What is the relationship between lay ministry and pastoral care? I have found this to be a very interesting relationship.
At first, these appear to be two different concepts. Lay ministry is lay ministry, and pastoral care is pastoral care. In theological education, some schools offer courses or programs in lay ministry, while others focus on pastoral care. At the theological schools I attended in Canada, these were treated as two separate areas of study.
However, the Lay Pastors Ministry brings these two concepts together.
Dr. Melvin Steinbron began with the biblical concept of lay ministry found in Ephesians 4:11–12. The passage teaches that pastors and other leaders are given to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” But as Dr. Melvin explored the meaning of lay ministry, he began asking an important question: What kind of ministry should laypeople do?
His answer was to connect lay ministry with pastoral care.
He identified two major goals of the local church. The first is evangelism, based on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20. The second is pastoral care, reflected in Jesus’ words to Peter in John 21:15–17: “Feed my sheep.”
There are abundant resources, programs, and ministries in churches devoted to the first goal—evangelism. Churches have developed many effective ways to reach people, make disciples, and bring new people into the faith. But Dr. Melvin discovered that there was often a significant lack of organized pastoral care within the congregation.
So he sought to develop a ministry that would bring the two concepts together: lay ministry + pastoral care = Lay Pastors Ministry.
This was an important discovery. The church needs both evangelism and pastoral care. We need to reach people with the gospel, but we also need to care for the people God has already entrusted to us.
Lay ministry is important not simply because it gives laypeople something to do. It changes the way we understand ministry itself. It calls for a paradigm shift in which ministry is no longer seen as the pastor’s responsibility alone. Instead, pastors equip laypeople, and laypeople participate actively in the ministry of the church.
Without this change in mindset, neither pastors nor laypeople can fully experience the effectiveness of shared ministry.
I have come to believe that Dr. Melvin was right.
Consider Professor Paul Stevens of Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, one of the most prominent theologians and practitioners of lay ministry. Although he does not always use the exact phrase “lay ministry and pastoral care,” his writings clearly demonstrate the connection between the two.
In his book The Equipper’s Guide to Every-Member Ministry (1992), Chapter 3, “Lay Pastors and Caregivers,” Stevens discusses three models of lay ministry:
- Stephen Ministry
- Howard Stone’s The Caring Church
- Melvin Steinbron’s Lay Pastors Ministry
This is significant. It shows that the connection between equipping laypeople for ministry and equipping them to care for others is not unique to the Lay Pastors Ministry. Rather, it reflects a broader understanding of what every-member ministry can become.
The Lay Pastors Ministry, however, makes this connection especially clear. It takes the biblical call to equip the saints for ministry and gives it a practical expression through pastoral care.
In this way, lay ministry answers the question, “Who should do the ministry?” Pastoral care answers the question, “What kind of ministry should they do?”
Together, they become a powerful ministry for the local church.
Interestingly, all three of these approaches place a strong emphasis on pastoral care. I know these ministries well. Stephen Ministry, for example, is primarily a caring ministry for people experiencing a crisis. When someone is going through a difficult period, a Stephen Minister visits, listens, and provides care. Once the person has recovered and the crisis has passed, the Stephen Minister generally concludes the caring relationship.
The Stephen Ministry system and its training materials are excellent. However, compared with the Lay Pastors Ministry (LPM), the training is relatively lengthy and expensive. For example, the training may require a week or more, and the cost of completion can be around $200 USD. LPM, by comparison, is designed to be much more accessible and affordable. In this sense, Stephen Ministry is fundamentally a caring ministry.
Howard Stone’s The Caring Church also emphasizes the importance of caring ministry within the church. Likewise, LPM and PACE are clearly caring ministries. Even Paul Stevens, although he is well known as a specialist in lay ministry, places significant emphasis on caring ministry.
From these examples, we can see that lay ministry is not the same as pastoral care, but the two are closely related and operate at almost the same level in practice. Much of contemporary lay ministry has developed around the ministry of caring for people.
This helps us understand why Melvin Steinbron’s approach and system are both relevant and valuable to the church. He did not, however, ignore other essential aspects of ministry, particularly evangelism. His second book, Lay Driven Church, makes this clear. In the contents, he discusses the need to maintain a balance between the Great Commission and the Great Charter.
In other words, Steinbron recognized that the church needs both ministries: reaching people with the gospel and caring for the people who are already within the church. He chose to develop the latter because there were already many resources, programs, and materials available for carrying out the Great Commission, while the church had comparatively fewer resources for equipping lay people to provide intentional, ongoing pastoral care.
Therefore, the contribution of Steinbron’s Lay Pastors Ministry is not that it replaces evangelism or the Great Commission. Rather, it fills an important gap by helping the church recover and organize the ministry of caring for one another through trained lay people.