Hostility Toward Parachurch Organizations

Several years ago my friend Frank was teaching a Doctor of Ministry Class at a well known seminary. He told the students that he would be addressing some leadership from a large Parachurch organization after we finished the class. He invited them to share a brown bag lunch on the last day of class. While they ate lunch they were to tell him what they, as pastors, would say if they were addressing this particular group.

He expected some hostility but was surprised at the intensity of the negative issues the pastors raised. (To be eligible for this class a student had to have been on a pastoral staff for a minimum of two years). There was a unanimous out pouring of negative feelings toward this organization, and other similar organizations.

“They take our best people.” “They are shallow theologically.” “They entice people to give them money when that money should be going to our church.” “They are not accountable to anyone.” Etc, etc.

To a person they demonstrated an “us and them” mentality. It wasn’t that they didn’t have legitimate questions and concerns. Their questions weren’t the problem, the problem was the tone with which they asked their questions. They clearly felt threatened by Para church organizations. What they didn’t seem to realize was that it was their attitudes toward local mission that created the huge need for Parachurch organizations in the first place.

Para Became the Norm

The Post WWII generation of American Christians has come to understand that the normal way for the larger Christian Enterprise to function is for those doing mission to go around the church.


The number of Para church organizations within the larger Christian Enterprise in America is staggering. There are a few dozen that most Christians recognize including:

International Students Inc.,
Habitat for Humanity,
Prison Fellowship
Jews for Jesus, etc.
Campus Crusade,
Joni and Friends,
The Navigators,

But the overwhelming majority of Parachurch organizations are small operations that are unknown outside of a small circle of people. There are thousands of such organizations and they continue to multiply at a rapid rate. When churches ignore these front-line ministries and focus primarily on worship and edification; they create the need for more Para church organizations. Plus they abort the mission potential of most of the people in their church.

Ephesians 4:11,12 gives a clear mandate for the church leaders, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service.” When we equip people for works of service we need to understand that most works of service need to be connected to various people groups. We simple don’t get that and we continue to plug them into the same four or five things inside the walls of the church. What is worse about that is that we then hire staff to protect those same four or five ministries. One time I had a person on staff tell me, “Rich we need to tell these people they should serve in our kids ministry and nothing else. We need them and they don’t want to do what we need them to do.” No wonder we dislike parachurch ministries.