How to Empower People Through the Church

Tom Shrader concludes his Power Broker series by examining the church's biblical mission to empower Christians for ministry using their unique gifts. He contrasts typical church models that create professional ministers and passive laypeople with God's design for equipping all believers for service. Shrader emphasizes finding churches that prioritize biblical teaching and empowerment over programs and attendance.

“God saved you for a purpose, for a reason, and most exciting thing that I think in my life that I ever came to understand was that God had a plan in this world, and that I, as one of His children, was a part, albeit a very small part, of His plan, and so were you.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Power Broker

Recorded: June 15, 2006

Duration: 42 min

Themes: empowerment, gifts, service, ministry, calling, purpose, stewardship, leadership, church member, seeking purpose, new believer, feeling called, pastor, church leader, ministry volunteer, questioning church involvement

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3, Ephesians 4:11-13, Ephesians 4:13, 2 Thessalonians 1

Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church structure, spiritual gifts, body of christ, equipping saints, biblical ministry, lay ministry, priesthood of believers

Full Transcript

Today is the last of a 10-session series dealing with the issue of power. If you've been with us, you have heard basically the same introduction nine times—make it ten. When we talk about power, we're looking at empowering people. The title is Power Broker. The idea is we take power that God has ordained, and it's passed through God-ordained channels to empower people. Those channels are family, work, government, and the church.

In the family, the power is passed to mom and dad, and the idea there is to empower children. What does that process look like? Power: P is proficiency—taking the right person in the right place, helping them understand the uniqueness of their life, and putting them in the right place. There's nothing more exciting than seeing somebody who's the right person in the right place in a job that's just made for them.

O is ownership, to understand that there's a temporary control of an asset. We would say that you are a steward rather than a manager of the things God's given you. When you reach into your pocket and pull out money, technically it's yours, but in reality, it's God's money that He's given to you to trust and to use for Him. So when you invest, you're investing God's money. When you spend, you're investing and spending God's money.

W is work, meaning you need meaningful work. That may be preparing you for something down the road, but you have a task. It's a job. It's clear. E—if you're in a position of management or ownership, the cheapest and most certain form of motivating your workforce is encouragement. They love it. They love to be encouraged. I'm not talking about blowing smoke at them. I'm talking about legitimately encouraging them. And R is to release them.

Understanding God's Empowering Systems

The perfect example of that to me is kids. You can take children, and those kids—we made this point to you and it's exactly right—those kids are going to be freed from you. It's going to be done either in an orderly process that's proactive or a rebellious process.

After we looked at those and understood that, we looked at these systems that God has. First we looked at government, then we looked at work, and we said even as we apply those, they're somewhat theoretical. So we looked at family last week. Today we look at what is an awfully important topic, and that's the church.

When we talk about church, if there are 100 people plus in the room, when I say church, you have as many definitions of church as you have people, for you have a different view of church. Some of you are traditionalists. You're there every Christmas and Easter no matter what. Nothing can keep you away. You're determined.

Others of you have a been there, done that attitude. I have a guy that finally, years ago, we got him to go to church. He came in the next day. I said, "Did you get there?" And he said, "Yep." I said, "What did you think?" He said, "Well, the usher who gave me this bulletin or whatever that's called at the church"—and I said, "Yeah," I don't know because he didn't go to the church I go to, it was a different church—and I said, "Yeah." He said, "He just screwed me in a business deal about two weeks ago." So he said, "You know, it kind of took a little edge off my church experience right at the door. It's what I thought. It's a bunch of hypocrites, so I'm done with that. I don't need to go there."

The Reality of Healthy Churches

Let me tell you something that you may not hear, that you need to hear. There are a good number of people who are in healthy churches and are healthy in those churches, and they're doing very well, thank you. There are, in spite of the fact that it may be hard and maybe you haven't yet found one, there are good churches where good men and women are leading lives that bring honor and glory to God within those churches. But generally when we talk about church, for many people anyway, we're talking about something that connotes a negative experience.

Two points. Number one, for me: within two years of being a Christian, it was clear to me that my passion was the church. Even though I teach in a bar on Thursday morning, and even though for all of my Christian life, in terms of speaking and teaching, I've been out in the community, and I love going to the community. I love being out in settings like this. My passion is the church. I'll tell you why. When I read the scripture, that's God's passion.

