An alternative to building

We need a vision; a vision for the direction of the church. We need to decide how we will “do business” in this world. The choice is ours to choose a direction. In the parable of the talents, the good servants invested with the intent of getting a return for their master’s wealth. They had not been instructed in what to do, only that they were to do business with what he gave them until he returned. We need a vision for how we will invest.

Conventional wisdom for churches holds that churches grow by building. But the buildings are hardly going to be of value to our returning Lord. The only rationale for building is in the purpose that the building serves. In the normal course of investment, choice must be made between investments, weighing potential return with potential risk. Most investments offer some potential for return; some just offer more. But there are other possible investments.

A big addition to a church will usually come with a big loan. A $2 million dollar building loan will cost about $10,000 per month to service the debt; for twenty years the church will be committed to this expense. This is an investment choice, one that carries an inescapable long term commitment.

But the same money could be invested in other ways. An alternative investment using the same amount of money can address the work of the church in a different way. Instead of a building, an investment can be made in staff.

We are accustomed to certain roles within church leadership. Usually it is a mixture of salaried and volunteer staff. Usually salaried staff is seminary-educated; volunteer staff usually is not. The usual responsibilities generally are more than what salaried staff can accomplish in a normal week. Volunteers fulfill many functions within a church, but these are almost always part-time, primarily on Sunday. We have a paradigm for staffing, just as we do for many other aspects of the church. Usually a church of a certain size can afford a certain number of salaried staff, and a certain size of debt.

There is another paradigm: one that comes from Ephesian 4. The work of Christ in the church comes through the four-fold ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. (I count four looking at an interlineal translation; some count five.) Now today, the concept of apostles is normally avoided, so setting it aside for the moment, we have still have a need for these roles. We have usually limited the primary leadership of the church to a small number of salaried pastors, seminary educated. Evangelists are usually limited to traveling preachers, preaching in churches to primarily churchgoers. Prophets are usually silenced, told only to speak safe things, even in groups that accept the role. Without getting into other issues, we are left with a small number of salaried pastors trying to equip the church, without the support of the other roles, and being fully tasked already. Few pastors have time to spend with all of those under their care; usually they must deal with crisis management.

Some have tried to fill the role of the pastors and teachers with elders, seeing a New Testament pattern that supports this concept. But this usually does not change the dynamics of shepherding the flock, for these men do not have much time to devote to the sheep. The realities of our economy require responsible individuals with families to work full-time jobs. Even when elder/shepherds are attempting to share in the work of the pastor, they cannot give more than a few hours a week to the task.

The consequence of the normal paradigm is that the roles of Ephesian 4 go substantially unfilled. The church does not have enough pastors and teachers. The church does not have evangelists working among them. These two roles in particular simply require time. The number of pastors and teachers should be proportional to the number of sheep. If there are not enough shepherds, the sheep will stray. The normal paradigm for staffing does not work to fulfill Ephesians 4.

The alternative is to invest in staff, instead of buildings. The $2 million dollar building loan requires a monthly payment of $10,000. If this money were invested in staff instead, a focused effort could be made to fulfill the equipping work of Ephesians 4. Two salaried individuals could be brought into the labor. Assuming that the existing staff can handle the normal requirements of the church, and the difficulties of crisis management, these two individuals could focus on other tasks.

First, a church needs an evangelist to manage the front door, figuratively speaking. He should have no other responsibilities other than evangelism. He should not be the director of evangelism or director of anything. He should not be responsible to make Christians witness; he is to evangelize himself. He must be one given by Jesus Christ to the church to do this. He must have the gifts and calling of an evangelist. He should not be required to fill the pulpit, or teach classes, or have revival meetings. He should be in Starbucks, at the community center, at whatever place he finds someone to listen. For all of our talk about the importance of evangelism, we have not been willing to pay someone a full-time salary to do it. We are called evangelicals, but we will probably have a difficult time finding this individual. I have known some; leading people to Christ is a normal thing for them. But they have had to support their families doing something other than what Jesus Christ made them to do because we will not pay the workman what he is worth.

