Bureaucracy is reality. That seems to be the creed of modem society. Nothing is real unless there is a study, a budget, a staff, lots of meetings, rafts of reports ... and this process must be perpetual. Does a child show up for school hungry? Then we need a school breakfast program and an agency to administer it. Does someone get hurt in an automobile accident? Then we need to mandate air bags in every car and establish an agency to enforce this decree.

Now a neighbor or church could take note of the hungry child and see to his need. But then "society" would not have responded. People could choose to wear their seat belts and protect themselves, but that is not considered a real solution. Solutions are only real if a program is devised and some ongoing structure is created in response to the perceived need. Such is the perspective of modern, industrial, big-government society.

Such, too, seems to be the viewpoint of the modem church. We have before observed in these pages that the church today is more akin to a fast-food franchise than the New Testament body of Christ. Form without substance. Activity without relationships. Programs without real, spiritual ministry. The church seems caught in the same bureaucracy- is-reality trap that afflicts big government and mega-business. The assumption seems to be that God's work is being done as long as there is a program, a committee, a meeting, a fund-raiser, an event, a report. Now these things may indeed be expressions of a genuine work of God's Spirit among His people, but too often the program is accepted as being itself the work of God.

While still in my former denomination I attended countless meetings over the years that had as their major purpose the maintenance of the bureaucracy of the denomination. The cause of Christ may not have been advanced an inch, but somehow we convinced ourselves that the reading of the minutes, the debates about points of order, the recitation of proposed changes in the governing documents, the establishment of commissions and committees and the endless reports of such - that somehow this was the work of the church of Jesus Christ.

My experience was similar as a pastor in a local church. Most of my work consisted of maintaining the motion of the gears in the machine: recruiting Sunday School teachers and nursery directors, manning the phone banks for the telemarketing program, meeting with ministry committees and ministry leaders, meeting to train members in "evangelism" and visiting homes to practice our presentation skills on unsuspecting "prospects,' meeting to plan leaders' retreats so we could plan more activities to keep everyone busy, searching the community for building sites so we could go into debt to build a building we couldn't afford so that we would have a place in which we could conduct more activities. What, I ask you does all this have to do with the body of Christ we see in the New Testament?

The church has succumbed to the notion that mere motion is progress. That activity is real life. That the existence of "programs" proves the vitality of the church. We have come to believe that the presence of the husk assures the presence of the vital core. But the shell may be empty, and it too often is. Amidst all the activities of modem churches are people who are not even born again, Christians who are not growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus, believers who continue in sin without challenge and accountability, lonely people who do not have any loving relationships, gifted people who have no ministry.

On the foundation of Jesus Christ the contemporary church is attempting to build buildings and programs instead of people, living stones fitted together on the Living Stone (I Pet. 2:4,5).

What is "Ministry"?

Perhaps parents could be discipled with a view to training their own children, as Scripture says they should (Gen. 18:19; Eph. 6:4). Perhaps each man could come to the worship service prepared with a song to suggest for congregational singing (I Cor. 14:26; Eph. 5:19). Perhaps the person who needs a ride to the church meeting could catch a ride with another family and then have dinner with them afterwards (Acts 2:46).

But then we don't need the professional "Ministers" and we don't need committees, and we may even conclude that we don't need a building. The modem church's inability to conceive of itself apart from buildings, professional workers, and programmed responses to needs is a measure of how far we have fallen from a biblical conception of ministry.

Ministry is people meeting the needs of other people. Christian ministry is Christians meeting the needs of other people in the name of Christ and by the grace of His Spirit. And the most effective ministry is that which is energized not by institutional necessity but by the impulses of love and a desire to serve the Lord by serving others.

When you define ministry in this way you come to realize that ministry occurs best not in the rigid structure of a bureaucracy but in the loose structure of ... well, a family. Yes, and that's actually what the church is according to the New Testament (I Tim. 3:15; 5;1,2). The church is patterned on the family, not on a business or a government agency. And this suggests that to learn about ministry we must take a look at the family itself, that humble collection of individuals bound by the bonds of love and blood. It is here that we learn what ministry truly is, and we come to discover a boundless potential for Christian ministry in the world.

The Family as a Ministry Center God has designed the family as the primary arena for carrying on the most important functions of people in this life. The home is the center of worship as fathers gather their families daily to pray, sing praises, and read God's Word. The home is the primary institution for education as fathers and their wifely helpers train their children for a life of service to God through spiritual, academic, and life skills preparation. The home is the base of economy (or was meant to be) as families work together to produce the necessities of life and trade their excess for that which they cannot produce. The home is the center of health care and welfare as families care for the sick and economically dependent among their number.

