"And He himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry". (Eph 4:11-12a NET)
Usually, we think of 'ministers' as the pastors and other 'paid staff' in the church. We often figure that anything that can seriously be called 'ministry' is reserved to those in leadership positions in the church. And the result is that all of that ministry gets dumped on their shoulders, with the unsurprising results than many 'burn out'.
Yet the above passage indicates that their job is actually to equip the saints (those of us in the pews, or chairs, or whatever we sit in) to do the work of ministry. They're supposed to be handing us the tools, attitudes, and learning necessary to do ministry. Now, that ministry may not look like what the pastor does. We can expect it to be more one-on-one and look less 'official'. But it is ministry, Spirit-lead and -filled ministry, nevertheless.
The question is, are we expecting this? Do we go to church, small groups, and such expecting to be equipped to do ministry, or are we only expecting a 'pick-me-up' to get through our personal lives for the week? Are we merely being spiritual 'consumers', or are we expecting to learn to do ministry ourselves?
We can expect this to take some time, but if we're not expecting this equipping, it won't happen.
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