Rev. Ogillah / Kenya, East Africa
Let me begin by defining the term layperson. Usually, a layperson is understood to be an ordinary person. For a doctor, for example, a layperson is someone who has not been trained in medicine. In other words, a layperson is often considered an amateur or someone without professional training in a particular field.
An Anglican priest at one of the Lay Pastors Ministry training seminars in Nairobi, Kenya, said:
“A layperson is one of my flock, one of my congregation—one of the ordinary Christian people to whom I have to minister, lead, and instruct.”
However, this understanding is not limited to the Anglican Church. Many other churches would give a similar answer. The common assumption is what someone once described this way: “A layperson is one of the privates in God’s army, while the officers are the clergy—ministers, pastors, and priests.”
This understanding has created a distinction between clergy and laity. It sometimes appears as though there are two grades, two categories, or even two levels of grace among Christians: the clergy and the laity. The clergy are expected to run the church, determine doctrine and administration, preach sermons, and, above all, set a good example. They are expected to maintain high moral standards.
The laity, however, are sometimes treated as though they belong to a second class. They may be regarded as having less responsibility for the church and its ministry. Such an attitude suggests that the work of ministry belongs primarily to the clergy, while the responsibility of ordinary Christians is limited.
Unfortunately, many churches, church organizations, and ministries are becoming smaller every year because the clergy have failed to decentralize leadership among the gifted laypeople within their congregations. It is in this context that the Lay Pastors Ministry has come to train and equip the laity in African churches.
In recent years, since the Lay Pastors Ministry (LPM) came to East and Central Africa, this attitude has begun to change in many churches. Laypeople are increasingly finding their rightful place in the church through the decentralization of leadership by the clergy.
Laypeople are often expected to participate in stewardship campaigns, raise money, serve as church treasurers, maintain church compounds, assist pastors, and give pastors more time to prepare for Sunday sermons. They may also serve as local preachers, lay leaders, Sunday school teachers, visitors to the sick, street-corner preachers, and evangelists.
However, too often these responsibilities are seen merely as filling the gaps created by a shortage of clergy. Laypeople are given minor duties that pastors can delegate under careful supervision. This is not the full biblical understanding of lay ministry.
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel—priests, prophets, and ordinary people—were all described together as the people of God. The same idea is developed further in the New Testament. The church does not primarily mean a building, a denomination, or the clergy. The church means the people.
In the New Testament, the church refers to the people of God—a community and fellowship of Christians meeting together anywhere. In essence, it is the assembly of those who have been called out by God.
The Greek word laos, from which we derive the concept of the laity, refers to the people of God.
These people include carpenters, housewives, businesspeople, governors, kings, and many others. Ordinary people from every walk of life are all classified as the people of God, the Body of Christ, and the church of God.
Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 12 clearly teach this truth.
In the biblical understanding, there is no basis for creating a spiritual hierarchy between clergy and laity, between skilled and unskilled, black and white, highly educated and less educated, male and female, Jews and Gentiles, or people at the top and those at the bottom of society.
All are the people of God.
The evidence of a person’s calling is not simply a title or position. The important question is whether that person is a devoted and committed Christian. It is not whether one is an archbishop or a chauffeur.
We are all saints in the sense that we are human beings sanctified, strengthened, and enlivened by the same Holy Spirit who dwells within our hearts.
There is nothing artificial or self-righteous about true Christian living. It is entirely possible for a laywoman to demonstrate greater love for God than a wealthy businessperson, for a laborer to show greater faithfulness than a manager, or for a schoolgirl to demonstrate deeper devotion than a headmistress.
This is where the church has often made one of its greatest mistakes by creating what has rightly been described as a “one-man show.”
Too often, the clergy undertake by themselves the entire ministry of the church. At the same time, the laity delegate their ministry to one person—the clergyman.
Certainly, the clergy have been called by God to fulfill important functions. They have been ordained in one way or another for specific responsibilities. However, one of the important responsibilities of the clergy is to nourish, equip, help, and sustain the people of God for ministry.
