The Era of Lay Believers

By Xiong Ju

I. Introduction

On January 1, 1999, the newspaper published the results of a year-end public opinion survey. President Clinton was elected as the person most admired by American people, with Pope John Paul II second, and Billy Graham, the renowned evangelist, the third. The survey was intended to measure candidates' hero image in the eyes of Americans, as opposed to their social contribution.

Besides being the most admired, Clinton was also the second president in American history to be recommended by Congress for impeachment! This person most admired by Americans was no other than the president who, for up to two years, had had an affair with a White House intern in his oval office and who subsequently lied to the Grand Jury and the American public. What a conundrum!

In his State of the Union speech on January 19, Clinton, like a Santa Claus, made a series of promises in line with the expectations of the American public and received positive feedback from both conservatives and liberals. No matter how unrealistic his plans sounded, his only concern seemed to be winning the hearts of the public. And this is typical of our modern era. It is not surprising that in 1998 William Bennett, the former secretary of education, wrote his well-known book entitled The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals.

II. What kind of era are we in?

Six years ago I was at a supermarket shopping when I overheard a couple of cashiers chatting about the pros and cons of Windows on their PCs. At that time I had just moved to California from the mid-West and I was amazed at this conversation. I told myself that it must be difficult to find a computer illiterate in California.

Since the middle of 1990 the World Wide Web has spread throughout the globe, riding the boom of the Internet. This new computing method has revolutionized our ways of learning, our understanding, our business practices and even our entertainment. Today over 50% of families are equipped with PCs. The Internet has narrowed the gaps in our communities as never before.

As the invention of the assembly line helped to promote universal market consumption, the information revolution which arrived near the end of the 20^th century offers promise of a wide variety of life styles. We no longer look like happy but lifeless robots. Today many of us have our own home pages. Our browser bookmarks reflect our personal tastes. We may not know our neighbors, but we chat freely with our room-mates thousands of miles away in Internet chat rooms. In those chat rooms we share many common subjects despite the fact that we have little in common in terms of cultural background and values. Modern people are completely tolerant of and indifferent to discrepancies in values.

What kind of era are we in, then? It is an era where people pursue newness and uniqueness. A computer becomes obsolete within three years. Traditional authorities and methodologies do not necessarily gain respect and may be more likely to become obstacles to progress.

What kind of era are we in? It is an era of style over substance. All it takes to excel is flamboyance and boldness. Even Larry Flynt, the owner of a sex magazine, can become an anti-tradition hero. But if you lack aggressiveness and boldness, you can quickly lose ground even though truth may be on your side. This is an era where morality is cheap. Truth no longer seems attractive. Modern people have no interest in saints or slogans. They are their own gods. Everybody has his own way.

What kind of era are we in? It is an era of competition. A textbook cannot remain valid for more than ten years. High competence and high efficiency are emphasized in all kinds of business. People truly believe they have the capacity to control their own destiny. They have multiple opportunities and they do not tolerate any signs of mediocrity.

What kind of era are we in? It is an era where individual development and personal advantage are highly valued. Rather than offering service or sacrifice we pursue individual pleasure and personal achievement. We are impatient with preaching, but we appreciate entertainment. We have high expectations about our quality of life. We are not as content as we used to be. And we aggressively pursue momentary satisfaction.

What kind of era are we in? It is an era where loyalty is obsolete. Employers can lay off people at any time, and employees can jump ship any time. We no longer have a sense of home. Our mobility increases and our sense of community decreases. Our workspace often becomes the center of our social activities. Our friends are limited to those we work with. We have too many valued guests and not enough close friends. So we are basically isolated individuals.

All this is not just characteristic of western society. Chinese society, too, is heading in the same direction and this is especially true among Chinese professionals.

III. The era of lay believers

The goal of Christian evangelism is to win people, so the way we communicate the Gospel must be closely related to people's thinking processes and cultural backgrounds. Although the Christian message may remain unchanged for thousands of years, the language we speak and the communication tools we use must be adapted to any given historic time.

Today people who come to church seeking the Lord bring with them a multiplicity of cultural and social backgrounds as well as the specific needs of their own family or of their personal situations They expect a lot more from church than previous generations did. And their loyalty to the church is far weaker than that of the previous generation. They have high expectations of the pastors' preaching ability and of the content of their sermons, but they also have high expectations in regard to the quality of other church ministries including child care, family counseling, Sunday school, senior citizens, young couple counseling, services for new migrants, teenagers and so on. In general, they expect the church to offer all these services in a thoroughly professional way.

On the other hand, they are not interested in doctrines, directions and rituals. All they care about is how they themselves may participate in church life in practical and meaningful ways and how they may achieve personal growth.

In a church of a few hundred people, it is difficult to fulfill these expectations by relying solely on the pastor and other religious leaders. The demands in terms of quality, choice and special services may verge on the absurd, requiring pastors to be at the same time skilful leaders, outstanding communicators, top-notch organizers able to initiate church reforms without causing any offence to church members, effective evangelists, loving shepherds, well-trained counselors, model Christians with model Christian families, great teachers, and experts at mobilizing church members.

Therefore, unless we are talking about a large church which can offer a wide range of professional services, all these responsibilities must fall on the shoulders of the leaders of lay believers.

These leaders of lay believers have no flashy titles. They do not run meetings and they do not preach. But they are the main forces for mobilizing, training, serving the church community and promoting church growth. It is unhealthy for lay believers to simply look to a couple of pastors. With their range of skills, professional training and their love of both God and man, lay believers can be even more effective than a small group of pastors. It is a big challenge for us to develop and utilize these resources.

