The Difference Between Mandated and Non-Mandated Church Ministries and Why You Should Care

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Here’s a question: what church ministries are specifically commanded in the Word of God? A quick perusal of the New Testament reveals a relatively short list of mandated church ministries:

• Preaching the Word
• Evangelism
• Discipleship
• Worship
• Administering the ordinances of baptism and communion
• Ministry to widows and “the weak” in the church and community

Now here’s a second question: what common church ministries and activities today are not specifically mandated by Scripture? Here’s a list of some of these:

• Acquisition and maintenance of Church buildings
• Nursery
• Youth group
• Sunday School
• Church bulletins
• Choirs

I could list many more of these non-mandated ministries. But at this point, I want to stress that just because these latter ministries are not specifically mentioned in Scripture, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong and we should stop doing them. Praise the Lord for nursery workers, youth group leaders and all the other volunteers in these ministries! They do amazing work.

But I want you to notice something. These two lists reveal a huge shift in resources away from the needs of the elderly and weak, as the early church stressed, to the needs of children and youth, church programs, staff support, and land and building acquisition and maintenance, as our modern church now does. And while the modern church spends much on missions and even on community benevolence, it spends almost nothing on the needy in its own congregation! And yet meeting the needs of its own was viewed as a sine qua non by the early church. Just a cursory reading of Acts and the epistles makes this emphasis on widows and the weak within the church very clear.

So here’s my point. We would be shocked if the pastor of any church announced that he was going to omit preaching from the service, or that he would he would no longer be doing baptisms. But we think nothing of the church ignoring its own widows!

So please, if you haven’t already, make a list of the widows and others who may be in need in your church. Then start praying about how to address the needs of these dear saints in a practical way with a view to taking specific, concrete action. If you need help, check out this website for ideas. Meeting the needs of their widowed and single parents in your church really isn’t all that difficult. And God will bless you and your church for being obedient to His Word.

How successful has your church been in meeting the needs of their widowed and single parents in your congregation?

This post originally appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

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