Thursday, October 30, 2008

another from Batterson

If you read Mark Batterson's blog too, sorry for all the repeats. I can't resist this one:

I hate the word "laity." Always have. I think there is a false dichotomy between "clergy" and "laity." Our language has created a mindset.

Chris Seay spoke on the topic in his session. He quoted Howard E. Butt: "The greatest schism within the church is not between races, classes, or even denominations, it is between the clergy and the laity."

Should we ban the word laity?

What happened to the priesthood of believers? I sure hope I'm not part of the problem as a "pastor." I think God does call people to vocational ministry. And I count it a privilege to get paid to do what I do. But how do we get rid of that schism? How do we end the spiritual co-dependency that is so prevalent in so many churches? How do we decentralize church? How do we overcome the consumer mentality?

I think we're doing some things that facilitate that at NCC. Going on ten missions trips this year is a start at getting people living on mission all the time. I think our free market system of small groups is decentralizing NCC. We want all of our people to get a vision from God and go for it. But like every church I know, we are far from 100% functionality as a church body.
I think it starts with a paradigm shift. Each of us has to own the mission.

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