God's Empowered People

Description: Professional ministers and their work as church leaders have dominated church and pastoral ministry studies. Lay ministry studies have been neglected. In the local church, lay ministries are often defined solely by their voluntary service in the local church, and even then are regarded as secondary to the work of the professional minister(s) leading the local church. This study proposes that the word ""minister"" should be applied to all believers and that professional ministers and their ministries should serve the larger group doing ministry: the laity. Lay ministry should not be understood only as that service done in the local church, but should be understood as a call received and obeyed by the laity to ""do the work of ministry"" in their work places and their neighborhoods, as well as their local churches. Following Amos Yong's theology of disability and the formation of the L'Arche communities found throughout the world, this God's Empowered People will show how the local church can welcome all in Christ's name into a community of the Spirit in which people are loved and respected for who they are. From such a welcoming, loving, and respectful community can come people of varying abilities who discover their special gifts of ministry, then take their gifts into the work world, market place, and neighborhoods to ""do the work of ministry"" in Christ's name. They will be able to go places and do things no professional minister could go or do, yet still need the professional minister to help prepare them to ""do the work of ministry."" Thus, professional and lay ministries are not competitive but complementary. In such a community of professional and lay ministries operating cooperatively, all have the opportunity to express wisely their gifts in their arenas of calling and influence. Endorsements: ""Offering a fresh and creative way for organizing Pentecostal churches and for understanding the Spirit's mission, Steven Fettke's seminal piece on a theology of the laity contributes beneficial insights not only for the Pentecostal churches but for others across the ecumenical spectrum. The chapter on enabling the disabled is worth the price of the book alone."" --Robby Waddell Associate Professor of New Testament Southeastern University ""Anglican Charismatic David Watson once remarked that the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have the greatest potential for realizing Luther's vision of the priesthood of all believers. In God's Empowered People, Steven Fettke contends that the laity is vital in the development of healthy churches. Empowering the laity to work in the ministries of the church offers opportunity for the community of faith to fulfill its mission in offering love, life, and hope to the world."" --Peter Althouse Associate Professor of Theology Southeastern University ""The passion that is the hallmark of Pentecostal spirituality comes through palpably in this book: a passion for the church, for bridging the academy and the pew, for people with disabilities and for their place among the people of God, for local pastors and their congregations, and, most importantly, for American laypeople across the spectrum and for all that they might achieve by the Spirit of God. Beware: laywomen and men who pick up this accessible book will surely catch the fire of Fettke's contagious fervor! And good thing too since the world is surely ready for the ministry of God's empowered people."" --Amos Yong Rodman Williams Professor of Theology Regent University School of Divinity About the Contributor(s): Steven M. Fettke is Professor of Religion at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He is the author of Messages to a Nation in Crisis: An Introduction to t