Everyone Gets To Play! Really?

I was happy to attend the first Verge Conference this year. Missional Communities are the new buzzword for churches. Megachurches and minichurches are interested in discovering what it means to be organic and missional. I was happy to be in a place where I could meet Tony and Felicity Dale and hear Neil Cole speak. For me, the few conference days were one of those “aha!” times when knowledge and inspiration come together to give clear future direction.

One of the take-aways from the conference was the way that one of John Wimber’s one-liners has infiltrated common usage. More than one speaker when describing the missional community proclaimed boldly “Everyone Gets to Play!” By the way, this is the title of a book of Wimber’s writings compiled by his pastor-church planter daughter-in-law, Christy Wimber. Now, I have some experience in the Vineyard. And I think I know what John was saying when he said it. I also think I have some insight into what he was not saying!

Let’s take a side trip into what “Everyone Gets To Play” means in children’s sports. This is the concept that has every player participate in the game, no matter their skill level. It means that every player will get a certain amount of playing time in the soccer game, or a certain number of at-bats and in the field in the little league game. It does not mean: “Everyone Gets to Play Goalie! or Everyone Gets to Play Pitcher!”

In the church, everyone does NOT get to play Preacher, or Pastor, or Worship Leader! Recently I started attending the church services of a congregation that is, in a sense, restarting. The first week the Pastor proclaimed something like: “We want to release you to follow your [ministry] destiny and dreams!” My inner-Pharisee replied, “No, I don’t think so, Pastor, because my destiny is to preach for the next six weeks to your congregation, and I don’t think you want to release me to follow that dream!”

You see, in a baseball game, there is only one pitcher, in a football game only one quarterback, and in a soccer game only one goalie. Even though Wimber’s statement was a game-changer in the church circles he influenced, it didn’t actually change the game that was being played. I do believe that when Wimber first became a Christian he “got into the ministry.” He was a soul-winner for sure before he ever went on the staff of a church. He was doing Jesus’s stuff, the stuff he was allowed to do by his denomination, 24-7. He hadn’t yet started playing the “church” game, I don’t think.

For people like Wimber, those who aren’t consumers but those who are full participants in the way of Jesus, there is no amount of money, power, fame or position that motivates them to do Jesus’s stuff. They do it because they understand that it is the gospel in action. I wish I could say that I have grasped this concept for many years, but I only have kind-of figured it out in the last couple of months. I am a minister of Jesus. No, I am no longer a paid clergyman. But I am “a person acting as the agent or instrument of another.” [dictionary.com]

Understanding this has made a huge difference in my life. My clients are my ministry. Each one a gift from God. I found myself comforting a client whose 90 yr. old mother had recently died, praying for a client’s low back pain to be healed and asking God to help my clients keep their home. Now John Wimber figured this out early, and the church noticed and made him a paid clergyman!

Paul didn’t say “Everyone Gets to Play,” he said, we “are the body of Christ” each one of us is a part of it. Being part of a body is not a game we play. Paul’s approach to describing the body, did not leave any room for “special” parts of the body. A close reading of the New Testament does not reveal a clergy-laity distinction and implies that ordinary people were engaged in extraordinary exploits in advancing the gospel.

Over the years I have learned that in the “church game” not everyone gets to play. However, recently I have seen that in the real life that comes from Jesus, we are all invited to be players to the max!