Secondly, based on the current needs of the general public, traditional ways of attracting people to church have become ineffective. If the church is to be a lighthouse to society, then these lay believers are the only ones capable of distributing the light both in their work-places and to the community as a whole.

The stories and testimonies of these lay believers are powerful in their impact. These are real people just like any one of us. Once I saw a moving scene on TV: right after a football game, the Christian players from both teams gathered together to pray. What a mighty impact it made!

For me one of the most impressive lay believers was Dr. Ben Carson, head neurologist of the Medical Center at John Hopkins University. He had high professional achievements, but what impressed me the most was his minority background. From childhood he had been under his mother's strong Christian influence. He grew up into a man of faith and it was this faith which helped him overcome many obstacles in his life. Furthermore, while leading a busy professional life in an intensely competitive environment, he did not abrogate his own family responsibilities. He was also a social activist, who often encouraged African American teenagers to excel. This is a true example of a lay believer. After all, our battlefield is not limited to the four walls of the church building.

Some other lay believers come together to serve society. They support pre-evangelism and para-church organizations like Overseas Campus, student evangelism, Chinese Christian Internet Mission, Loving Home Association and so on. Their purpose is to reach the general public, so often unreached by traditional church activities. Without the direct involvement of non-pastoral personnel it is extremely difficult to reach the general public.

Most of the people around us have no opportunity to hear the Christian message, nor do they have any interest in doing so. To them, the Christian message is like words from outer space. There is obviously a great gulf between us and the main stream of society. If we fail to bridge that gap, then over time the Christian message will become totally irrelevant to them. And the responsibility for bridging this gap belongs largely to lay believers. This task is at least as important as any short-term mission requiring lay believers to fly to the other side of the world. To a certain extent, the work around us demands more creativity and more courage.

IV. Determine the new vision

Following World War II, the number of believers or religion-oriented people has been increasing, especially in the United States. At the same time, however, religious practice seems to have lost its value. This was the conclusion of a public survey a few years ago: we are in an era where the salt has lost its savour.

John Stott, the renowned British evangelist, once said, "Vision means total dissatisfaction with the current situation, along with a clear perception of things yet to be accomplished."

During the Middle Ages, institutional Catholic churches monopolized the Christian religion and the truth turned dark and murky. Martin Luther, with his vision that the righteous live by faith, courageously brought about a major reform in society and culture. Today, too, we are at a moment of crisis when Christianity is being seen as irrelevant. Christians, therefore, also need a vision by which they can break through the bottleneck to influence our era.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. 20:4)

May our eyes also see the glory of God descending on us! And hats off to those who do not worship the beast and who refuse to receive his mark!

May we take pride in being citizens of Heaven, and may we feel excited at being living testimonies for Jesus Christ! May we act like Moses, who regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt. (Heb. 11:26)

May our pastors set up goals which do not aim at mere quantitative church growth, but rather will focus more on training lay leaders who will dare to make a difference. I long that our churches will provide training opportunities for those who will train others.

May lay believers not care so much about titles at church but rather live out the life of Jesus Christ. In this age of lawlessness may we demonstrate personal integrity. In this era of personal ambition and self-achievement may we practice the selfless love of Jesus in our daily lives. We cannot all become Dr. Carsons, but remember that Christ bought every one of us at a high price. May our love "for no reason" spread through our whole society like an epidemic!

May we stay close to society. Let us love life and value our contributions. May we take the initiative in discovering our talents and utilize them to serve other people. In this era of selfishness, may our inner peace and joy influence and surprise other people.

May all of us realize that when Christ called on us to follow him, he didn't ask us to buy an admission ticket to a religious club. Instead, he called us to leave our comfort zones or little fortresses, so that we can make a difference. He called us to influence other people; to be agents of transformation.

May all of us have a strong sense of mission so that we know we can make a difference in the world. When God allowed the churches in Jerusalem to be persecuted, it was probably because the church members had been too conservative about reaching out. (Acts Ch. 8)

Our mission is not to convince people to come to church. Our mission is to transform lives, and this responsibility belongs not only to pastors but also to lay believers. We speak the same language as other people, and we are probably the only hope for our neighbors who are seeking the truth. If we do not do it, then even we may degenerate into becoming "irrelevant".

The Promise Keeper's Movement sets us a fine example. The Movement calls men who are workaholics and who ignore their family duty to repent. It encourages them to take the leadership role in their Christian family life. It also promotes mutual encouragement among them by establishing accountability groups.

We need more communication channels. We have seen the efforts of Dr. James Dobson and his Focus on the Family organization. We have seen the efforts of some anti-abortion organizations. Christians enjoy a very positive image when it comes to caring for their neighbors. But we need to take advantage of other channels for spreading the positive message of new hope:

We can provide new opportunities for teenagers according to their needs.

We can promote mutual services among engineers.

We can extend a helping hand to single-parent families; we can adopt less fortunate kids and help them to see that life can be full of hope.

We can conduct academic or ideological seminars, in which the modern crises of values can be discussed or opened up.

In short, Christians need a new vision to guide them into following Christ's example. God wants us to work far beyond the walls of the churches. He wants us to go back to where we came from to reach the lost generation; to become lighthouses in dark places. This is the mission which is to be carried forward by lay believers. Maybe some of us have to deal with such heavy workloads that a sense of mission seems out of the question. May all of us realize that a strong sense of mission is actually the reason why God has called people to follow him. It is this which is the true meaning of the Great Commission.

The author earned a Ph.D. from the math department at University of Illinois. Now he works on computer system research in the Silicon Valley.