Ministry Issues in the 21st Century…

December 18, 2006 | 1:00 AM

Just as theological issues must be addressed within the church, certain ministry issues must also be addressed. Three such issues were mentioned by those on the field, ranging from leadership, missional living, and the effect of denominational disunity on the local church. The first is the issue of raising up leaders within the church. Jason Davis is perfectly blunt in his critique of the leadership vacuum in his area of the country.

There are a lot of people who are buying into the satellite church model. I believe it has a place in certain situations but pastors that can’t preach out of a wet paper bag shouldn’t be piping their preaching somewhere else (which is what is happening in my area). We teach in the priesthood of all believers and seek to raise up other teachers within the local community of believers.

While Davis is seeing a lack of capable leaders being discipled and encouraged to become ministers in his area, Todd McGehee is trying to alleviate that problem in his area.

The task of making disciples is the mission of the church. It includes leadership issues, evangelism issues, and spiritual growth issues. Under leadership, we are trying to do church differently by letting leadership be grassroots. Here is an example of what I mean, from the first month of the grove we have had babies being born into the church family. Immediately I saw a need for a ministry that would help families transition and that would seek to offer great nursery care for the babies of the grove. Instead of begging people to lead the ministry, we allowed a ministry vacuum and prayed that God would give someone the vision, the maturity and the gifting to lead the ministry. And you know what? He did! I think the church has to move from being staff led to lay driven. We have to help lead the leaders and we have to equip them for the ministry.

Both Davis and McGehee see a leadership vacuum, and are attempting to raise up leaders in their churches not only to solve logistical problems, but also as a method of spiritual formation.

The second major ministry issue is that of a disconnect between the church culture and that of the world. Page Brooks suggests that the churches in South Carolina are too much like social clubs. “Churches need to find innovative ways to reach the postmodern culture, but I see very few doing it.” McGehee proposes the missional lifestyle as the answer to that disconnect. He says that “we are missionaries to our communities and each of the sub-cultures in which we find ourselves living. The church is at all times and in every place a mission outpost!”

Dukes explains that he wants to see the church “moving away from the ‘priesthood’ we’ve created in North America among Protestants where churches are central … and moving toward truly being a ‘priesthood of believers’ living” as missionaries sent out on a daily basis. In any case, the desire among all those interviewed is for the church and Church to be missionary and live out faith on a daily basis wherever it is. Kenney concludes, “They need an understanding of witnessing that is not based so much on F.A.I.T.H.-based, confrontational encounters, and more on being intentional about building relationships with those who need Jesus.”

The third and final ministry issue discussed is disunity in the denominations. Richard Kennedy, a member of an Anglican church, sees the disconnect between the Episcopalians and the Anglican Communion over theological issues. He suggests this internal strife is the result of the Scriptures “being misinterpreted to fit the desires of the peoples, not the desires of God, both on the left and right side of the issue. The focus has changed from what is Godly to what is desirable to the group.” Wes Kenney elaborates on denominational disunity from a Baptist perspective.

Much of the current strife within the [Southern Baptist Convention] seems to resolve around the relative importance of different doctrines, and specifically Baptist doctrinal distinctives. There are prominent voices within the convention who say that we should welcome and work with all those who affirm basic Reformational Christian truth (i.e. the five solas), and there are others who are convinced that, while we may recognize those who hold to differing interpretations as fellow Christians, it is important within our convention that our denominational servants (trustees, seminary professors and missionaries) hold to distinctively Baptist views. The sorting out of the relative importance of issues like ecclesiology, soteriology, and spiritual gifts, to name a few, will determine the state of unity within the SBC in the coming years.

How these issues will be resolved is uncertain, but it will likely be up to the local church to determine its outcome, at least in the Southern Baptist Convention.