Second, a church needs someone to manage the back door, figuratively speaking. We need someone to disciple those who come to our church; we need a shepherd who is not burdened with other tasks. Again, this pastor is not to be the director of anything else; we are not to steal him away from his work. He is only responsible to build relationships with the new people in the church. Most churches actually have many who pass through, seeking a place to call home. In the course of a year, dozens have come through, willingly walking in the front door, and soon leaving by the back door. The problem is not finding people; it is keeping the ones that God sent to us. This pastor needs to be sent by Jesus Christ to do this work; he also needs to have the gifts and calling of God upon him. He and his wife will need to share in a common task, a full-time task, where the workplace is primarily in the homes of others. Like the apostles of the early church, they may be teaching from house to house, sharing meals with new disciples, building up the faith face to face.

This paradigm is about investment. A $2 million investment will give us a nice building to use or it will give 20 years of focused labor by two or three sent by Jesus Christ to equip His church. The essential point is that this investment of what is “spendable income” can complement the work of those who lead the church now. Those who lead the church now are fully tasked with what is necessary. There is no one who has the time to evangelize 40 hours a week. There is no one who has the time to disciple 40 hours a week. The existing leadership can provide an opportunity for these individuals to work at what Jesus has sent them to do. They can do what the existing leadership desperately would like to see done.

Now this is a paradigm shift for me as well. I would be the last person to suggest hiring more staff. In my mind, this is the work of the elders and the body. But the reality is that workmen need to earn a living at what they do. If they cannot, they must in good conscience find something that will support their family. In the early church, Paul instructed churches to give “double honor” those who ruled well, especially those that work hard at preaching and teaching. Working hard at preaching and teaching takes time, time that could have been spent tending to their own business. Paul understood this, and wanted these men to be given twice what other elders were given. A workmen is worthy of his wages. Even if these roles in Ephesians 4 were fulfilled by those within the church as it was often in the New Testament church, they should be compensated. Usually, these men have careers, good careers. They are probably earning salaries that reflect their abilities. We should want to invest in the best workmen we can find; we should pay at least what they can earn farming or teaching or practicing law.

In some cases we can find these gifted individuals within the church itself; in some cases we may need to bring them in from elsewhere. Whether they are seminary educated or not, they need to be capable workmen. The gifts and calling of God should be evident. The work is significant. These tasks should not be limited to the leftovers of anyone’s day.

As far as the rest of the gifts of Ephesians 4, the role of the prophets as we know it does not require this approach. (See the next blog for an alternative.) Paid prophets are almost always a bad idea. If we are allowing prophets to speak, they do not need 40 hours a week to do this. It does not take long to speak to the heart of a man. They can serve well by working with their hands, tending their own business, and walking humbly before their God. They don’t need to be paid to intercede. The apostles should be paid; those who are sent by God with the gospel should be supported by His people. We are doing this, at least in part, through the missionaries we support. Missionaries are the apostles sent by God to preach, just as Jesus sent out His twelve apostles. “Missionary” is just a word from Latin corresponding to “apostle’, an equivalent word from Greek.

We have a choice to make in the direction of the church. If we choose the normal thing, and obligate ourselves financially for buildings, we will not have the possibility of paying any other type of workmen. We need to set a priority; there are no “and’s” in life, only “or’s”. We need a vision for what we are doing.

This is not normal; we only see larger staffs in large churches, and usually then they are fully tasked with the administration of a larger church. We seldom see this type of commitment to evangelism; evangelism is something that everyone is supposed to do but few ever do. We seldom see this type of commitment to discipleship; again this is something that is supposed to happen automatically. But if the work of Ephesians 4 is a reality; if Christians can be equipped to grow into a mature man, then this type of investment is reasonable. The Master would enjoy seeing the fruits of this investment.