The family is also the center of ministry. We are not used to thinking in these terms because of our misconceptions about ministry, but it is true. Think about it. If ministry is simply meeting the needs of people, then more ministry, and more effective ministry, occurs at home than anywhere else in life - at least that is God's design when the home is healthy. The children are in need of instruction and the parents respond with the ministry of teaching. The dishes need to be washed and one of the family members responds with the ministry of dish washing. Little sister needs her hair brushed and fixed in the morning and older sister responds with the ministry of hair preparation. Grandma is unable to live by herself and the family responds with a wide-ranging ministry of hospitality, healthcare, food preparation, and loving touches (and receives such in return!). And the list goes on and on and on. Good home life is defined by the quality of the ministry that occurs there.

This home-based ministry is constant, need-driven, personal, focused, and therefore very effective. There is nothing bureaucratic about it, though it may well be regulated by some structure for the sake of efficiency (the children's "chore chart" comes to mind). Nothing is done just for the sake of keeping busy. There are no committees or meetings. There are no professionals on staff to do the dishes, brush the hair, read the stories, or give the hugs.

There is a building, the house, because the family lives there day and night, day in and day out. This is one ministry "institution" that requires a building. When you think about it, the family has a day-to-day "institutional" manifestation in the community; the church does not (at least the one in the New Testament). That's why, among other reasons, the church in the Bible met in homes. There was no church building to serve as a focus of church life. Later when the church adopted the building-centered model for its corporate life it exchanged a family-based definition of ministry for an organizational one. We need to get back to the family model of ministry.

In the New Testament the church is simply the individuals and families that make it up. "The church at Corinth" was that collection of people who met together at the house of Stephanas or Aquila or whoever and who perhaps gathered in a larger public place when Paul was in town to address the whole group. What the believers did through the week was by definition what the church did. They ministered as they went about their normal life in the community and in their homes. As families carried on ministry in their daily life, the church was ministering because the church is the families that make it up.

The modem definition of the church leads us to assume that no real church ministry can be done at home or from the home. The biblical definition leads us to the opposite conclusion. In fact, the best church ministry is that which is done by its families from their homes.

Think about the key ministries that God calls the church to do (we are not addressing the myriad other activities that churches have come to do). What about evangelism, discipleship, teaching, care for the needy? Can these church ministries be done effectively at home? The answer is that they can be done most effectively out of the home. Let's consider some of the key areas of family ministry that are simultaneously church ministry because they are ways that the church is serving Christ in the world.

Evangelism Can evangelism be done at home? Most Christians have a hard time picturing that because to them evangelism is an activity that by definition is programmed: gather on Tuesday nights for visitation evangelism, or have a bake sale to raise money for the missionary evangelist. But the most effective and fruitful evangelism is home-based.

Surely the most fertile mission field of any household is the children who inhabit it, and yet how often those children are overlooked by parents who are busy with church "ministry" or even evangelistic activities outside of the home. No parents should even think about any other ministries unless they are adequately evangelizing and training their own children.

But the evangelistic potential of the home does not end with the children. In any (extended) family there are some unsaved loved ones who ought to be the object of prayer and conscious evangelistic activity. This does not mean just sharing the words of the gospel; it also includes all those brief testimonies about God's goodness, all those acts of service which can open the heart of another. The same kind of attention ought to be directed to neighbors, friends, co-workers, and any others in the circle of family acquaintance who need to know the Savior.

Each individual, each family, has a unique network of relationships that constitutes the "mission field" of that person or family. The most effective and natural way to win these people is by loving them, serving them, praying for them, and sharing testimonies and words of truth with them. No programmed "church evangelism program" can be as effective since it usually involves contrived contacts and relationships. God normally works through natural human bonds.

Look at what Andrew did when he was introduced to the Messiah. He ran right out and found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus (John 1:41). Later when Jesus cast the legion of demons out of a man who then wanted to go on with Him, Jesus told him to "return home and tell how much God has done for you" (Lk. 8:39). The home is the natural starting point for evangelism and its most fertile field. And when individuals and families are evangelizing, the church is doing evangelism.

Discipleship and Teaching The ministry of discipleship is another that by its very nature is best accomplished at home. Again, the children of the family are the primary objects of ministry. The Lord tells fathers to train their children in His Word at home and on the road, from morning to night, so that the young ones are surrounded by the truth of God in all their ways (Deut. 6:6-9).

Discipleship is an activity that by its very nature is accomplished by means of a relationship over time. Jesus' disciples were chosen in order "that they might be with Him" (Mk. 3:14). They spent three and a half years "with Him," eating, sleeping, watching, listening. Discipleship is living with another until you learn his way of life. It includes teaching, modeling, and on-the-job training, but the essence of discipleship is a relationship.

The most effective discipleship and teaching is that done by families with those in their natural circle of relationships. It may be a one-on-one conversation with a younger believer recently won to Christ. It may be a small group Bible study for neighbors or coworkers. It may be a work project done with a "disciple" as an opportunity to observe his character traits and to model godly conduct for him.

