Preaching the Kingdom
What exactly should we even believe about the Kingdom of God, and to whom should we preach what? Many of the parables recorded in Matthew through Luke are introduced with a phrase identifying them as teachings about the Kingdom. Unbelievers who are taught only that Jesus is a Savior who paid for their sins will fit nicely into a system of religion dominated by a clergy caste. The clergy do the holy work in the holy building on the holy day and are the people with responsibility and authority.
When the story they are told is, instead, that Jesus is a King Who died to give them life so that they can be effective, purposeful citizens of His eternal Kingdom, they must ask Him what their purposes are when they become reborn. They have responsibility that must be discovered and taken up. “Laity” is a transliteration of a foreign word that means “the people.” If we preach responsibility belongs to every citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, suddenly laity (the lower life under the clergy caste) would have to be called lazity if it continued to exist.
Children who become believers immediately become servants. They want to help everybody do everything. Adults who become believers may take on a servant mentality for a short time and may not. It seems to depend on their pride or fear being more dominant than their love for the newly received Savior. Either being too afraid to ask what they should be doing with regard to their new identities or being too proud to be servants. Children are always being told what to do by everyone, so the barriers to taking on responsibility are not quite so large.
When we try to teach new adult believers that they must serve the church, their commitment level is usually only what it would be in any other social or service oriented club, such as Rotary or Optimists. Their work-related devotion seems to have little connection to Jesus, but much connection to church programs. No spiritual gift is required, no education is necessarily needed, unless the initiate senses “a call to the ministry.” In this case, extensive education is of course required as preparation and qualification for “clergy” status.
As Paul wrote to the congregations in Ephesus, we were not saved by works, lest anyone should boast, but we were saved for works, and they have been laid out before us to walk in them. All of us (Ephesians 2:8-10). This entire concept should be presented to unbelievers and repeated to new believers until they have entered into the Kingdom. By failing to teach them to enter in, we have been depriving them of being able to inherit.