The Priesthood of All Believers… Yeah, Right!
For years I have been involved with, on again and off again, a house fellowship in my area.
Fellowship of Faith
Part of the “on again and off again” related to our lack of proximity. More of it had to do with the same dissatisfaction regarding the Sunday-going-to-meeting institutional ideal we’d left behind years ago. We’d go for to the house church thing for a while and then back off. We hoped things would become more productive and then realize once again it is not likely.
One thing we’ve found everywhere we’d go is a disparity between the rising aura of books writers, group discussions and conferences— that bat around Ephesians 4:11-14— compaired to reality in group practice.
There’s attractiveness to the idea of every believer having a gifting and calling. Wouldn’t we all love to be active, significant, productive and impactful both for God and His kingdom?
However, on a real level, at least in my experience in a lot of places, I have not found a practical group reality of God giving some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, [NASB]. This says nothing of the reason God gave these to us:
- Until we all attain to the unity of the faith
- To mature man, (women also) to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ
- That we areno longer to be children (naïve, simpleminded)
- (not) tossed here and there by waves (perhaps social/political instability or the ever shifting religious philosophical ideas)
- (not) carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (cults, controllers, deceivers…)
Questioning???
IF God really gave us these giftings and callings, or perhaps more exactly, IF we recognize such and operated with the reality of God’s gift to each believer, what would happen? How would we function? How would we allow this to develop in our groups and would we facilitate it?
We hardly need more books illuminating us on the subject of the believer’s priesthood. Look at all we have and yet there is near famine of the reality regarding the priesthood of every believer. Yes, there are pockets that are encouraging. However, we shouldn’t even start to feel accomplishment yet.
Reality We Need To Deal With:
In the New Testament [NT] we are informed in at least two places of various giftings or callings being given to believers. Nowhere are these lists said to encompass just a few special people. Both are addressed to “all” in the local fellowship, as if all are expected to be operational or moving toward a reality of multiple widespread uses of these giftings both in the fellowship and outside.
Key Details:
No one has all the truth. Therefore, we need the plurality of gifts operating within a group to have as much truth available to us as is possible among believers.
Why is it that all functions given in Ephesians 4:11-14 are not operational in all fellowships today? Why is one function honored above all others in both “house church” as well as its institutional counterpart?
I feel there are a several problems, pandemic within what we call church, in whichever type you care to analyze.
- Since all gifts are not functional; direction, leadership and objectivity are sought in a central figure or focus [this figure is not God]
- There is no path through growth, maturation, to application of all the gifts/callings
- Simultaneous concurrence of all gifts is not a reality because of the first two points
A friend of mine once quipped, if we were to take a car to a repair shop and ask the mechanic to repair it but we removed 4/5th of the tools he needed to do it; the repair could not be made and the repairman would think you nuts to purpose such notion. Yet, this is exactly what we do in “church” of all types, with few exceptions.
No Path To Maturity In Giftings:
How do we perceive apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in our midst or as a gift begins to show itself in maturing believers?
How do these spiritual tenderfoots grow in a role such as prophet, teacher and the like?
Is spiritual osmosis in a desert of no specific help the only means for believers to grow in these functions? I am afraid that this IS more a reality than many care to admit.
The current culture of “church” real or otherwise does not have a good apparatus for training up everyday people in the use and employment of all giftings. If they offer training, most is stilted toward one gift/function as a stand alone to a near denial of all others. In addition, this is usually for special people through the means of Bible Schools/Seminaries/Missions Schools. The regular “joe” in the pew doesn’t stand a chance of ever doing more than warming pews and throwing money.
In other instances, we’ve seen places where “prophets” run wild or where “the pastor” is the be-all-end-all… This type of reality is so often skewed to a very nuanced ideal rather than the biblically practical outworking we see in scripture.
Religious Showmen
Many modern examples “prophets,” they are more like TV psychics and showmen who come-on to a crowd with generalities that could fit a significant number of people in any group, “I sense someone here with and inner ear ache” at a meeting in the dead of winter in Mankato, MN. Or you’ve heard the, “thus saith the ‘Lord,’” thrown behind some biblesque pronunciations from someone titled a prophet? This is not meant to slam; but rather to illustrate endless examples we’ve all seen …
Additional to, “no path to maturity” in a real giftings, according to scriptures delineation and employment of them, is the problem of no place to use them. Our meetings, even in “house church” are more activity based: meaning there is only a short duration to them and they are reoccurring. It is still something we do, very occasionally, rather than something we are 24/7. There is little place and time for the gifts and callings of God to function in our contexts because “regular life” surrounds the interspersed times we meet and do the thing so often called church.
Simultaneous Concurrence:
If we’re determine to be a fellowship of the kingdom of God, which is based on relationships (community and mutual synergized ministry) then we need to train and bless people into the ministries God is calling them to rather than a slot of religious busyness in a weekend show. We need to help to envision, guide and launch people into what God has for them. This is what leadership should accomplish.
This does not mean all the giftings separate into sub-fellowships according to their genre. God has a purpose to multiply His body. Yet each local fellowship must have all gift components operating with in it or be waiting upon God to provide these components. Speaking anatomically, each part of the human body has traces of water and potassium as a part of basic biological makeup. Yet each part has a different function. Not only can the physical body not function without all its parts, neither can each of those parts function without these common components, which also happens to be common between them all.
Once we’ve gotten to the level of all gifts in all groups, how do we function together?
