If we keep ordaining everyone who catches the fire of God, who will send fire to the marketplace?
When I was in NUPS-G KNUST Bible study wing, we had an anchor scripture. Ephesians 4:11-12 is clear. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers exist to equip the saints. The saints are the ones who do the work of ministry. The gifted ones equip; the people carry it out. But somewhere along the line, we reversed it.
The Primary Mission Field
The marketplace, business, politics, arts, education, healthcare, is the primary mission field. It is where most people spend most of their lives. And it is not reached primarily by ordained clergy. It is reached by the teacher who prays with a struggling student, the entrepreneur whose business ethics witness to something different, the artist whose work carries weight and meaning, and the nurse who brings presence and peace to dying patients. These are not people waiting to be ordained. These are people who need to be sent.Fire is meant to spread, not to be contained in a sanctuary. When we ordain everyone who catches fire, we pull them out of the very places God lit them for.
The Better Model
The Better Model, and this is what I think, rather than ordaining everyone who catches fire, the church’s role might be to ignite by creating spaces where people encounter God, to equip by discipling them for their specific calling, to release by sending them back into the marketplace with intention and support, and to sustain by remaining a community they return to for renewal.The church gathers to scatter, that is how it’s supposed to be, because the fire in the pew is only as meaningful as what it does on Monday morning….Labadi Proverb