Developing themselves as professionals is not too difficult for laypeople today. There are many resources available to help them grow, both inside and outside the church. Even without paying much, they can receive excellent training through community centers and other educational programs. Therefore, developing their skills and becoming competent in their area of ministry is largely the responsibility of laypeople themselves.
Perhaps more importantly, however, there is another issue: receiving recognition and approval from the senior pastor. I do not mean simply getting permission. I mean being genuinely recognized and affirmed by the pastor as someone who is capable of serving at a professional level in a particular area of ministry.
This is not always easy for pastors. Most pastors are not specifically trained in seminary to develop and recognize laypeople as professionals. We may know how to motivate people through preaching and teaching, but recognizing a layperson as a professional in a particular ministry area can sometimes make us uncomfortable. Yet this is part of our responsibility as pastors.
Developing themselves is the responsibility of laypeople. Recognizing and authorizing them as professionals in their area of ministry is the responsibility of pastors. Without such recognition, laypeople may hesitate to take responsibility. Even when they serve, they may do only what is minimally expected of them.
Therefore, we need to acknowledge laypeople as professionals in their particular areas of ministry. In the case of PACE ministry, lay pastors should be recognized as professionals in caring for people, just as pastors are professionals in the broader ministry of the church.
One professor explained this distinction very well: the senior pastor is a generalist, while laypeople are specialists in their assigned ministries. I find this a very helpful way to understand the relationship. The senior pastor oversees the whole ministry of the church, while lay pastors develop particular expertise in caring for people through PACE ministry. Pastors are generalists in the whole ministry, while laypeople can become specialists in specific areas, as Professor John Patton describes in Pastoral Care in Context (1993).
Another pastor once said, “A lay pastor is a professional in PACE ministry.” I believe this is true. Lay pastors are not professionals in every area of church ministry, nor do they need to be. But they can become highly skilled, responsible, and effective in the specific ministry God has entrusted to them.
Dr. Melvin also described the attitude of a lay pastor as a professional in this way:
“You are nonprofessional people, doing your ministry with quality performance and quality behavior. Without being a professional, you can be professional. The goal is, ‘Excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory.’”
He then gives us some practical attitudes of a professional lay pastor:
- Be yourself.
- Be human.
- Get down to business.
- Know what you are doing.
- Use your proper authority.
- Be dependable.
- Be available.
- Be assertive.
- Know your limitations.
This is an important picture of lay ministry. Being a professional does not mean becoming a professional pastor. It means taking seriously the ministry God has entrusted to you and carrying it out with competence, responsibility, humility, and excellence.
Laypeople have the responsibility to develop themselves. Pastors have the responsibility to recognize, trust, and empower them. When these two responsibilities come together, laypeople can truly become professionals in their own areas of ministry—and the whole church becomes stronger.
NOTE
This is a strong section, especially because it identifies a missing piece in lay leadership development: pastoral recognition and authorization. I would make the argument a little tighter and distinguish clearly between becoming skilled and being recognized/authorized as a professional in a specific ministry.
A few wording changes would also help:
- “Approval laypeople as a professional” → “Recognizing Laypeople as Professionals”
- “prove lay people” → “affirm/recognize laypeople”
- “professional level” → “as professionals in their area of ministry”
- “without approval” → “without the pastor’s recognition and authorization”
- “nonprofessional people…can be professional” → preserve Dr. Melvin’s idea, but make it clearer.
The quotation from Dr. Melvin is particularly valuable because it gives you a biblical/ministry definition of professionalism: not professional status, but professional quality, behavior, responsibility, and excellence.