watson(New Generations International) for making this material available and to Todd Watkins and Pete Morton who have made some helpful additions and adaptions.
//newgenerationsintl.org/

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Note: This is Part 2 of a two part article. You may not have seen the first part, because we have had problems with the site in the past month. We apologize for the problems with the site. We hope the problems are corrected and that the site will now work normally again. To fully understand the thoughts in this article, we encourage you to read Part 1 of the article first. Thanks for visiting and participating in our site.

We are a Kingdom of Priests

I have heard about the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers for most of my life. It is something that most Christians say they believe, but my conviction is that the practices of many churches hinder people from really living in the reality of their priesthood.

Note: This is Part 2 of a two part article. You may not have seen the first part, because we have had problems with the site in the past month. We apologize for the problems with the site. We hope the problems are corrected and that the site will now work normally again. To fully understand the thoughts in this article, we encourage you to read Part 1 of the article first. Thanks for visiting and participating in our site.

We are a Kingdom of Priests

I have heard about the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers for most of my life. It is something that most Christians say they believe, but my conviction is that the practices of many churches hinder people from really living in the reality of their priesthood.