The Lay Driven Church: How to Impower the People in Your Church to Share the Tasks of Ministry

by Melvin J. Steinbron

Laypeopole are not lazy, they just need purpose, motivation, and direction, says Melvin Steinbron. He tells church leaders how to make their ministry more effective by getting more of the congregation involved in the work of the church.

Genres: Christian

252 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Michael]

I tried. Really I did. He had some great points about freeing the congregation to do ministry, but he took it to an extreme that is not biblically warranted and really doesn't work out that great in practice. He took scriptures out of context to teach his view, and then overlooked the bad things that come from his view: loss of vision, lack of direction, power struggles, false teachings... Much like the way that a pastor doing everything doesn't work, a pastor guiding and directing nothing doesn't work either. The bible itself claims that different people have different roles. The small group model (not necessarily just home study groups, but smaller groups caring for one another as the church gets larger) is a good idea, but Steinbron takes it to an extreme that really is not a great idea. There are more efficient ways to get similar results. He tells this story about this woman who is forking out the chicken at a pot-luck type event, and she is absurdly rigid, and his point in this annoying story is that if someone has a gift just let them do it. Yes, you should, but people need help in finding their gifting first off, second there is a difference between a natural talent and a gift, and third if someone doesn't have the attitude of a servant they have no place serving. People gravitate to power and to bad attitudes, and pretending like that doesn't exist is ridiculous. You can tell this guy comes from a more legalistic background, and for him, he probably thought he was teaching freedom from the bonds of traditions. But he was actually over-compensating from his background influence. I just found things in this book to be a little annoying. In the absence of clarity, people come to their own conclusions.

Priesthood of all believers: yes. All believers are a pastor: no.
Everyone is equal: yes. Everyone has the same position: no.
A pastor should encourage, comfort, be there for, etc. someone: yes. Only a pastor can encourage, comfort, be there for, etc. someone: no.
He probably should have clarified some terms. When he described the "lay ministry" in one chapter as someone being there for someone else in a struggle, I thought "that's not pastoring, that's biblical community". Still, it is absolutely essential that pastors stop trying to do everything and start handing ministry off to others. Delegate, delegate, delegate! But lead as well.
Some things from multiple house churches doesn't translate exactly to one large centralized building.

[Jennifer Brown]

This was a great book as our church is looking to grow our lay ministry gave a lot of insightful information.

[Robert Conder]

The laity is important to the church.

[Brett Marko]

I had a hard time with this book. I had to read it for a class. Not sure I would recommend it to anyone to read. The one major premise that I believe Melvin Steinbron makes that I agree with centers around that everyone is called to minister and that there really is a priesthood of the believer although the author never uses that term. The focus solely on lay pastoring makes the book a bit disjointed because there are so many places where lay participation can make a difference. I have seen this kind of philosophy implemented at churches and the way Mr. Steinbron advocates his lay participation in the church seems to breed a kind of christian consumerism where people at the church ask what can the church do for them and what ministries can they partake. This stands in stark contrast from versus a true development of community. While the goal of having someone pastoring to every person is very admirable, the way the author advocates to implement this seems a bit centered on clergy controlling every aspect of the program. I will give kudos to Mr. Steinbron telling clergy they need to let go and let lay people engage however the model he advocates seems to breed consumer christianity.