I cannot be more clear than this. Priority Living is not church. If you're here, and you say, "Priority Living is my church," then you don't go to church. I can't make it any more plain than that. This is not church. We don't have an elder structure here. We don't do worship time here. We don't do baptism and the Lord's Supper here.

What Priority Living Is and Isn't

Every once in a while, somebody will come in that's been taking a lot of medicine, and they're really moving, and their brains are flowing. So they'll come in with some strategic plan to expand Priority Living. Let me help you out here. I'm not looking to expand Priority Living. I'm not looking to change Priority Living. Priority Living is right where we want it.

Here's the change they want to make: "Well, let's take these people to the next level. Let's get them together. Let's get them in study groups, discussion groups." Let me help you out. That's the church's job. That's not Priority Living. See what I'm saying? This isn't church. We think it's important, and I hope you think it's important. You wouldn't be here at 7 o'clock on a Thursday morning. You've got other things to do. But it's not church.

Defining the Church's Mission

So what is the church? You've got your outline in front of you. We'll just work our way through it. What's the mission of the church? If I go down, and let's say I'm going to send a kid to Brophy, and I go in, and I meet with the people at Brophy, and I say to them, "I'm going to give my kid for

Four years. What are you going to give me back? Or if I go to Valley Christian or I go to some daycare, whatever it is, and I say, I'm going to give you this kid for four years, what are you going to give me back?

Well, let's apply that same thing to the church. I've challenged the guys at the church that I go to. I've challenged them to say, what are we going to do? If somebody says I'll give you four years, what are we going to give them back? I think that's important.

The Church's Mission: Empowering Christians

So the question is, what's our mission? Here you go: to empower Christians to become personally involved in ministry in keeping with their unique mix of gifts and talents and passions.

I digress just a little bit here. It's to empower Christians. There's a move—I think it's an alarming move, in my view—among churches to be very concerned about unchurched people, non-Christian people. That's not the church's job. That's the people in the church's job.

You've got churches that are springing up all over the world, and especially in this country, that are concerned about reaching unchurched Mary and unchurched Harry, reaching people that would never darken the doors of a normal church. So they've got to do drama and magic shows and all this other stuff to get these unchurched people in. Pretty interesting, but here's the deal: that's not the job of the church. You see it? Christians.

Once I start that whole process, there's no end to it in my mind. It's to take Christians. Now, are there unchurched or non-Christian people in church? Sure there are, obviously.

We have a thing that we've started at our church for about two months now because here's what we noticed. We have the three services in the morning and then one at night. But we saw people rushing in, and right away we're singing and we're clapping and we're ready to go. Well, here's the problem with that: we've got a lot of people who are rushing in, and they've never even stopped for a second to quiet themselves to think about what they're doing.

So what we do now is we start each service on our knees. We recommend that if you're able and you're willing, that we'll start on our knees. Well, I know that anything like that is going to fire up the emails. I'm not stupid.

And here's what I got the other day: "What is this? This is going to be a stumbling block for non-Christians that are at church." Let me help you. I'll give you my answer to that email: I don't care. I couldn't care less. It doesn't mean one bit of difference to me because they're coming into an environment that's a family environment, and they're guests. We aren't about to determine what we do in a church setting based on non-Christians. That's not church.

It's so important for you to grab that. And for some of you, you're going, "What's He all concerned about?" That's okay. You'll figure it out. I mean, you're just not involved in whatever it is at this point. But for many of you, you need to incorporate that: Christians, taking Christians to become involved in ministry in keeping with their gifts and talents. So that's what we're concerned about.

That's the fundamental point of the church: to equip and encourage the saints. That's the way we'd say it, to take the saints. When we think of saints, we tend to think of people with a little halo and all these things that have been canonized. That's not what the Scripture says. A saint is anyone who is a believer and a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a saint. To take the saints and to equip them, to prepare them, and to encourage them for ministry in keeping with their unique gifts and talents.

What Is a Church?

We'll look a little bit here, working our way through it. If that's what a church is—the mission—if that's the mission of the church, what is a church? We got a couple of different options here.

One kind: an institution of tradition, kind of the keeper of the gate, the keeper of the tradition. Well, I mean, and maybe you're in a church that has tradition. Some tradition is good; some gets in the way.

I was in a meeting—this church that I mean we've been there about two or three years—and I had an idea to maybe change the logo. I was kind of neutral on it; I thought let's change the logo. So I went into a meeting, and the first comment was, "But we've always had this other logo." I said, "You know what? I was neutral on this until now. I didn't really care until now, but if that's why we're hanging on to this thing..." Are you in a place that's traditional?

