What do you think?
Liberating the Laity: Equipping All the Saints for Ministry
Every church has far more work than any one person can do. Even a team of professionals is not enough. The New Testament solution was for every member to be a minister.Though the priesthood of all believers was a key idea in the Reformation, it is little practised today. Following secular models, churches usually organize around the clergy, who are paid by the laity to do the ministry.Paul Stevens argues that, according to Scripture, the primary task of a Christian leader is not to do the work but to equip the saints to do it. Exploring new options for pastors, tentmakers and laypeople, this book provides structures and strategies to best equip all the saints for ministry.
- GenresChristianity
177 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
About the author
R. Paul Stevens
70 books12 followersR. Paul Stevens is professor emeritus of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and a marketplace ministry mentor. He has worked as a carpenter and businessman, and served as the pastor of an inner-city church in Montreal. He has written many books and Bible studies, including Doing God's Business, Work Matters, Marriage Spirituality, The Other Six Days and Spiritual Gifts. He is coauthor (with Pete Hammond and Todd Svanoe) of The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 9, 2013
Who is to be ministering in the church? Is it the “job” of one person who is hired by the church? Is it accomplished by a team of professionals? Or is it the responsibility of everyone who calls themselves a Christian and part of the body of Christ?
R. Paul Stevens presents an answer to these type of questions in his book Liberating the Laity. Considering his title, one can probably guess what type of answer he is presenting. Stevens gives his foundational concepts early on in the book and they’re as follows.
He says, “The two principles that undergird this entire book are these: First, church leadership is called primarily to an equipping ministry. This is not a sideline to preaching or counseling, but the raison d’être of the pastor-teacher. Second, equipping the saints does not mean harnessing the laity for the felt needs or institutional tasks of the church nor harnessing the laity to assist the pastor with certain delegated ministries. The saints are to be equipped for their own ministry…. (p.38)”
Now these are not bad principles to build a book around. I felt that when he was focused on his two main principles that he had a good case to make. A case that says ministry is not just for the pastor, it is for the whole congregation. That the laity aren’t second class citizens of God’s kingdom behind the clergy. That ministry isn’t just centered on what we do at the church but it needs to be connected to our everyday lives.
Another issue made its way into his book enough that it tended to interfere with his two main principles. That issue was tent making or the idea as he puts it in one of his chapter titles, the idea of voluntary clergy. What he means by this is that the leaders of the church are not paid by the church, but rather earn a wage by working a job outside of the church.
I can see how this concept flows naturally out of the discussion of equipping the laity. For some reason though I just didn’t feel that Stevens treatment of it was very fluid. Maybe it was the fact that he was often making a case for it, but made the point that it wasn’t necessarily how everyone should do it? Maybe it was that one of the chapters about it was done in an odd format that involved an imaginary interview?
I’m not sure, but I felt when he focused on the idea of tent making the waters got muddy and it wasn’t as focused as the idea of equipping people for their own ministries. In fact it may have even distracted from the principle of equipping people. It felt like the book had become a Trojan horse to house an idea that was related, but not absolutely necessary to the discussion.
So what’s my overall impression of Liberating the Laity? It’s a bit mixed. When he’s focused on equipping, the book is at its strongest. I think he raises valid concerns about how we view and act out leadership in the church. With my education being in theology with the goal of being a pastor, these concerns are somewhat close to home, even if I’m not a pastor yet, at least in a “professional” sense.
I found the book useful for raising a number of questions about leadership in church, church models, and the importance of equipping all believers. However, his focus on tent making, which I don’t have any problem with, just seemed uneven. In my opinion, it even distracted a bit too much from his principles that I quoted earlier.
With all this, I’d say that Liberating the Laity is an uneven book. It brings up valid points about equipping the laity, but also feels like you’re getting an advertisement for becoming a tent maker in the process. Add in some chapters that just fall a bit flat, like the chapter that was an imaginary interview and it just makes for an uneven experience. Not enough of one that I’d recommend to steer clear of the book, but also not enough that I’d thoroughly recommend it either.
R. Paul Stevens presents an answer to these type of questions in his book Liberating the Laity. Considering his title, one can probably guess what type of answer he is presenting. Stevens gives his foundational concepts early on in the book and they’re as follows.
He says, “The two principles that undergird this entire book are these: First, church leadership is called primarily to an equipping ministry. This is not a sideline to preaching or counseling, but the raison d’être of the pastor-teacher. Second, equipping the saints does not mean harnessing the laity for the felt needs or institutional tasks of the church nor harnessing the laity to assist the pastor with certain delegated ministries. The saints are to be equipped for their own ministry…. (p.38)”
Now these are not bad principles to build a book around. I felt that when he was focused on his two main principles that he had a good case to make. A case that says ministry is not just for the pastor, it is for the whole congregation. That the laity aren’t second class citizens of God’s kingdom behind the clergy. That ministry isn’t just centered on what we do at the church but it needs to be connected to our everyday lives.
Another issue made its way into his book enough that it tended to interfere with his two main principles. That issue was tent making or the idea as he puts it in one of his chapter titles, the idea of voluntary clergy. What he means by this is that the leaders of the church are not paid by the church, but rather earn a wage by working a job outside of the church.
