Truly valuing everyday people
/When everyday people find it difficult to feel comfortable in our Reformed evangelical churches, it’s often because they feel ‘second-class’ – judged or looked down on as inferior by university-educated professionals.
In short, they don’t feel valued … and we need to fix this.
We must value everyday people, and their gifts, as God intended.
We must demonstrate that the pride and prejudices held in our world are not held in the church.
As Christians, we believe that all people are created in God’s image, equally valuable and precious to God, with different gifts and abilities for the strengthening and building of his church.
But are these beliefs reflected in our practices?
What if we are overlooking the gifts and potential contributions of everyday people because we’re falling for a lie that our ‘professional’ ways are superior?
Checking ourselves, valuing others
If we university-educated Christians are going to value everyday people, we may need to have a good hard look at our prejudices, repent of them and of our pride, and remember that our standing before God is not based on our righteousness but Christ’s.
Then we may see the extremely valuable gifts and contributions that everyday people bring to our churches.
Let me say, before I go on, that I know I’m in generalisation territory here. Not everything that follows will apply to all everyday people; likewise, some university-educated people may say, ‘Wait – I have some of those great qualities, too – they’re not limited to everyday people!’
Nevertheless, I offer these as some things that our churches might seek to value more highly in our everyday members.
Everyday people are often doers
In Revelation 2, the church in Ephesus is commended for its zeal for sound doctrine but rebuked for lacking love. I wonder if Christ’s assessment of many Reformed evangelical churches would be the same.
We have many members who are zealous for sound doctrine but aren’t so good at showing active, practical love.
One of the great blessings that everyday people bring to churches is their tendency to be doers. Often due to the nature of their work (e.g. trades and other practical jobs), many love to work hard with their hands and show practical love and service to their community.
When our everyday brothers and sisters excel at good works like these, they can spur on university-educated Christians who love to think about biblical truths but may not be in the habit of putting thought into practical action.
Everyday people tend to be good at practical application
The practical nature of many everyday people also helps them to apply God’s Word in concrete ways.
Isn’t it true that in many Reformed evangelical churches, we are good at thinking about ideas but can struggle to apply biblical truths to our everyday lives?
Our practical everyday brothers and sisters can sometimes find this much easier. They can help us to see the implications of God’s Word for how we live.
Everyday people can be more relational and community-focused
Many everyday people are much more relationally oriented and community-focused than university-educated people, who tend to be more individualistic.
When I was involved with a local dog training club, largely made up of everyday people, I saw evidence of this. A member’s mother died, and nearly everyone in the club went to the funeral to support this grieving lady – even though most of us didn’t know her mum.
Would we admit that many Reformed evangelical churches are relationally weak? We may not even realise it, being satisfied that church community is the 20 minutes we hang around chatting after the service on Sunday and the few hours we spend at home group each week.
But many everyday people are in and out of each other’s lives regularly. And as a result, everyday people can help build community and strengthen relationships in our churches.
Everyday people are often honest and real
If university-educated people are in the habit of building their identities on individual success and looking like they’ve ‘got everything together’, they may not be able to be open and honest about life and its struggles.
Everyday people – especially those who are free from the pressure of succeeding or conforming to other university-educated, professional cultural values – can often be more honest. They can be real.
They might be known for being more likely to ‘call a spade a spade’ or be ‘a straight shooter’.
And Christians need more of this!
‘Keeping up appearances’ hinders the sort of honesty needed to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so that we might be healed (James 5:16).
But open, direct, everyday people – those with a talent for straight-talking honesty – can help bring greater vulnerability to our church community, which, in turn, can help us keep each other accountable for sin and encourage one other on to greater godliness.
Everyday people can be passionate
Reformed evangelical churches have a reputation for not being very good at expressing emotion – in worship, in song, or in life in general.
We worship an awesome God who is more powerful than we can conceive and more generous than we can imagine, and yet we often struggle to express the appropriate wonder, gratitude and awe in response to him.
But if our everyday brothers and sisters, who have not been conditioned to behave in quite such a ‘buttoned-down’ way, can show us another way, then we may learn to express the passionate emotions appropriate for our relationship with God.
Everyday people can help detect cultural blind spots
University-educated Christians can have cultural blind spots. They need someone from outside their culture to point these out and help them apply God’s Word to their cultural sin.
Everyday people are very sensitive to any words or actions that suggest that university-educated professionals think they are inferior or second-class. If they don’t feel valued in our churches, they can become cynical, untrusting and bitter.
But what if, instead of failing to value them, we asked them what they thought? What if they were able to gently show us what we could change in order to bridge class divisions and reach all people with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ?
Our churches need everyday brothers and sisters if they are to become all that God intends his church to be.
And some of these brothers and sisters also need to be leaders.
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™