The church has developed in its structure over the years. It began, in the book of Acts with the leadership being the 12 apostles. Then there began to be pastors of individual churches. Later, we see deacons, teachers, etc.
What is not widely understood, I believe, is that the biblical model of organization is that every Christian is to be involved in the work of the ministry. The pastor, who is a servant/leader, has the responsibility of equipping the congregation, so that they develop in their ability to carry out this work. It is actually “multi-level marketing” in its original form. Amway and some of the other modern-day organizations didn’t come up with multi-level marketing, God did. This is exactly what we see in Matthew 28:19-20, known as The Great Commission.
In a previous article, we said that churches fail to grow because of leadership and/or followship problems. One of the major leadership problems is the failure to develop the congregation to be involved in meaningful ministry. Another leadership problem is the failure to take notice of what is not working and stopping it. There are some programs that churches keep on doing long after they should have been taken off the respirator.
