"The priesthood of all believers."
Sounds noble, doesn't it?
Nobility is nice, but I'm more interested in practicality. What does it practically mean for all believers in Christ—all of his followers—to have an active role in the leadership of the Church?
For most of Christian history, it has meant that the priests (Greek: presbyteros—quite literally, "priest") do all of the legwork, either by choice or by necessity. Meanwhile the laity (Greek: laos—literally, "the people") either are forced to the sidelines or enabled to sit and spectate.
I think you'd agree with me that either scenario is not ideal!
One of my foundational ministry passages is found in Exodus 18. The action revolves around a conversation between Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro takes a quick look around at Moses and the frantic pace of his life and utters the words that quite possibly save his life:
"What you're doing is not good!"
Moses was trying to do it all—do all the work of ministry by himself—and he was burning out, running himself ragged. Not only that, but the text makes it clear that the people whom Moses was ministering to were getting burned out as well.
Doesn't sound like the ideal situation, does it?
Thankfully, Jethro's intervention causes Moses to round up a crew of other capable God-followers and put them to work. In short, he delegated. To use the language of the New Testament, Moses empowered the people of Israel to do God's work right alongside of him.
Brilliant.
I wonder, though, how many of our churches and church leaders resemble the pre-Jethro Moses? Tired. Cranky. Power-hungry. Deflated of all life. Burned out. No sense of God's presence anywhere. In my experience, this happens for the reasons I stated earlier:
- Apathy. Followers of Christ wanting "someone else" to do the hard work of building God's Kingdom through the efforts of the local church.
- Shackled. Lay people feel called and empowered by the Spirit to do the work of the Church but are limited by the clergy in charge. They're never given a chance to "run with the baton."
- Burnout. Statistics tell the story in-depth: Overweight and unhealthy pastors, families sacrificed on the altar of ministry, broken marriages, stress, depression and anxiety—the list could go on and on. Clergy are burned out because, as my senior pastor puts it, "There are a thousand people in the stands in desperate need of exercise and 11 people on the field in desperate need of a rest."
- Control. Pastors and leaders who buy into the false belief that they are somehow different than "all the rest." Falsely believing that laity ("the people") are somehow incapable of doing the work of ministry themselves.
There's a little secret that denominations don't want you to know: ordination is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Ordination started as a way of publicly endorsing the work of the Holy Spirit through an individual person in leadership. It is a human-made construct that was developed in sincerity, but has run off the rails in more recent years. While the intent behind ordination is good and true, unfortunately it has built an artificial distinction between "professional" Christians and "regular" Christians.
Do we need accountability in our churches from trusted, respected and Spirit-filled believers? A hundred times, yes!
However, ordination in the New Testament sense happens when you are filled with God's Holy Spirit. That's all the permission you need to become the living stones that are building up God's kingdom all over the world. His Spirit, leading and guiding you, is your welcome into God's family.
In the words of St. Peter, "You are his holy priests." Not just the people who work in a church building. You. It's the plan of God. It's the priesthood of all believers.