Equipping the Church

5 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”” Matthew 9:37

These are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. They come after he spent hours healing the sick and caring for many people with needs. This command to pray for workers comes within the context of Jesus’ overall message of the kingdom of God. The long awaited restoration of God’s people, but not just for God’s people, but as a blessing for all people all over the world. Jesus’ observations that more workers are needed for the preaching of his kingdom is significant. There was a need for more workers in Jesus day and the same challenge persists today.
Church consultant Carl George spoke about this subject in 1984 in his groundbreaking book Prepare your Church for the Future. In his book George points out the need for paid clergy to train and equip lay persons in the church to do church ministry. Another respected church growth consultant, Lyle E. Schaller, writes that three-quarters of all American Protestant congregations report an average worship attendance of less than 150 people.1 Schaller and George suggest that the reason the average church is this size, and not larger, is because 150 people is all the average pastor can actually minister to. For a specific church congregation to adequately disciple and reach more people with the Gospel, it needs to train and empower more volunteer leaders within the congregation.2
Jesus’ words in Matthew draw attention to the tremendous need in the world for workers to take part in this task. There are more people who need care, ministry, teaching, and encouragement in the Gospel, than there are workers and leaders for this task. Jesus instructs his disciples to pray for more workers to be provided by God to take part in this work for the kingdom.
This passage is often discussed by evangelical Christian leaders. However, there can be a stark disconnect between recognizing this need and local church pastors knowing what can be done to develop more lay leaders, small group leaders, and leaders of various sub ministries.
Another Scripture passage which draws attention to the need for pastors to train and develop volunteer or lay leaders in the church is Ephesians 4:11-13.

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.3

This passage has particular relevance when thinking through roles and responsibility of the local church pastor. One of the jobs of the pastor is to equip the church, God’s people for works of service. The purpose in all of this is that the body of Christ might be built up. The passage goes on to mention that reaching the goal of unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ, the development maturity in the church is also linked to the work of equipping people in the church for service. For the church to mature and grow, the church needs to be developed from within.
Robert Coleman makes a point in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism that Jesus’ specific method for making disciples is also highly important to study, along with his actual message. In his work Coleman emphasizes that Jesus did not spend all his time ministering to and teaching the crowds but withdrew often to spend time with his disciples. Jesus spent much time with his disciples who would be the future leaders of the church once he was gone. Coleman suggests that Jesus did this intentionally. Also that Jesus did this to prepare his close circle of disciples to be the leaders to carry on the same ministry he was currently doing. This model can be easily lost in the reading of the Gospels. The point being that Jesus apparently intensionally developed his inner circle him who later carried his message out to people all over the world. Jesus spent a lot of time specifically developing his group of twelve.
Many church pastors would probably acknowledge this observation about Jesus. They might also recognize the significance of Ephesian 4:12, but not fully see the implications of these passages. If the average pastor works 45-50 hours a week, he probably spends 15-20 hours preparing his sermon, 5-10 hours counseling church members, maybe another 5-10 hours visiting people who are sick, and may 5-10 leading a small group or Bible study or preparing to lead it. In the average pastor’s schedule it is very possible he spends little to no time equipping other leaders or developing volunteer leaders with promising potential.
The result of such a pattern is often that any ministry that takes place within that church stems from two sources. One, ministry is a direct result of something the recognized pastor/leader is pushing. It could be a specific Bible Study he does, a Sunday School class he teaches, or even an evangelism program which he throws his enthusiasm behind. The scope of the churches influence is the same as the pastor’s influence. The church can only reach as many people as the pastor can personally influence. Second, a certain amount of ministry may happen spontaneously, or with volunteer leaders coming up with ideas and initiatives themselves, and then simply asking for approval to move forward. Many church have some amount of this activity. But the question really is: How many more people might be mobilized for ministry if the church pastor sought them out, encouraged them, developed them, and empowered them?
Nothing is inherently bad about the ministry model where everything centers around the one ordained pastor. Everything that happens there can be very good and effective. It is just a question of whether that model allows for the most people to be reached. In that situation the growth of that church is largely going to be dependent on and reflective of the number of people which that one pastor can personally touch. This model of ministry has sometimes been referred to as the chaplain model of ministry in the local church. During the week it essentially means that the pastor is available to provide one on one ministry to all who need it.
Adam Hamilton, pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood KS, writes that it is difficult for a church to ever really reach a membership level much beyond 100 people in the chaplaincy model.4 Hamilton recommends a ministry model of the pastor as leader equipper.
In cases where the pastor does not equip, train, inspire, or encourage the members within the church to take on the work of ministry, the pastor often becomes more and more frustrated as the church grows. Hamilton indicates that many pastors feel guilty for not being able to offer pastoral care and encouragement to all the people in the congregation or all the people who might visit the church. Once a church reaches the size of 300 regular worship attenders it is simply not possible for the pastor to have a personal friendship with each parishioner, let alone adequately mentor, disciple, and encourage all those people. This is the point at which Hamilton suggests a church must find a way to train and develop members within the church to be small group leaders and offer a level of encouragement, care, and accountability to other members.
Adam Hamilton founded United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in the early 1990s. By the early 2000s COR, as it is called, was attracting over 10,000 people per week to its worship services, including families and their children, elderly members, and many visitors. But, the church only had two ordained pastors exclusively devoted to pastoral care. Through a program called Stephan Ministry COR was able to train over 60 members to offer care as hospital callers. These volunteers are trained to visit other church members who might be sick or in the hospital to offer encouragement, prayer, and compassion all under the sponsorship of COR. Through another program they developed entitled Calling Caring Network they trained over one hundred members to provide one on one counseling, prayer and encouragement to members within their congregation.5
One of the points Adam Hamilton makes is that staffing COR with enough full time ordained ministers to provide pastoral care for this congregation of 10,000 would be very costly. They found it far more effective to train as many volunteers as possible, and then empower the volunteers to minister to the needs of the congregation, instead of providing enough paid staff to do all that. Ordained clergy are still available to the congregation for the more tragic events where pastoral care is needed. Its just that the congregation itself understands that most of the pastoral care ministry which is offered to people in the church by other church members. The vast majority of care does not come directly from an ordain paid staff member.
The same is true for the counseling needs. COR has an elaborate system of support groups for grief, divorce care, sickness, and financial distress. The volunteer leaders, small group leaders, and support group leaders are the first line of care people encounter. Should one on one professional help be needed, volunteer leaders have been advised when and where to refer a parishioner to an ordained staff member or whom ever else can better meet the person’s needs. Doing this allows COR to actually help a lot more people than the average church. It also allows them to use more of their resources for other ministry initiatives. COR has also funded a number of social aid projects in developing countries around the world.
This is just one example of what can happen when full time pastors spend a portion of their time developing and equipping volunteer leaders to lead specific ministries, instead of doing all of the ministry work themselves. It is also rewarding to the people in the church to get a chance to encourage and minister to each other instead of simply looking to a specific pastor for help and inspiration.
John Maxwell pastored several growing churches in Ohio, Indiana, and California during his tenure as a pastor in the Wesleyan denomination. John founded Equip, a Christian leadership training organization, which has trained thousands of full time pastors and lay leaders all over the world. John is an internationally recognized expert on leadership and church development. Here is how John describes equipping,
Equipping, like nurturing, is an ongoing process. You don’t equip a person in a few hours or a day. And it can’t be done using a formula or a video tape. Equipping must be tailored to each potential leader. The ideal equipper is a person who can impart the vision of the work, evaluate the potential leader, give him the tools he needs, and then help him along way at the beginning of his journey.6