The overwhelming majority of the church consists of ordinary people—non-professional Christians—who must become effective and mature followers of Christ in their own fields of service.
Therefore, the great question is:
Where do the ordinary millions of Christians fit into the ministry of the church?
Must laypeople continue merely to attend meetings, contribute their money to support church programs, and then do little to influence or change the world around them?
Do laypeople not have a ministry that truly counts?
Christ does not grant spiritual gifts only to men and women who are employed full-time by the church. All the people of God share in Christ’s ministry to the world.
However, the work on the frontlines belongs especially to laypeople. They spend most of their working and waking hours in social, political, economic, educational, and cultural environments where the decisive battles of faith are often being fought.
Indeed, laypeople have been described as “God’s frozen people.”
This may be one of the reasons why we have failed to fully evangelize the world. Laypeople are often left out of the central programs and ministries of the church.
Many of us in the clergy have forgotten an important truth:
“While we are constantly looking for better methods, God is looking for better people. People are God’s methods.”
If each nominal Christian in the world were motivated and trained to win one person to Christ each year—and then trained that person to repeat the same process—the world could be reached in far less time than we might imagine.
If only a small percentage of professing Christians were faithfully trained in personal evangelism and equipped to train others, the task of reaching the world could be dramatically advanced.
This is why the Lay Pastors Ministry in Kenya and throughout East Africa is deeply concerned with one central question:
How can laypeople in all Christian churches throughout this region be trained and equipped for ministry?
The goal is not simply for laypeople to assist the clergy. The goal is for every Christian to become an effective witness for Christ in his or her own field of endeavor.
All God’s people are chosen. All are offered the same grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Each person has been given a different function within the Body of Christ.
Therefore, the training and equipping of laypeople to function effectively in the church and in the world must become one of the highest priorities of the church.
The future of the church cannot depend upon the clergy alone.
The church must rediscover the truth that every believer is called to ministry, every believer has a place in the Body of Christ, and every believer can be equipped to serve.
The ministry belongs to all the people of God.
This training must begin with guidelines that lead individuals to a personal assurance that their sins are forgiven, that they have eternal life, and that they possess a positive and personal relationship with Christ. There should be a clear awareness of their responsibility to glorify God, bear witness, and have fellowship with one another. Believers should be encouraged to read God’s Word, spend time in prayer, obey God’s Word, and follow His known will for their lives.
There must also be a call to full surrender and genuine Christian commitment, with sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a willingness to obey Him.
There should also be an emphasis on the discipline of daily devotions. Through regular devotional life, believers can maintain a victorious, Spirit-filled, and dynamic Christian life in whatever capacity they serve—as teachers, doctors, clerks, police officers, businesspeople, or in other professions.
The professionalization of Christian ministry, which causes members of the congregation to become overly dependent on ministers in order for the church to function, must be discouraged at all costs. The communication of the Gospel and the fulfillment of the Great Commission must no longer be regarded as the task of specialists alone. Instead, leadership and ministry must be decentralized among the gifted members of the congregation.
I believe it is both the normal responsibility and the privilege of every believer to witness and minister to the glory of God wherever God has placed him or her in the world.
Personal Evangelism and the Role of Lay People
In order to enlist the support of lay people in this great task of outreach for Christ, I would like to emphasize personal evangelism. Personal evangelism, which is a biblical method of evangelism, should be revitalized in the church.
Without personal evangelism, we will never evangelize the world. With it, however, we can reach the world, because in this generation personal evangelism is, to a great extent, lay evangelism.
Personal evangelism encourages evangelism according to location, age group, and occupation. Christian engineers can reach other engineers. Christian doctors can reach doctors. Nurses can reach nurses. Businesspeople can reach other businesspeople. This is evangelism by occupation.
Likewise, young Christians in every nation are often best able to reach other young people. Middle-aged believers can effectively reach those in their own generation, and older believers can minister to older people. This is evangelism by age group.
All these are important activities of lay people.
This basic strategy, when amplified and multiplied throughout every occupation, neighborhood, workplace, and age group—in every town and city, and in every nation of the world—holds one of the keys to evangelism and church growth in this generation.