I was visiting a church, and I'm walking out. There's three guys—one I knew—in the parking lot, and they're going at it pretty hard. I thought, "Well, wow, this is an illustration. I need to go over and see what's happening." So I went over and I said, "Hey guys, what's going on?" They said, "Were you in church?" I said yes. I said, "How was it?" I said, "That was fine. I wouldn't go here, but it's okay."

They said, "What did you notice?" I said, "No, I have—what?" I said, "We didn't say the Lord's Prayer." I said, "Oh, okay, good, that's good." He said, "No! We say the Lord's Prayer every day. If we're about to head down this—I'm out of here if we're not going to be saying the Lord's Prayer anymore." Well, I would say that's probably tradition. If all of a sudden you make an instrumental change on the platform, then we're in an institution of tradition.

Some: a museum for the saints. I've been in churches where they just kind of sit around and watch a handful of people, and those are the real saintly people and the godly people.

This idea: it's a hospital for sinners, kind of a spiritual 911. Or that it's really a school for ministers, that it's kind of a little mini seminary. So you see all those different ideas when we talk about it.

The Traditional Church Model

Under this next scenario, I want to look at a typical church. In a typical church, if you get a program, you have two players listed: you have the ministers and you have the laypeople. These are, by the way, Webster's definitions. This is Webster's definition.

of a minister—a person assigned to carry out a spiritual function. They are the ones who typically have been formally schooled in theology. Although let me give you an interesting statistic: of the churches in the United States that are a thousand or more, 50% of them are now pastored by men who have not been to seminary. That's an interesting statistic.

But typically they're trained, they're paid to be in this spiritual position, and they're competent to minister. The way that we like to say that is they are good, but they are paid to be good, as compared to the lay people who apparently are good for nothing according to this. Webster says a lay person is a person not skilled in a given profession.

The Disempowering Effect of Clergy-Laity Division

Now here's what I want you to remember—the context we're talking about is power brokers. I'm not that familiar with this group, but I know in almost all the other studies there are pastors. Maybe a pastor or two in here, but generally speaking in these categories you would be lay people. Do you feel empowered when you're described as a person who is not skilled in a given profession?

See, this is a dichotomy we see: here are the professionals, here are the lay people. I think it's an artificial dichotomy. In the midst of this, here's what we're doing: the lay people who ought to be being empowered for ministry are reinforcing this.

I had a gal who called me and said, "I want you to meet with a friend of mine and myself." I said, "Okay, why?" She said, "Because I've been talking to this girl and this girl I believe is ready to come to Christ." So I said, "I'm not going to meet with her for that. Why would I meet with her for that? You can take her through that. You don't need me. You go spend time. I'm not going to meet with her. I don't want to meet with her. That's not my job. You meet with her. You know her, you got a relationship. Why would she want to meet with some guy she doesn't even know? You'll meet with her."

You know what? She started talking to her. She had her in a Bible study, and about a month after they started this Bible study, this lady prayed to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior. But we reinforce this. We call them pastor or reverend or monsignor or bishop. All of a sudden we're saying they're the pros. "I'd love to help you out. Let me set up a lunch with my pastor." Now again, you may not be in a church where this is the situation, but it's the situation in most churches.

What We Expect from Lay People

So now here's what I want you to see, and this will explain a lot of problems to you. From the average lay person, what do we expect? Well, if we're going to turn on the air conditioning and open the doors, we expect you to be there, and we expect you to give some money. People need to pay for this. In fact, every year we'll have this thing called Stewardship Sunday, or "the least anticipated time of the year," when we'll talk about how you need to give.

Then we want you to support whatever we put out there as a program. In fact, there's not even a place in here for healthy, loyal criticism. You just say yes. We don't want any conflict. We're not going to talk about any tough stuff. We're going to agree at the lowest common denominator.

By the way, I don't think this is where people are. There's a whole move in the body of Christ and in the churches around to water this down. I don't think that's what people are looking for. They're looking for the church to make a difference.

People Are Hungry for Truth

Last Sunday in church, our message was on 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and the message was fairly straightforward, I thought, on hell. If you've never heard the gospel and if you don't know Christ, you're going to hell. And here's what hell is. We talked about it. There's not a lot of wiggle room in here. You're going to hell, and everybody that doesn't believe this is going to hell. That was the message.