Once we determine the gifts in people, how do we/they grow in application?
How does a mercy person deal with the perceived “harshness” of a prophet type? How does the vastness of an evangelist deal with the plodding of family ministry and body life?
In the same way everyone cannot be rambling in tongues or it will be bedlam; all giftings indiscriminately being thrown in at the same time in a context will be equally dysfunctional.
All believers need to realize the giftings of the other in the group or in any context in which believers are together. The mercy person isn’t totally “right” neither is the prophet type. The outreach of an evangelist does not trump pastoring of people and families in a fellowship. The same is true between all of the functions God has given as gifts.
What can we do?
Listening, consideration and security in God’s guidance and orchestration:
purposeful listening
Listening – As people are moved to share or do something the group should discern the detail. Not everyone who says, “God told me” are for fact listening to God. They need to realize this and the group needs not be led around helplessly because someone throws the “trump card” – God told me. In the group process all will learn and grow. As other things are brought out in the group; listening and dialog help understand how a detail fits with everything the group knows to be God’s purpose in their midst. When a different type of gifting brings something to the table the same approach should apply.
Reflective Rumination
Consideration – Is not a stopgap measure for spiritual mules who tend to put their bottoms on the ground within a group to maintain a status quo. Consideration can be a lengthy process or it can be finished within a meeting. It means a group discusses a matter; given scripture, discernment and open dialog. It means that application is thought about. It means being circumspect and inclusive with feedback. It may mean significant pray about a matter because discussion may not be conclusive. Consideration is focused toward the person or ideas involved in a suggestion.
Security – Is not an immutable position from which we operate or that we seek to achieve. This can ONLY be found in an active, palpable relationship with God. In a group setting the relationship we have with God sustains us as we build relationships with other believers in the group or as we struggle through tight spots with them. Security is not in what we know and claim as belief. It is in that we are “knowing” God in the moment.
As we walk in God’s guidance we are secure. God’s security measures to us even as we wonder in growth and error toward maturity in following Christ. Our sense of security rests in God’s character and our relationship with Him. As we obey and surrender to His purposes we can see His orchestration. This is why any thing that might be said or brought up in meeting cannot not threaten us.
You Have A Gift:
You’ve been given a gift. If it’s not obvious to you and/or your group is not into you being operational in a gifting, find one that is into more than talk concerning the priesthood of every believer. If people talk in terms every believer being a priest then they ought to invest in their group members finding out how God gifted them and how to grow and use that gifting. Read about the giftings, talk to mature believers who know you in concerns to how you might be gifted. Find a place you can develop in the use of your gift. Find ways to work with others who are gifted in other ways to learn simultaneous concurrence. Learn to listen to God about what you ought to be doing. Learn how all the giftings can work together. Allow others to encourage and guide you; refining your employment of what God’s given you. Realize you will make mistakes. If your group is really the way God wants, they will help you through these rough spots (notice the plural here).
Your Group Needs All Gifts:
Your Fellowship
In your group make allowances for all gifts to be practiced in what amounts to be simultaneous concurrence. No gift or person equipped with such should dominate all the rest. Learn from each other. The mercy person can evangelize through their work of mercy. The prophet can learn to pastor and operate in mercy in their gifting. The teacher can learn to reach out to those who are not of faith… Gatherings need to have a free flow of giftings at work in the fellowship while the group moves in various areas of teaching, learning, prayer and outreach.
Groups need to sense giftings in the people who meet together. We need to be sensitive and encourage not run right out and label people in a positive way… Destinies need to be watered and encouraged. New outreaches need to be fostered as people with definite giftings immerge. The role of elders is not to homogenize people into a central group function. It should be to equip saints and round people out to where they can minister together while including diversity both of giftings and maturity levels in the endless cooperation with God in the purpose of multiplying His kingdom.
3 Responses to “The Priesthood of All Believers… Yeah, Right!”
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The Diluted Church
This book is about the major diluting factors in the organized church in this country (USA). This dilution has to do with the church's - particularly the conservative religious right crowd's - dependency and focus on politics as the major means of changing culture in this country.
Who Would Jesus Kill
Tim –
This is excellent. I love that fact that you place active listening at the top of the list. Indeed, isn’t this a large part of honor for the other human being made in God’s image?
keep up the great work…afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted.
Marc White
of the things i have read (of yours) this is by far the most well-written and cogent presentation. although, you still managed a few gazelle-like runs of logic in a few places.
if more ‘christians’ openly discussed and behaved in a manner reflective of these sentiments, i’d go back to hanging out with them (unless, of course, my presence would be ruinous; which is likely).
there are details beyond the scope of this article but it is a very, very good first step in trying to address what i have come to believe are the real problems in the modern expression of those attempting to follow jesus. there is enough meat here to fuel hundreds of hours of gentle (if not gentile) dialogue — where there those among the household of faith who would climb down off their various hobby-horses and get on to something really meaningful.
alas, i am losing hope for this . . .
Obie, Thanks for your comments… Yes, there are a few “rabbit trails” however they are supportive to the core. Many, like you and I, are in similar boats. We can’t find groups that aren’t threatened by how we come off or what we’ve been given. That is truly sad. Nobody is as smart as all of us…yet few want the true inclusiveness of “all of us.” Hopefully in writing we can encourage a bleak situation. I have a feeling what we are doing is planting seeds for a season upcoming that God will cause to grow. Thanks again!