Missional Worker FAQs

Missional Worker Frequently Asked Questions

1) Are we creating a new “office” for the Missional Worker? To create an entirely new category of worker may cause confusion regarding our current list of ordained and commissioned ministers.

A Missional Worker is not a new ministry “office.” A missional worker is a Christian servant—a lay person—who is being trained and sent into service by a pastor. The goal is to allow lay people to be equipped and sent to their “harvest fields” in order to bring the Good News of Jesus there. This is equivalent to training a small group leader to facilitate a small group study or equipping a lay-leader for visiting people in the hospital.

2) Missional Workers will be sent into new “ministries.” Our confessions speak of Ministry in the context of Word and Sacrament (i.e. Congregations). Is this training meant to be another pathway to ordination? What do you mean by new “ministries”?

The term “ministry” is used in reference to an opportunity to serve (parallel to the Greek word “diakonia”). Of course, under the direction of a pastor, if a group of people gathers steam and develops into a church plant, then the faithful steps would be taken toward a Word and Sacrament ministry.

3) Why is it necessary to train these folks to lead people in prayer, study, serving and worship? Is this a substitute for what our confessions reference when they discuss being “rightly called”?

These folks would be trained to understand and communicate sound Biblical truth, to pray for and with people, to grow in listening skills, and to live lives of godly integrity. It’s the discipleship of lay people to be salt and light in the world—-not apart from the church, but as the body of Christ. Missional Worker Training is not an attempt to subvert the office of the ministry or to ignore the rite vocatus principle rooted in the Scriptures. This is an effort to increase the active outreach work of God’s people as the church, leading more people to rejoice in Word and Sacrament in the Biblical structure of Church and Ministry we hold to.