I'm in my office Tuesday and our tech guy came in. He said, "I don't think you're going to believe this." I said, "Okay." He said, "By not even close, Sunday's message is the most ordered tape we've ever had." I said that blew me away. I was really surprised by that. I shouldn't be, because one of my basic contentions is: in this world where even the church is afraid to say this stuff, people are dying to hear the truth. So you just stand up and you tell the truth.

But in an average, typical church, you attend meetings, give more money, support more programs, and stay out of conflict. So if somebody's really growing spiritually, how would we know it? Well, the logical extension—you see it—they attend more meetings, they give more money, they support more programs, and they don't want to argue or talk about anything that has to do with spiritual conflict. So now you have people who are absolutely burnt out because that's what church is driven by.

How We Measure Success

Now I've got to figure out, just like you in your business—your business is easy because the bottom line is the bottom line. How are we doing? I can tell you: not good. I've got some stock that I kind of got into here—I don't ever do this, but I got into this, bought it at 13, and yesterday morning it was at three and a quarter. I have the ability to do that. I am the world's greatest reverse indicator. Well, we know how to rate this business. It's real simple: three and a quarter.

Well, how do you rate a church? Take it to its logical extension: we have lots of people, we have lots of money, we've got lots of programs, and everybody's in line. So you bring in a speaker, and you'll say, "Our speaker today is Bob Smith. Bob's the pastor of First Church of the whatever in Fargo, North Dakota." You know what the next sentence is going to be? The first thing they've got to tell you is it's got 8,000 people.

What if the announcement said 80 people instead of 8,000? If you said, "We got Bob Smith in Fargo, North Dakota, First Church of the Nazarene. He's coming in and there's 80 people there." I'm telling you, here's what would happen: "Eighty? Did they say eighty? That's got to be a mistake. He has eighty people? It's more likely that he has 800,000 than eighty." They'd think, "Who brought a guy in? We don't want to listen to him. In Fargo, we don't listen to him here. Eighty people? Eighty looks like a loser."

Why? Because in a typical setting, we measure an average church by the size. See how this game gets played? That's why size is important.

The Problem with Traditional Success Metrics

I spoke to a group of high school pastors—I won't name the denomination—and when I was done, this was one of the most defeated groups I've ever been around. These guys came up, and there weren't many guys, maybe 40 guys in the room. I'll bet I had five of them come up and give me a card and say, "I'd love to send a resume to you if you're looking for a youth guy." These were the top in their denomination in the country, and they said, "I'd love to work in an environment..." because I tell them, "I don't care how many guys come to your thing. Couldn't care less."

"You mean you don't care about numbers?" I do care about numbers, because typically that's an indicator that something's happened. Give me an example. I have had three or four people this week say to me, "Have you seen The Patriot?" And I said, "No." They said, "Boy, you got to see The Patriot. It's terrific." I said, "Okay." See, the natural thing is, if you saw The Patriot and it was good, when you meet somebody, you say, "You need to go see The Patriot." It's a natural thing to do.

If your life and that of your spouse, if you're married, or your life if you're single, or your kids' lives—if your life is being changed in a church setting—the most natural thing in the world is to say, "You need to come to this church. I'm just telling you this. I was this, now I'm this. This church was part of it." It's a natural thing.

So there ought to be growth in a church. There's something unhealthy, I think, if it's stagnant and not growing. But that's not how you measure success, nor do you measure it by money, nor by programs.

How Churches Kill People Through Programs

This is where you really get it. This is how you kill people. You may be sitting here today and feel very de-energized by your church experience. Well, let me show you how.

Now we've got to have programs, because here's what happens in a typical church. Somebody comes in with a need. They're hurting, and the first thing the church wants to do is solve the need. My motto is, people die with needs unmet. I'm not here to meet every need. Every need's not a calling. See, that's how you get this proliferation of programs.

Well, now you have to support the programs, and you've conned these people into thinking that unless you're really busy, you aren't growing. So now you have people who are out two, three, four nights a week, involved in all sorts of ministry things. They think they're growing spiritually, and their family's falling apart, and they're exhausted. They're getting no time on their own, they're not growing, and then at the end of the day, they're the weak people. No. The system's flawed.

You don't need a bunch of... "Boy, this is a great church." Really? How come? "They got a blind left-handed bowling league. I mean, they're reaching out to everybody. I'm telling you, if you got a need, they're meeting the need. Oh, you should see them."

