What if our vision of ministry wasn’t centered on one person leading a crowd, but on ordinary Christians empowered to use their gifts and share the gospel within their own communities? Ministry is not a cinematic universe where a few chosen leaders possess extraordinary powers while everyone else remains a spectator. There are no elite Christians; service is not reserved for the chosen few or paid staff. We are all invited to participate, and there is no need to wait for a special calling. As 1 Peter 4:10 reminds us, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
Ephesians 4 explains that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers “to equip his people for works of service.” These leaders were never intended to do everything themselves; rather, their role is to help every believer get involved. A core emphasis of the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers, the idea that we do not rely on a select few to connect us to God or to perform mission on our behalf. In his book Everyday Church, Tim Chester writes, “We need to recapture the sense that gospel ministry is not something done by pastors with the support of ordinary Christians but something done by ordinary Christians with the support of pastors.” This shift in perspective is vital for the modern church.
Every disciple of Jesus is called to be a witness (Acts 1:8) and is sent into the world, whether locally or abroad. The New Testament depicts a diverse mission force: fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and former Pharisees—rich and poor, educated and uneducated—all sent to draw people to Jesus. There is no excuse for delegating the task of sharing the gospel with strangers to others. Instead, we are all called to embrace a promiscuous evangelism approach, reaching out to everyone we encounter.
With so much Christian media available we have to watch we’re not merely consuming and not actually living out our faith. Keith Green put it nicely: “You’re called. You’re called to do something for Jesus. Not to sit around & grow fat on all the Christian literature & albums & concerts. You know what constipation is? It’s when you’re taking in more than you’re letting out.” Christian celebrity is one of the worst things that ever happened to the Church. It should be an oxymoron. There’s no place for ‘platforms’ and ‘big names’. All of us have a responsibility not to fuel a culture of celebrity by the way we talk about or regard Christian leaders, speakers, writers or musicians. To the Corinthian church, who were quarrelling about which leaders they followed, Paul doesn’t hold back, telling them that they are “acting like mere men.” “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task” (1 Corinthians 3:4-5).
Jackie Pullinger nailed it saying, “In the Old Testament you had a few special people like judges or kings or prophets. In the New Testament, God said ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.’ The more you put one person on a pedestal, the more people think there’s some kind of special anointing or something, which is not true, and it actually makes the Church go backwards not forwards. We’re not going to reach the ends of the earth if we’re relying on a few specially anointed or gifted people. The good news is that the job was given to every ordinary, weak kind of person.”
Just imagine, each of us ordinary and variously gifted people getting on with sharing Jesus, making disciples and serving our communities. Not watching others do it or reading about it. Every believer in Jesus. Every single one of us. Whatever our personality, our skill set or gift mix, wherever we are and wherever we go we can participate in the mission of God. Bring your gifts, skills, resources, experience and, very importantly, your weakness to the table; God will put them to use.
This article originally appeared on Burning Hearts. and is reposted here by permission.