The modem church's greatest failure is a failure to truly disciple those who make up the church. This is not surprising because the bureaucratic church model is counterproductive of the kind of relationships that are required for discipleship to take place. Classroom instruction is the method of choice for the building-centered church, and while that is a valid method as part of the process, it is not adequate by itself to make disciples.

Notice how Priscilla and Aquila exercised a very effective discipleship/teaching ministry in their home in Acts 18:26. Apollos, a very polished and erudite speaker, had come preaching an incomplete message about Christ. So this couple took him aside privately and "explained to him the way of God more accurately." In this instance an informal home encounter accomplished what the best schools of the day could not. Homes need once again to be centers of discipleship and instruction in the Christian life.

Care for the Needy "But if any one does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" (I Tim. 5:8). This verse clearly teaches the necessity of home-based welfare. However, in our day we tend to take for granted that welfare is the job of the civil government, but this is contrary to God's order and is nowhere authorized in Scripture. Welfare, caring for those who cannot care for themselves, is best performed in a context where the specific needs of the person can be determined by constant observation, where accountability can be enforced, and where love can readily accompany the care. The home obviously best meets those standards, although the church (through its families presumably) acts as a backup agency for this ministry of mercy if the family is not able to perform it (v. 16).

Families should once again embrace their duty of providing care for their needy members. It is a shame upon Christians that so many of their elderly languish in institutions because the younger generation does not want to bother with their care. A vast field of ministry lies open to those families who will reclaim their obligations. And once again, when families are ministering we will see the church ministering.

Hospitality No family ministry receives more emphasis in the New Testament than the ministry of hospitality. It is explicitly commanded more than once: "Be hospitable to one another without complaint" (I Pet. 4:9; cf. Rom. 12:13; Heb. 13:2). Its importance is underscored by the fact that hospitality is mentioned in both passages that list the qualifications for those who would be elder/overseers in the church (I Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:8). Further, examples of hospitality are everywhere in the Scriptures: consider Martha and Mary (Lk. 10:38), Lydia (Acts 16:15), the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:34), Publius (Acts 28:7), Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1: 16; 4:19), and others.

Hospitality is the context in which effective ministries of evangelism, discipleship, and care for the needy can occur. It is simply the opening of the home to include outsiders. Having a church meeting in the home is one way to exercise the ministry. So also is giving lodging to traveling Christians, especially those engaged in the teaching and shepherding ministries of the church. As the home is opened and outsiders are fed, clothed, and rested, the family is sharing itself with others and ministering in one of the most personal and fruitful ways possible.

A church as an institution cannot practice hospitality (shall we keep a rollaway bed in one of the Sunday school rooms?). Here is where the superiority of family based ministry becomes obvious. Real person-to-person, face-to-face, soul-to-soul ministry must be done in the informal context of normal daily life - and that means the life of the home and the activities and relationships that constitute the life of the family. Listen to how Alexander Strauch puts it in his marvelous little book, The Hospitality Commands (p. 17): "I don't think most Christians today understand how essential hospitality is to fanning the flames of love and strengthening the Christian family. Hospitality fleshes out love in a uniquely personal and sacrificial way. Through the ministry of hospitality, we share our most prized possessions. We share our family, home, finances, food, privacy, and time. Indeed, we share our very lives. So, hospitality is always costly. Through the ministry of hospitality, we provide friendship, acceptance, fellowship, refreshment, comfort, and love in one of the richest and deepest ways possible for humans to understand. Unless we open the doors of our homes to one another, the reality of the local church as a close-knit family of loving brothers and sisters is only a theory."

It would be a great stride toward biblical reformation if every church in our land would replace its building-with-programs model with a hospitality model of ministry. This would focus ministry where it can be most effective and would free church members to spend their time where they can do the most good for the gospel.

Not perfect, but headed in the right direction One of the criticisms hurled at those who have formed house churches on the church-as-family model is that they are too ingrown and neglect those ministries that impact the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now let us be quick to acknowledge our weakness when it comes to outreach, and let us admit that evangelism is not our strong suit. There is indeed a real temptation to be content with our own little comfortable circle of families, people just like us who are a delight to be around. We do need to hear the challenge to remember that the church is on this earth to make disciples of the nations, to spread the gospel of our Savior.

But let us not accept a false guilt that assumes the superiority of the traditional definitions of ministry. We may be weak when it comes to ministry, but the answer is not to revert to the sterile bureaucratic model. The answer is to develop more fully the family-based, relationship-focused, hospitality model of the New Testament. Let us not be drawn back to the facile assumption that mere activity is the same as genuine ministry.

No, the world is being lost in the presence of a church that has forgotten what it is: the people of God, the family of God. As long as the church tries to win the world and build the kingdom using methods borrowed from businesses, schools, and agencies, it will continue to flounder in its mission.

We need to return to the simplicity of the New Testament church, a church that sees itself as the family of God, a church that realizes that relationships are the channel of God's grace in this world, a church that concentrates on people.