We got a guy in our area that started a church, and I'm telling you, within three months, the bulletin made me nervous to look at. It was just program after program after program after program. I'm saying, "These people don't need all that stuff." But see, that's how we get to success.

God's Definition of Success

Let's do something really odd here for the last 15 minutes. Rather than you and I figure out what success is in a church, what does God say is successful? That's a novel approach. What's God looking for in a church? What is God—when God looks at the church, what's significant to Him?

On your outline, G: Well, first of all, the leaders are to be godly leaders. See, here's what we do. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul writes about when you go and pick leaders, here's the kind of leaders that you're supposed to pick. He lays this out, and for some of us, it might be a set of standards that are different than what we would pick.

Here, I read from the New Living, 1 Timothy chapter 3. God's talking about picking leaders. He said this: "It's a trustworthy saying: If somebody wants to be an elder, he desires an honorable responsibility. For an elder must be one whose life cannot be spoken against. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exhibit self-control, live wisely, have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or violent. He must be gentle, peace-loving, not one who loves money. He must manage his own family well, with children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God's children? An elder must not be a new Christian, because he might be proud of being chosen so soon. He must have a reputation and be spoken well of with those outside the church."

Now, that's God's standard for a leader in your church. What we typically do is say, "You know, we got this guy, and he's got this dot-com business, and he's been very successful, so let's bring him in here, because that's what we need here." Did you notice there's nothing—the only reference to money in here is that you shouldn't love it. See, God's got a different standard.

Part of the problem that I see—we see it in our church—we see people come in who were elders and deacons and in positions of leadership at other churches...

And I'm telling you, many of them aren't even Christians, let alone meeting that standard. There's one sense when I look at that and say, nobody meets the standard, but that's the standard God lays out for leaders. Not that they're eloquent, not that they can run a business, not that they've got leadership and organizational savvy. That wasn't in there, was it? They're men who love God, and their love for God has transformed their life, and their life is clearly visible before all that they've been changed.

See, in a church, the first thing we look for are leaders that meet God's standard.

Leaders Must Have Appropriate Gifts

Here's the second thing, they have appropriate gifts. Not everyone is equal in terms of giftedness, and by that I mean identical. Some are prophets, that is, they declare the truth. Some are evangelists, some are pastors, some are teachers.

I've got people that literally every day they're out there sharing Christ. Every day they're saying, "God, bring me somebody to talk to who doesn't know Jesus, and I want to tell them about it." I've got other people for whom they will do that as life presents itself, but that's not their passion. Their passion is to study the Word in depth. I got other people say, "You know what I want to do? I want to come alongside people and pray with them, and I want to care for them, and I just want to love them. I just want to be there when they're hurting. I want to let them know I care, and that we care."

That, by the way, men and women, is the body of Christ. Here you go, you've been given a spiritual gift. You have, you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift, a special enablement to perform a function in the body of Christ. So you have to find that gift and begin to use that gift, and it's not that hard. What do you like to do, and what do you do well? That's your gifted area, and now in a church I've got all these different pieces coming together.

The Purpose of Church Programs

Look at what these programs that I have, what they produce are God's people for works of service. The word ministry or minister and service are essentially interchangeable. You're prepared to serve. God called you to serve. You've been given a spiritual gift to serve. That's why you need to be in the body of Christ, and that's why you need to be in the local church.

See, if you're not in the church, not only are you deficient, but the church is deficient. God saved you for a purpose, for a reason. Most exciting thing that I think in my life that I ever came to understand was that God had a plan in this world, and that I, as one of His children, was a part, albeit a very small part, of His plan, and so were you.

So what the church ought to do is to take men and women and say, "Here's what God's gifted you to do. Now let us give you some background, let us give you some help, let us give you some framework, and now let's go serve." Now that gets a little sloppy, and we'll look at why in just a second.

True Spiritual Growth and Maturity

Here's the last thing. There ought to be in your life a change. Here's what he says, Ephesians 4:13, "until we all reach unity in faith," that means we accept and embrace this doctrinal unity, "and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature."

So when somebody says to you, "How you doing, how you growing spiritually," your answer back can fall into a couple of categories. Here's one I hear all the time: "Well here's what I'm reading, here's what I just read, I just read this Sproul book, and I'm going to read a MacArthur book, and boy I'm back, I'm reading some of the Christian classics now." That's good, isn't it? It's good to be reading, it's good to be taking in information, it's good to be listening to tapes, but that's not the sign of spiritual growth, that's a sign.

