Who Owns This Class, Anyway?

If they would get us a better room...

If they would just be more faithful...

If they would just all show up on the same Sunday...

If they would just get me more prospects...

If they were better organized...

It is easier to make excuses than it is to make things happen.

If this literature were...

If the pastor. . .

If the. . .

If. . .

It is easier to make excuses than it is to make things happen. But, it is infinitely more fun to make things happen. It is fun being a spectator; infinitely more fun being a player.

They don’t erect statues to people who make articulate erudite excuses. But there are statues all over this world erected to people who made things happen. God will pass out the rewards to the ones who make things happen. Ephesians 6:8 states “Because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does.”

Our reward in heaven will not be based on how well we blamed others for not getting things done. It won’t be based on faith or grace. Salvation is about faith and grace. Rewards are about what we do. Jesus explains, “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:27)

What I want to impress on you in this chapter is very simple: God is going to hold us responsible for getting done what He would have us get done. 

If you need a better room, the monkey is on your back to work within the system to get a better room. In all likelihood, you can get you a better room if you ask. Your pastoral team is there to make you successful in your ministry. They probably want to help you be successful. But, let us never get confused about where the responsibility lies.

Your class is your baby. If it is your baby, you have to feed it. We believe in the autonomy of the local small group. You are responsible for the health and growth of your group. Pastors are there to make you successful in your ministry.

Now, with responsibility goes authority. If you are responsible, you get to make the decisions. You get to decide on the specifics of the goals and organization. I am going to outline a plan in this book that will work. Feel free to adapt the plan in any way that works with your group. You get to make the decisions in your group.

I encourage teachers to select their own literature if they choose. I have my preference, but it is their preference that matters. I have found that teachers are far more motivated to teach what they want to teach than they are to teach what I want them to teach. In addition, each group can choose its target audience. They can invite whoever they want. I encourage free, open, competition for visitors. First come, first serve. People have argued with me about this. “They shouldn’t be inviting them, they are our prospects.” Then invite them; two invitations won’t hurt. Let the individual decide where to attend after two friendly invitations. This is far better than no invitations at all. Anyone can invite anyone to come to their class. If the High School students want to invite little old ladies, they can invite little old ladies.

I have been asked, “What if visitors get calls from more than one class inviting them to join?”

 Friend, that is not our problem. Our problem is that visitors by the bushel basket are being ignored and neglected.

How far do we press this idea of giving ownership of the class to the teacher and the class? What if a teacher teaches something that is not biblical? What if the teacher begins presenting the Book of Mormon as truth? That is the time we will don the mantle of the Bishop, walk down the hall and say, “Not in our church. Not in our name.” I ask teachers to let me know what they teach. Word gets around. If I did not think it was Biblical, I would ask them to teach something else. But honestly, it has not happened. I have not found people nearly as fascinated by heresy as we might think. God’s plan of giving ownership of the ministry to non-professionals people is a good one.

         Some worry about the church getting out of control. I agree with Roland Allen:

If we cannot control it, we ought to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great, not because it is too small for us. Therein lies the vast hope. Spontaneous expansion could fill the continents with the knowledge of Christ: our control cannot reach as far as that. We constantly bewail our limitations: open doors unentered; doors closed to us as foreign missionaries; fields white to the harvest which we cannot reap. Spontaneous expansion could enter open doors, force closed ones, and reap those white fields. Our control cannot: it can only appeal pitifully for more men to maintain control.

         I too long for a movement of God that is out of control.