The book of Acts and church history (including Southern Baptist history) are filled with stories of lay people accomplishing the Great Commission through the multiplication of churches.   Truly God desires for all peoples to clearly hear of His Son’s great sacrifice and Good News.  For this to happen, it requires the encouragement, equipping and engagement of the laity.  Lay people desire to be used by God.  This desire takes more than just stoking that inspiration in their hearts, it takes calling and coaching them for the work.  The Proverbs tell us “Enthusiasm without knowledge is not good; impatience will get you into trouble” (Proverbs 19:2 TEV).   This vision is a real challenge to both pastors and lay people, but it is exactly what heaven and those of us on earth want to see happen.

Paul did the work of evangelizing and setting up for new churches to be planted.  He engaged lay people in this work.  His school of Tyrannus is an example of this, but also his personal mentoring and taking people along with him in his missionary endeavors.  As a lay person, Philip, one of the early deacon-type workers in the early church, communicated the Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch—and eventually a church was established in Ethiopia.  Irenaeus reports the Ethiopian eunuch became a missionary among his people. ¹  This fulfills Psalm 68:31, “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”   What Scriptural promises can strengthen and encourage us today for this task?

The testimony of nineteenth century European Baptist church history is one of lay people spreading the Gospel and planting churches.   A large portion of this work was laid through the inspiration of a man named J. G. Oncken (1800-1884).  He traveled throughout Europe evangelizing and congregationalizing people—and training lay persons to be leaders for these churches.  They were then led to go out into nearby areas to replicate the same work.  His motto was “Every Baptist a missionary.” ²  Through training his members in evangelism and leadership skills, Charles Spurgeon accomplished the planting of 200 churches in and around London during his pastorate at Metropolitan Tabernacle.  Instruction was provided on Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons to the members.  Those wanting additional training enrolled in the Pastor’s College.  Two ministry arms of the church, the Evangelist’s Association and the Tabernacle County Mission, provided members practical experience and were instrumental in the planting of many of those 200 churches.  Spurgeon stated in his history of the Tabernacle “as our church recognises no distinction of clergy and laity.” ³   He believed lay people were just as called by God to serve Christ as any pastor.

Donald McGavran, known as the father of the modern church growth movement, understood the value and calling of God upon lay people.  In Understanding Church Growth he wrote, "Develop unpaid lay leaders.  Laymen have played a great part in urban expansions of the church.  One secret of growth in the cites of Latin America has been that, from the beginning, unpaid common men led the congregations, which therefore appeared to the masses to be truly Chilean or Brazilian affairs.  In any land, when laborers, mechanics, clerks, or truck drivers teach the Bible, lead in prayer, tell what God has done for them, or exhort the brethren, the Christian religion looks and sounds natural to ordinary men.  Whatever unpaid laymen, earning their living as others do, subject to the same hazards and bound by the same work schedules, lack in correctness of Bible teaching or beauty of prayers, they more than make up for by their intimate contact with their own people.  No paid worker from the outside and certainly no missionary from abroad can know as much about a neighborhood as someone who has dozens of relatives and intimates all about him." ⁴

Every pastor and every church have been given the gifts and calling of God to multiply disciples and churches.  This is an exciting and challenging objective, but Scripture instructs it and church history documents it. Therefore it remains for you and I to believe God and prove it (Romans 12:1-2).