The main actor is the layperson.
The teaching of the Word of God is clear: “We are in the world, but not of the world.” It is good for the church to be in the world, but if the world is in the church, then we have a serious problem.
No matter how we look at it, the successful witness and ministry of the church are impossible without the total mobilization of the whole people of God. Every believer must be involved in ministry to the world according to his or her capacity, capability, and calling—for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
The training of lay people for Christian ministry and witness is the master key to church development.
The Lay Pastors Ministry in Kenya and East Africa
The Lay Pastors Ministry (LPM) in Kenya, East Africa, began this important journey in late 2001. Since then, the ministry has reached many churches and church organizations and has trained a significant number of lay pastors.
As one of the few church organizations offering this particular kind of ministry, LPM has attracted great interest from many churches. So far, LPM’s operations have focused primarily on East Africa, with a vision to expand its activities into the rest of the Central African region.
With more than 100 million people living in this region, the Lay Pastors Ministry has faced a combination of serious challenges that have affected its work and outcomes. Some of the major factors include the following:
1. High Levels of Illiteracy
High levels of illiteracy make it difficult for many lay pastors to read the Bible and prepare scriptural notes. This has forced the ministry to translate much of its training material into local languages that participants can better understand.
2. Poverty and Food Insecurity
High levels of poverty and food insecurity present major challenges to the ministry. Many people in East African communities struggle to meet their basic needs, which negatively affects participation in training seminars, conferences, and forums.
During training programs, participants are sometimes asked to make a small contribution toward their upkeep. However, many lay pastors are unable to contribute financially because of their difficult economic circumstances.
3. Traditions and Cultural Practices
Some traditional beliefs and cultural practices can undermine or hinder the progress made by the church. Certain aspects of traditional culture continue to present challenges to the work of the Gospel in this region.
4. The Impact of HIV/AIDS
The spread of HIV/AIDS has also had a serious impact on communities throughout the region. The ministry has lost people with great potential who had participated in its training programs.
For example, during a recent LPM Kenya training seminar and one-day follow-up program in Tanzania, our team was saddened to learn upon arrival that four people who had previously undergone our training had lost their lives as a result of AIDS-related illnesses.
Such losses affect not only families and communities but also the ministry of the church.
Training Activities and Ministry Programs
Since the beginning of this ministry in Kenya and East Africa, LPM has trained more than 1,500 lay pastors and has collaborated with many churches and church organizations throughout the East African region.
Many clergy members and church leaders visit our offices and invite us to conduct one- or two-day seminars for their churches. However, in many cases, we conduct two- or three-day Lay Pastors Ministry training seminars, bringing together lay pastors from different churches.
We normally invite a maximum of sixty lay pastors for each training session. Church halls are generally used as training venues. Our office also has a small conference room that can accommodate up to fifteen people.
We regularly receive many lay pastors who visit our office. Once a week, especially on Wednesdays, we conduct small training sessions at the office.
Apart from training seminars, we also organize an annual general conference and conduct chaplaincy programs in educational institutions.
We have programs for schools and colleges where we meet separately with teachers, tutors, students, and student leaders. These programs have worked effectively in the region. We normally meet teachers and tutors during lunchtime, while students are reached through pastoral programs and other organized activities.
Challenges Facing the Ministry
Although this work has produced encouraging results, the Lay Pastors Ministry continues to face significant challenges. These include:
- Limited skills and training among some LPM staff members.
- A shortage of adequate training materials.
- Poor or inadequate transportation facilities.
- Financial limitations affecting ministry activities.
- The economic difficulties faced by many lay pastors who desire to participate in training.
- The need for more facilities and resources to expand the ministry.
Despite these challenges, the need for training and mobilizing lay people remains urgent. The church cannot fully accomplish its mission by depending only on professional ministers. The entire body of Christ must be equipped, empowered, and mobilized for ministry.
The future of effective evangelism and church development depends greatly on releasing lay people into ministry.
When the whole people of God are trained and mobilized, the church becomes better equipped to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.