It is always a bit of a surprise to me when my private musings on Scripture and the church, turn out to be public record in the writings of well respected leaders. Sort of like Chesterton discovering England, as he found himself orthodox in his doctrine I am discovering that I am not that crazy. Here is the rub. We are not doing it.
It is public knowledge that the church needs many ministers who serve where they are gifted, and a few (though one may take point) godly leaders who are vigilant for specifically the ministry of the Word. Paul had that in print before the end of the first century. But many many churches have one guy at the helm, and a rag-tag body of non-ministering deacons as a board. Or one guy up front while the influential family who bought the building calls the shots. Or even that there is a group of godly men who lead (and this is not uncommon) but few if any of them are serving where they are gifted.
I suppose that shouldn't shock me, we are all human after all. And the church is a prime breeding ground for subtlety, works righteousness and debates about words. My surprise is that in so many circumstances people are struggling through with a less than ideal situation, and serving in areas that are not their gifting, and frustrated and often depressed and in some cases I have come across very bitter. And they know better! The realities of Scripture are common knowledge. They know that they should be humbly ministering in the areas of their gifts, but they would rather muddle through elsewhere, frustrated and alone.
Granted, there are many times where ministry is not easy, and there should not be any readiness to abandon your post just because people ask you questions you are uncomfortable with. Further, leadership in the church should expect to suffer for their ministry and for their flock. But my idea isn't to address that kind of suffering, but more the willful assignment to a place you are not designed to fill. Suffering that comes at you, is a part of life. Suffering that you breed in your own back yard, and play with as a pup, and then get attacked by when it is grown up is gratuitous to no one.
I think the other piece that ties in with this is that the church is the entity with the ultimate responsibility. The church is to hold their leaders and members accountable. But many a church is willing to grab a young Bible school grad, chew on him viciously until they have got most of his limited skill set mangled beyond recognition and then spit him out and blame him for the whole fiasco. Either that, or they are willing to accept whatever the pastor says, as sufficient, without applying it to their lives, without growing and maturing, and without having a second and third godly voice speaking into the life of the church, helping to balance the direction, teaching and goals. A church that consists of non-ministers, will never mature.
