John Chandler has a post up with some David Bosch quotes and discussion regarding the importance of regular church attenders (as opposed the role of paid staff) to accomplishing the mission of God. Its a great post and you should go read it.
here is the first Bosch quote:
A missionary encounter with the West will have to be, primarily, a ministry of the laity.
Now, agree or disagree? why or why not? if you agree, then is this how your church fellowship operates? or do you believe this to be true, but attend a church where the staff does most of the work and engages lay people to volunteer to run ministries that the staff thought up?
If you agree, what are some reasons why the staff driven model won’t engage the Western culture we live in?
If you agree, what do we do to get lay people actually engaged in mission rather than sitting around talking about being engaged at some point in the future when we are “trained” or when we are “ready?”
seriously. After wrestling with this problem pretty intensely for over five years, I would really like someone to tell me an answer, an approach, something to try, anything.