From Topics or People Groups

When a young seminarian writes, “We are shooting to get 80 percent of the people to minister in some way – either with an evangelism team, the prayer team, or the discipleship team. We want to help people get plugged in and excited about serving.” (Leaders in a Changing World Summer 2003 pg 5), he is reflecting the common notion that being involved in a ministry means pursuing topics, e.g. prayer, discipleship or evangelism.

Those of us who are Church leaders have been taught to enlist people to join “topic teams” as the primary way of getting them into ministry. Parachurch leaders, on the other hand, have demonstrated for decades that the best way to get people involved in prayer, evangelism and discipleship, is to give them the opportunity to minister to a particular group of people. When people minister to other people prayer, evangelism and discipleship are the results, not the objectives. The key to finding their ministry callings, for most folks, is to figure out what particular people group, not what topic, stirs the most ministry passion within then.

It is true that God has wired some folks to be passionate about topics. All of us have met people, perhaps some of our teachers, who love history, economics, or theology more than they care about people. But most people are more passionate about people than they are about topics.

Fortunately there are Christian organizations specializing in ministry to every conceivable people group in the U.S., and they are eager to connect church people to:

The World’s Brightest and Best Studying in the U.S.: International Students Inc, (ISI).
High School Dropouts: National Association of Street Schools, (NASS).
The Inner City Poor: Local Rescue Missions
The Physically Disabled: Joni and Friends
Athletes: Fellowship of Christian Athletes
People Behind Bars: Prison Fellowship
The Homeless: Habitat For Humanity

A complete list would include several thousand Parachurch organizations.

Still, with all of these great organizations in place, the ministry objectives of the typical church are seldom connected with any of them. It seems obvious to us that these organizations can do the best job of equipping church people for ministry. However, since I have seminary degree, I suspect that a pastor’s approach to training people has a lot to do with the way he or she was trained. Most pastors spend years studying topics in classrooms before they enter their ministry.

The class room is not the best place to equip lay ministers for ministry. Instead of telling people that they need to study certain topics before they get involved in a ministry; we should be telling them that life has already equipped them to minister to a wide variety of people. If they have a spare bedroom and a healthy family life they can host an unwed mother or an international student in their home. If they can read they are equipped for a wide variety of literacy ministries. The primary question is not “who are you equipped to minister to?” Rather, it is, “who do you feel passionate about ministering to?” Those are two very different questions.

There are well over a hundred potential people groups to reach in the U.S.; and there are Christian organizations already positioned to reach 98% of them. Most of these organizations are not only eager to connect church people to the people group that their organization works with; they often will also provide the training necessary to do the ministry. Connecting with people groups is the key to unlocking passion for ministry for most people.

A couple of weeks ago myself and 14 of the Future Leader family went to DayBreak for a week to work at this inner city program which exists to reach the families of Lincoln Heights with the Gospel. I have had the Future Leaders in the class room for three months but in one week they learned more than anything I could teach them. I saw the passion!