Are you on God's A team or B team?

I remember a conversation with my son Jon when he was very young. We were driving in the car (where all important conversations take place) and he waxed eloquent on how important his mom was because she was a nurse who saved lives. I asked him when he was done, "and what does your dad do?" He replied quickly, "Oh you're just an ordinary worker."

It is difficult for me to believe after two thousand years of reflection on the gospels and New Testament that there remains in the minds of many that there is an A team in God's Kingdom and a B team. The A team - those who are truly qualified to do ministry are those with seminary education and who work full time in ministry (like pastors and missionaries). The B team is everyone else who can "help" and "use their gifts" but are not really critical to God's work because they are....well....B team.

This is a grand lie of Satan (effectively designed to keep the majority of God's people from significant ministry) and the result of arrogance of ministry professionals who don't fight this paradigm with everything they have. Professional ministry is one of the dysfunctions of the church where we see our job as primarily to do ministry rather than primarily to equip the members of the body to do ministry (Ephesians 4:12). 

God has only one team - His A team and each of us decides whether we want to play on it or sit on the sidelines.