Here's what I get on the other side: "Boy here's what I'm doing, I'm going in this small group, and I'm in this small group, and I'm over here in this thing, and I'm over there in this deal, and I'm down here, and I'm doing this, and I'm doing that." Well you know what, a lot of those things that you're doing real charitable pagans do. There's pagan organizations that feed the hungry and clothe the naked and go to meetings and hang out.

Let me give you another thing because those are the two extremes. There's something in the middle that you ought to be doing if you're growing. This is a tough one. You ought to be thinking, meditating, pondering, stopping. I'm telling you, I'm sick of hearing it, but I say it myself: "I'm so busy." Well, we've reached a time when we're so busy that there's no place to get away and think. You have to be thinking. You have to be thinking about what's God doing? How does this come together? What's God doing in my life? Quiet time, thinking time.

So how do I know I'm growing spiritually? Well, I'm taking in information, I'm reading, I'm thinking about it, I'm meditating about it, I'm pondering on what God's got to say and it's transforming the way I live. That's how I know I'm growing spiritually and it may mean I go to less meetings, not more meetings.

Finding an Empowered Church

This is where it gets a little dicey. Let's play it through here. So how do you find, in you, how should you find an empowered church? What do you look for? Because I'll tell you this, if you're not in a church, I believe you'll not even come close to what God's got for you in your life. You need to be involved in the local church, you need to be busy in the local church, and if that means you don't come to priority living and you go to the church, then so be it. Your church is more important than priority living. It isn't even close.

So what do you look for? Here's the last survey, it was taken among people. First thing they look for is a caring and sharing church. "I want to go in, I want to go, kind of like Cheers, a place where everybody knows my name, I want to go in where they really, how you doing, and then they want to talk about it and all that." I'll give you a tip, join the Elks. They'll do that for you there. Here's the second thing, music. "I want the music..."

What to Look For in a Church

When people are looking for a church, they often prioritize things like music that speaks to them, the worship style, ample parking so they can get in and out easily, and a beautiful setting. But here's what you should really look for in a church: a place where God's Word is being taught. That's supreme among all else. If you've got to park out in a field and take a bus to get there, then you go where the Word is being taught.

Do they teach the Word of God? In this process as they're teaching it, is it a place that reflects that teaching? There ought to be a sense of friendliness there. It ought to be a clean place. It's a place where you can worship. It's a place where you come in and for whatever reason, you just get a sense that when you're there, you are truly communing with the Lord through the music and the worship and the teaching and all that goes with it. And it's a place where people are challenged to grow and given the opportunity to grow.

That's the kind of church you want. And you may be saying, "I've been to ten churches and none of them are like that." Great! That's terrific! That's ten you don't have to go back to. Let's keep going until you find the one that fits for you.

The Third Most Important Relationship

You've got your relationship with Christ. You've got your relationship with your family. This is the third most important relationship you have in the world. It breaks my heart to see people who are not plugged into the local church.

What an Empowering Church Provides

So what does that mean? Under our scenario that we've talked about, it means that you're encouraged to discover your gifts. You're encouraged to try to figure out where you fit in the body. You're given everything you need to be competent. They're there trying the best they can to help you, to teach you, especially God's Word.

You're given some opportunity and a position to refine your capabilities. In other words, you're placed in an area where you begin to serve and there's some evaluation that takes place in line with your spiritual gift. You're commended for your performance and you're even given permission for ministry.

The Challenge of Over-Programming

Now here's where it gets to be a sticky wicket. When people are empowered, they may not go to as many meetings. One of the things that I see people coming into our church is that they are accustomed to being challenged to be very active. I find myself sitting in meetings saying, "Wait a minute. Are we asking too much of these people?"

Think about it. You go into a men's group and they say, "Men, you need to be with men. And you need to have iron sharpens iron." And gals, you need to be in this group. And if you're a couple, you need to be together in a small group setting. And you need to be teaching over here in second grade. And you ought to be leading a small group. And we have an outreach ministry in South Phoenix that we're trying to do. And I hope you understand abortion is a major issue. And you need to be reading these things. And by the way, you got a 60 hour a week job.

That's just not realistic. If that's the icon that you have of a vibrant Christian life, you're doomed to frustration.

