AVOIDING THE OFF ROAD EXPERINCE

Parachurch Ministry: An Outlet for the Pew Person’s Ministry Passion

I did a shape workshop yesterday (that is a workshop that helps people look at their spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personalities and experiences for ministry) and not one person was sure what they wanted to do for a ministry. Out of 26 people not one! We have trained them well.

Some national events have been both immediately visible and have had a lasting impact on the U.S. For example Dec 7th, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the September 11, 2001 the terrorists attack in New York. Even the Scopes “Monkey Trial” had a visible and immediate impact on churches and the culture at large. In contrast to those events, there were probably only a handful of people who were aware of the first U.S. chapter meeting of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in the in 1939. The initial chapter meeting may have been inauspicious, but it signaled the beginning of the modern American Parachurch Movement.

Anyone born since 1939 has lived all their lives during the greatest Parachurch explosion in 2,000 years of Church History. There have been Parachurch organizations around for hundreds of years. (In the broadest sense a Parachurch organization is, “any Christian organization that works alongside the church, but is itself not a church”).

Actually, most of the early monastery movements began as Parachurch ventures. But, the sphere of Parachurch activity and influence has reached unparalleled heights in America since World War II. Stephen Board wrote an article entitled “The Great Evangelical Power Shift” in 1979. In the article he said that Parachurch organizations were clearly having more mission impact in the culture at large than the churches were.

Why Has Post WWII America Produced More Parachurch Organizations Than Any Other Generation in the 2000 Year History of the Church?

Ironically, the grand daddy of the American Parachurch Movement, Inter-Varsity, came from Great Britain. Since World War II, however, there has been an astonishing number of Parachurch organizations birthed on American soil. That leads us to a cause-effect question; why did the post WW II generation of American Christians create the largest number of Para church organizations in the history of the church? I think that the answer is two-fold. Para organizations provide the only outlet for “local mission passion” for thousands of church lay people. They are the only ministry alternatives available to those who want to travel “off road.” Plus the Para organizations are sensitive to the emerging people groups. It is the recognition of a new people groups, e.g. people with AIDS, that spurs the creation of new Parachurch organizations.

1980s Some Community Churches Become Community “Seeker” Churches

By the early 1980s, some Community churches took the next logical step and became Seeker churches. Seeker churches make Life vs. Death the center piece of their ministry strategy. They have moved another step away from the Right vs. Wrong crowd. They prefer to attract people that don’t have any Christian beliefs. And when they educate new believers about the Christian life; they often teach them that there are not a lot of theological or behavioral issues worth dying over.

Clergy Control a Legacy of the Liberal/Fundamentalist Controversies

Today the Community Church mentality reigns supreme. Gone are the days when churches routinely split hairs over their over their pet doctrines. Also gone are the days when watching a movie is considered a sin. In fact pastors in conservative churches often draw illustrations from select movies.

But that doesn’t mean that clergy control in churches has lessened. A man who has been a faithful Christian and church man most of his life, and now attends a Seeker church, recently told Frank, “Sunday morning is the most controlled portion of my week. I drive into the church parking lot and attendants tell me where to park. I go into the church building and ushers tell me where to sit. During the worship service I am told when to sit, when to stand, when to sing or greet someone and when to keep quiet. Then I am told when to leave and again directed by the parking lot attendants as I leave. I think I have had it with church.”

Clergy Control a Roman Catholic Hangover

Today many church leaders may not be fighting over their doctrinal distinctives or petty behavioral issues; but their churches remain bastions of clergy control. Clergy control may have been enhanced during the Liberal/Fundamentalist Controversies, but its roots go much further back. In fact they go all the way back to our Roman Catholic heritage. We may claim to be Protestants but in reality, we have never fully embraced the Protestant doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers.

If we are to restore ministry passion to our churches, it must be structured so that it is possible for lay people to shape some portion of a church’s life. We believe that pastors and staff really are better equipped to shape and direct worship and edification. But mission is a different story; the rank and file are better equipped to shape the local mission strategy of churches. Which people groups a church ministers to should be determined mostly by the ministry passions of its lay people. In other words the SHAPE of a church’s local mission strategy should flow primarily out of the ministry passions of its lay people.

During the Liberal/Fundamentalist Controversies clergy focused on their theological distinctives and behaviors more than they did life and death. By the 1960s churches began to restore the New Testament priority on life and death over right and wrong; as was evidenced by the rapid rise of the Community Church Movement. While a Community Church can be a non-denominational church, it is just as likely to be a denominational church that initially prefers not to be identified with its denomination. Community and Seeker churches put an emphasis on life and death and keep their doctrinal distinctives to a minimum. Interestingly, that is the same approach that Parachurch organizations have always taken.

Long before the rise of the Community Church movement many Christians felt the need to minimize their denominational differences and get on with the task of fulfilling the Great Commission. They continued to attend churches, but their ministries and their passions were devoted to and channeled through the Parachurch organizations, which brings us to 1939 and the birth of America’s Parachurch Movement.