A Regulated Free Market of Ministry
Introduction
I grew up playing soccer from the age of five until high school. In all sport coaches play a crucial role in the way teams' structure themselves and develop their players. Soccer is a simple game with a simple objective. One team is trying to get the ball into the opposing team's goal without having the ball scored in their own goal. A simple objective, but it can be very complex as the game is played. However, the structure and system of the team, established by the coach, plays a big part towards their success.
I played on one team that was successful, but more often than not I played on teams that had a losing season (most likely it was due to my own personal limitations). On one team I had a coach who was very structured and established an intricate system. We were drilled and knew our system, but we had many injuries that season and the moment someone got hurt no one was able to replace that individual and their specialized role in the system. We were too structured and specialized that we lacked the flexibility to adjust our game when we needed to. Instead of focusing on the simple objective of the game, we were too focused on playing a particular system. Thus, we spent much of that season playing like chickens with our heads cut off and did not win many games.
I had another coach that implemented little to no structure. Everything was laid back and practices were easy. The players had fun and we enjoyed one another, but this structure was to the team's detriment when it came time to play an official game. We lacked individual fitness, skill, and discipline in order to succeed at accomplishing the objective. We had no identity and did not know how we were going to play to our strengths to accomplish the objective. We knew what the objective was, but we did not have a strategy that rallied the team together. We did not win many games that season as well.
Two Pitfalls
I give these two examples as a foil for the way a church’s ministry structure can either aid or distract them from the mission of the church. The church of Jesus Christ is the body of Christ, we are the temple in which the Spirit dwells, we are the people of God, the family of God, and we have been given a mission from our Lord. The mission of the church is that we have been “sent into the world to witness to Jesus by proclaiming the gospel and making disciples of all nations. This is our task. This is our unique and central calling.”[1] Our mission is simple, yet how we structure ourselves and organize our ministries can either accelerate or sidetrack us from the mission.
Here at GCC we want to avoid two pitfalls in our ministry structure. The first pitfall is over-progammatic ministries that are not tethered to the mission. Whether this was done so intentionally or unintentionally it results in members who are distracted from the mission. An overly complex structure without clarity on the mission creates confusion. It can be easy for members to think that maintaining the structure or keeping the many ministries running is the mission. Another pitfall is a church that has no structure and has taken a more organic approach, but to their detriment the members are not prepared to live for the mission nor have the categories and avenues in which they can faithfully do so.
So what is our approach towards ministry that would help us avoid such pitfalls? I want to borrow a term from economics to describe our philosophy and that term is a regulated free market.[2] Are we saying that there is a one to one correlation between the church and a regulated free market? No. We want to use the term as a metaphor and reference to describe the philosophy of ministry at GCC and to show how it aids in keeping the mission of the church front and center while establishing necessary ministry structures that allows every member to live out the mission.
A Regulated Free Market of Ministry
To be extremely clear, we are using the term “regulated free market” as a reference, not as an absolute. Within GCC’s philosophy of ministry, the elders want to provide some regulated oversight and ministry structure, while at the same time leaving a free market of ministry for members to pursue. What regulates our ministries? We want the Scriptures to be the standard that determines what we do as the church of Jesus Christ. It is what gives us our marching orders. Following this, we then ask, what are the things that should be regulated? The elders have determined to provide structure for the things that we believe the NT principally calls us to do as the church of Jesus Christ.[3] This is the “regulated” aspect of ministry. After identifying such principal values from the Scriptures, we provide structure for those ministries (that are aligned with the mission of the church) which the members of the church can faithfully participate in. For example, the mission of the church is to witness to Jesus by proclaiming the gospel and making disciples of all nations. If making disciples is central to the mission, then the elders want to establish a “regulated” structure in which every member can actively participate in the ministry of making disciples. Thus, at GCC we have established a baseline initiatory discipling pipeline that every member is expected to partake in as a springboard for lifelong discipleship.
Now where does the “free market” aspect come into play? Let us continue to use our discipling ministry as an example. We want the discipling ministry to serve the mission of the church. However, we do not want members to be confused that our discipling ministry is the be all and end all of discipleship or that the discipling ministry in itself is the mission.[4] Just because there is a regulated structure that promotes discipling in the life of the church, does not mean that you cannot pursue discipling relationships outside of the discipling ministry. The “regulated” aspect of the ministry is to help the members flourish in the “free market.” This piece is central because we believe that much of "ministry" as we see in the NT happens not in a regulated structure, but in common everyday pursuits of faithfulness in the life of the believer. For example, the marks of a Christian in Rom. 12:9-20 consists of things such as loving one another, outdoing one another in showing honor, showing hospitality, and etc. They do not need ministerial structures for believers to faithfully pursue and this is true of the one another commands throughout the NT. You do not need an official title of “Corporate Rejoicer” to rejoice with the saints. This is the “free market” aspect of ministry at GCC. The regulated structures in actuality aid and prepare the members to pursue the free market of ministry. In essence we want our structure to best reflect what we see in Ephesians 4:11-12, where the leaders are equipping the saints for the work of ministry. We do not want our members to falsely assume that it is the role of the elders/pastors to do the ministry and they watch from afar, rather, we have regulated structures to equip them to pursue the free market of ministry in all the avenues that the Lord will present to them.
So, if we were to observe our discipling ministry again - it exists not as the be all and end all of discipleship at GCC, rather as a springboard which gives our members the necessary principles, categories, examples, reference point, expectations, and support to be able to faithfully pursue the discipling relationships out of their own initiative for the mission. So yes, we want members to have Bible studies without an official sanction from the elders. We want them to call fellow members to meet weekly to pray for one another. We want them to see a younger brother or sister in need and invite them to get coffee weekly, to read the Bible, or a good book together to spur them on. We want them to invite unbelievers to church and into their homes for evangelistic opportunities. We want members to see that ministry is not bound merely to a church's structure, but members are free to pursue what the NT calls believers to do, out of obedience to Christ.
Dear brothers or sisters, we want to provide regulated ministries to help equip you and at the same time have those ministries serve by extension the mission. Along with that, we are giving you the freedom of choice to pursue ministry in the ways the Lord has gifted you and the opportunities He brings to you. Currently at this point in the church we have more ministry structures to develop, but until then, the elders wait in joyful anticipation for members to participate in our regulated ministries along with pursuing the free market of opportunities out of obedience to Christ. Therefore, us elders are cheering each and every single one of you onward to partake in the work of ministry for the mission of the church.
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Footnotes:
1. Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What Is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 26.
2. This is an economic term, but we have found it to be helpful in describing our philosophy of ministry. Other Christians have used this term as well. See, Jamie Dunlop, “The Regulated Free Market Approach to Mercy Ministry,” https://www.9marks.org/article/journalregulated-free-market-approach-mercy-ministry/.
3. Principles as articulated in our “values” (ie. Proclamation of God’s Word, Worship, Discipleship, Equipping the Saints, Gathering, Multiplying). To see a detailed account of our values visit, https://gracecovenantchurchkc.com/about/our-beliefs.
4. One point of clarification. At GCC we use the term “discipleship” in a general sense. Meaning the whole process of following after Christ. Therefore, everything we do at GCC (eg. Lord’s Day, Prayer, Equipping, etc.) contributes to the discipleship of a believer, for it matures them in greater obedience in following Christ. On the other hand, we use the term “discipling” in a more particular sense to convey a particular method established by the church that plays one part within the whole discipleship process.