Challenging Church: Paid Staff

Current Church Reality - The church pays people to be full or part-time leaders. This includes senior pastors, associate pastors, church admins, youth pastors, children directors, choir directors, secretaries, and many more. If there's a ministry to be done in the church, we'll usually find a person to pay to do it.

Church Challenge Question - Why not only pay leaders to train and equip God's people for works of service according to Ephesians 4:11-13?

As a full-time paid staff person at a church, this question has caused me to completely rethink how I serve as a leader in the church. No longer can I see myself as the person who does all the ministry. It's my job to help develop others so that they might use their God-given gifts to be a part of God's mission to redeem the world. This means empowering, equipping, and encouraging people to see all they do as a ministry no matter where they serve, inside or outside of the building.

If we continue on in the current church reality paying staff to do the work of the church, we'll continue to see people in the church confused about their role and the church confused about it's role in the world. This shift will have to begin with our staff job descriptions and the behavior for which staff is rewarded. It's a big shift.