What John is saying can be seen in Jesus’ ministry and preparation with his disciples. He spent many hours with them away from the crowds, sharing meals, teaching, and conversing. What Jesus accomplished was not done in a few hours, a few day, or even a few weeks. The friendships which Jesus built over his ministry with his disciples stretched out over several years of continually spending time together. Jesus imparted his vision and his message to his 12 disciples over several years. Leadership experts, like John Maxwell, can see in the narrative of the Gospel that Jesus used his time not only to care for the crowds of people with needs. Jesus also used much of his time investing in those close to him. John Maxwell has pointed out that this was not accidental, but intentional. Jesus was wise and strategic for the long term mission of his overall ministry.
It is important to recognize that the process of a pastor equipping and preparing church members for works of service and ministry is not something that is accomplished in a short amount of time. It is not any sort of program that can be purchased, brought in, performed over a weekend, and then forgotten. Equipping is an ongoing role that the lead pastor takes. He realizes that his job is to do more than just disciple, counsel, and encourage church members. Rather his role is to model this lifestyle and then teach other people how they can disciple, mentor, serve, and encourage those around them for a more Christ-like life.
John Maxwell breaks effective equipping into three states. First, any leader must be modeling7 the lifestyle and behavior they are teaching and leading other people into. A leader must do this consistently. Second, a leader starts mentoring8 the potential lay leader. The church pastor/leader develops an informal friendship and camaraderie with the person they are equipping. They become an advisor and trusted friend to the potential leader. Once this has happened, then the leader begins to share their heart with the lay leader and later they begin sharing their vision for the church. This vision then becomes the fuel and inspiration for the work the new leader will take on. Third, the final stage of equipping is the process of empowering9 the potential lay leader. This happens when the pastor takes the time to build up the confidence of the new leader. They publicly support the new leader and ask other people already following them, to also follow this new leader as well. When the pastor empowers a congregational volunteer leader, they launch the person for success in whatever ministry they are starting. This process requires precious time and energy resources. But if a pastor/leader is willing to invest in people in the church who have potential to lead and the person is successful, that pastor has multiplied the number of people which that specific church can reach.
I have reflected many times on how I might spend my time when I am a local church pastor. At this point in my life I am 28. I first started thinking about studying to become a church pastor when I was 19. So for several years I have analyzed church leadership styles and the choices that certain pastors have made in the churches I have attended. Jesus’ words in Matthew, “ The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” were some of the first words which inspired me to think about giving my life to preaching the Gospel by working in a local church. I believe with all my heart in the life transforming power of the Gospel, as it is described in the New Testament. That is the reason why I want to spend my entire life helping churches become more effective at carrying that message out into the world. The desire to be as effective as possible drove me to study church leaders who seemed to be having a significant impact.
In reading books by many of these leaders I started to see some trends in what they were saying. One definite trend present in Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John Maxwell, and Adam Hamilton is the necessity for the local church pastor to spend time developing volunteer leaders by investing in them. In all the books I read by pastors of growing churches, they, all in one way or another, talk about the need to equip and empower volunteer leaders for ministry. This has caused me to read Ephesians 4:12 in a whole new light. It is not wise to just to wear yourself out doing as much ministry as you can, while ignoring potential leaders in your church whom you could be developing. That choice can cause a pastor to burnout, and it ultimately limits the number of people the church will reach.
I want to pray along with the command in Matthew 9:30-39 that God will send workers for the fields that are ready for the harvest. At the same time, I remember that my role is not only to minister to people myself, but to prepare and equip God’s people to do the work of the ministry for the advancement of God’s Kingdom and the Gospel to the glory of God.


1 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 20022 George, 2 Carl F. Prepare Your Church for the Future 1984 3 New Living Translation 4 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 2002. page 110-111. 5 Hamilton. Leading Beyond the Walls page 113. 6 Maxwell, John. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995. page 84 7 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 8 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 9 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84