Your Secular Job Is Your Ministry

That's why people who are serious about their faith make the mistake of thinking, "I got to get rid of my secular job and get into Christian ministry, because that's where the action is." That's a crock. Your secular job is your ministry. And you need to see it that way. God's uniquely placed you.

And it may be, and the church needs to be able to live with this, it may be that some of your time is going to be taken outside the church. I've had people say, "Well, if the church was doing their job, there wouldn't be anything like Priority Living. There wouldn't be anything like Young Life." That's not true. If the church was doing their job, there'd be more of those in different settings, maybe as extensions of the church, but they'd be there.

The Reality of Empowered People

It may be that money will get distracted. It may be you won't have this many programs. Got a guy in our office the other day and said, "I really think we need a church softball league." And I said, "You know what? We're talking back burner. Why? We're going through the same time where we're saying, you don't need another night a week out. And now you're going to take these guys out for two nights a week to play softball."

"Well, but we're going to have other non-believers there." Well, then you go do it. Go on a non-believing team that has a real reputation for drinking a lot and you'd be salt and light in the midst of that. We don't need to start a league so you have evangelism, in my view.

So in this process, it may get a little sloppy and I'll tell you this—this is a big deal here. People who are empowered and are gifted aren't going to wait around for the church to get their act together. That's terrific. We want to bless that. And we're saying, "That program's online for 2012." They're not going to wait. They're going to say, "Hey, listen, God's called me. God's gifted me. I'm ready to go. I've got to serve. I've got to do something."

That's how we determine new programs we need. Not what do we think, but can we staff it? What are people looking for in terms of extensions of using their gifts?

A Challenge to Church Leaders

Now, the question is real simple. Are you in a church like that? To those of you that are church leaders, and we always have people who can make a difference, that ought to be your church. I know that's not the norm, but that should be the norm. I know that kind of church is unique, but it shouldn't be. That's what God's ordained the church to do.

And I'll just say it to you again, if you're not in a church like that, get out. "Well, I'm going to change it." No, you aren't. You're the fifth generation of people who are going to change it. You're not going to change it. They go back 2,000 years. They're not going to change. They're not about to change.

Get out. You don't have enough energy. Listen, this work in ministry is tough, and if you've got to spend half your energy fighting the structure that's supposed to support you, you're nuts. See, the church ought to be a place where Christians are empowered. And that takes place in the front in the leadership.

I read something the other day where a guy said, "Never have the pews been so full and the pulpits so empty." It takes place when you set that tone, but I'm telling you, ultimately, this responsibility falls to you. God saved you. God puts you in this body, and if you're not in a church, let me say it to you again, you are, I think, disobedient to God.

Finding Your Church Home

And I don't care if you got to drive. We have a couple that drives to our church every Sunday morning from Sunflower. Almost an hour drive. I don't care if you got to drive to Casa Grande to find that church. That's the church you need to be in.

And I'll tell you something, God will do things in your life as you're plugged into that church. I'm telling you He'll change your life. He'll give you direction. He'll give you power. You'll see things happen in your life. You'll see your life begin to touch other people. You will see something that's contagious take place.

The Royal Priesthood of Believers

And you see the context, power broker, that power that's entrusted to the church is now passed on so that there's not professionals and lay people. There's the royal priesthood of the believers where we all minister. Some clearly at different levels. Some paid. I understand that. I got no problem there. But that's the norm. This is the norm by God's standards. It may not be by the standards we have in this country right now, but those are God's standards for how we're to live.

Let's pray. Father, that is stuff that I just know is absolutely true, so important to me. And I pray it's important to me because it's so important to You, God. I pray for the men and women in this room, first for those that are involved in the church and they're serving and they're ministering and stuff's happening in their life. God, let them be encouraged. And I pray they're not discouraged but encouraged by this 45 minutes today, for they see what they're doing is so important.

I pray for those that are here that don't have a church and for whatever reason it's just been something that's not really important. They can do it on their own. Father, help them see they can't. They need to be part of a body, a body where they're empowered, where they're nurtured, and they grow and they serve and fruit develops.

God, we pray for the churches around the valley. These guys have such awesome responsibilities and tasks. We pray for every one of them. We pray that they're the church that brings honor and glory to You, that they would fully embrace the challenge, the command to equip and to encourage the saints.

God, we look at this and we go there's no way. And You know what? We know it's right. There's no way apart from You. For what we're called to do is to live supernaturally, not natural lives. God, we pray that You would do this work in our life, in Jesus' name. Amen.

See you next week.