I can see how this concept flows naturally out of the discussion of equipping the laity. For some reason though I just didn’t feel that Stevens treatment of it was very fluid. Maybe it was the fact that he was often making a case for it, but made the point that it wasn’t necessarily how everyone should do it? Maybe it was that one of the chapters about it was done in an odd format that involved an imaginary interview?
I’m not sure, but I felt when he focused on the idea of tent making the waters got muddy and it wasn’t as focused as the idea of equipping people for their own ministries. In fact it may have even distracted from the principle of equipping people. It felt like the book had become a Trojan horse to house an idea that was related, but not absolutely necessary to the discussion.
So what’s my overall impression of Liberating the Laity? It’s a bit mixed. When he’s focused on equipping, the book is at its strongest. I think he raises valid concerns about how we view and act out leadership in the church. With my education being in theology with the goal of being a pastor, these concerns are somewhat close to home, even if I’m not a pastor yet, at least in a “professional” sense.
I found the book useful for raising a number of questions about leadership in church, church models, and the importance of equipping all believers. However, his focus on tent making, which I don’t have any problem with, just seemed uneven. In my opinion, it even distracted a bit too much from his principles that I quoted earlier.
With all this, I’d say that Liberating the Laity is an uneven book. It brings up valid points about equipping the laity, but also feels like you’re getting an advertisement for becoming a tent maker in the process. Add in some chapters that just fall a bit flat, like the chapter that was an imaginary interview and it just makes for an uneven experience. Not enough of one that I’d recommend to steer clear of the book, but also not enough that I’d thoroughly recommend it either.
November 7, 2023
3-3.5/5.
R. Paul Stevens is, in my view, one of the Regent College's most underrated but beloved professors. Paul was a pioneer in marketplace ministry and he continues to pour his life out for the sake of the Gospel, teaching students and serving the Church even as he is into his eighties.
This book represents both Paul's - and I believe Regent's - vision for faithful lay leadership. Regent was initially founded to train believers to grow deeper in faith and then return to the marketplace to be salt and light. Paul shares advice on how churches can organize and support more lay leadership. He also shares about his own experience working in carpentry, living out the very principles he writes about.
Some of the material does get repetitive after a while and I think could have been condensed. Times have also changed too - the Vancouver Paul writes about is very different from the expensive metropolis is has become today - though I think many churches are having to confront the reality that they might not be able to support a full-time pastor (indeed, my own church has recently hired as a lead pastor a priest who also works for a local coffee chain as "coffee quality leader"); congregations must become more nimble and many predict the future of ministry is "bivocational." I would comment too that Paul writes as a Baptist pastor who also served a Brethren chapel and these denominations typically have a more democratic and egalitarian view of ordained ministry (and I think they are correct!) than Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions so some of the principles Paul advocates for might be hard to implement given these ecclesiologies.
Paul ends this book mentioning an Armenian lay leader, Joseph Hovsepian, who had made his small business a "pulpit," a place for his own workplace ministry. Paul praises Joseph for his passion and diligence in ministering to other ethnic minorities in Montreal. I just looked up Temple Baptist Church, where Paul served and where he met Joseph; it seems that Joseph has been serving as pastor of this congregation - praise God for this man - and Dr. Stevens' - long faithfulness!
R. Paul Stevens is, in my view, one of the Regent College's most underrated but beloved professors. Paul was a pioneer in marketplace ministry and he continues to pour his life out for the sake of the Gospel, teaching students and serving the Church even as he is into his eighties.
This book represents both Paul's - and I believe Regent's - vision for faithful lay leadership. Regent was initially founded to train believers to grow deeper in faith and then return to the marketplace to be salt and light. Paul shares advice on how churches can organize and support more lay leadership. He also shares about his own experience working in carpentry, living out the very principles he writes about.
Some of the material does get repetitive after a while and I think could have been condensed. Times have also changed too - the Vancouver Paul writes about is very different from the expensive metropolis is has become today - though I think many churches are having to confront the reality that they might not be able to support a full-time pastor (indeed, my own church has recently hired as a lead pastor a priest who also works for a local coffee chain as "coffee quality leader"); congregations must become more nimble and many predict the future of ministry is "bivocational." I would comment too that Paul writes as a Baptist pastor who also served a Brethren chapel and these denominations typically have a more democratic and egalitarian view of ordained ministry (and I think they are correct!) than Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions so some of the principles Paul advocates for might be hard to implement given these ecclesiologies.
Paul ends this book mentioning an Armenian lay leader, Joseph Hovsepian, who had made his small business a "pulpit," a place for his own workplace ministry. Paul praises Joseph for his passion and diligence in ministering to other ethnic minorities in Montreal. I just looked up Temple Baptist Church, where Paul served and where he met Joseph; it seems that Joseph has been serving as pastor of this congregation - praise God for this man - and Dr. Stevens' - long faithfulness!
September 25, 2009
One of the most poorly published books I have ever seen!
December 10, 2012
Paul Stevens is a great guy who lives what he preaches. But, I wish he would skip the laity gig and lead a seminary or something, he's made his point.
February 27, 2014
Thought this was a great book when I read it years ago.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews