Every Lay Person A Minister

A journal entry by Bishop Dick Wills, July 23, 2007

S: I Peter 2:9 -- But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

O: Every follower of Jesus is now a priest (minister).

A: In so many of our churches we continue to think of the minister as the one who stands before us on Sunday mornings and delivers the sermon. And it is true, this person as been called by God to be the spiritual leader of the congregation.

The distortion comes when we think of the pastor as the only minister in the church. The pastor is to do the ministries of the church because he or she is the spiritual leader. The pastor visits the sick and leads the ministries of the church. So many of our present churches do not align with this important verse in scripture.

We are all ministers. The pastor is the spiritual leader. But the people are the ministers of the church. Lay people are called by God to ministry in different areas of the church. Some lay people are the ministers who bring the presence of Jesus to those who are sick in the hospital. Other lay people are ministers who bring food to the hungry. Other lay people are ministers who bring the presence and gospel of Jesus to those in prison. Lay people are the ministers who visit in the homes of the congregation.

In Acts 6 we see the lay people wanting the Apostles to minister to a group of widows who are being neglected. The Apostles (pastors) resist and direct those bringing the concern to select lay people to be the ministers to the widows. The Apostles (pastors) are to spend time in prayer, preaching the word, and being the spiritual leaders of the church.

This is how God has ordered the church. I am always excited when I visit a church who understands the Bible’s direction of the ordering of the church. The laity (the royal priests), the ministers, are not just supposed to sit in the pews and serve on committees.

P: Father help each of our churches return to being churches where every member is a minister (a part of the royal priesthood) and the pastors are the spiritual leaders. Love, Dick

Y: I will yield the temptation to do the work of the church just because I am the Bishop but will seek the laity to claim their biblical places of being priests or ministers in each church.