It was the German theologian Kristoff Blumehardt who once said, “First a human being must become a Christian, then a Christian must become a human being.” That second step, he suggested, is often missing.
What did he mean? He wanted to capture the truth that when a person finds Christ, they are born again. They step into a new humanity. But it is not enough simply to say, “I am saved, I belong to Jesus.” The gospel calls us to more. It calls us not only to belong to Christ but to live fully as Christ’s people in the world.
Blumehardt was pointing to what we might call a second conversion. Not only do we become Christians, but we must become truly human in Christ—living faithfully, compassionately, and purposefully in everyday life.
This means being a Christian is not an escape from the world into the walls of the church. It is not about retreating into a private religious life. It is about carrying the gospel, with all its healing power, into the places where people actually live—the workplace, the classroom, the neighborhood, the marketplace, the kitchen, the street.
And yet, many people of faith still feel this is the pastor’s job, not theirs. They say, “That’s why we have clergy. That’s why we hire professionals. My life is already full—family, work, obligations. Surely God doesn’t expect me to be a minister too.”
But here is the question I want us to wrestle with this morning: what does the Bible say about the role of the laity? What does it mean to be God’s people, chosen and called in Christ?
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The Scriptural Foundation
I invite you to open with me to 1 Peter 2:1–10. This passage paints one of the clearest pictures of who we are in Christ:
> “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For in Scripture it says:
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and,
A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Here is the heart of it: You are a chosen people. You are a royal priesthood. You are God’s own possession, called to declare His wonderful works.
This is not said only to pastors. This is not reserved for missionaries or clergy. This is said to the whole church. Every believer. All of us together.
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Three Stories of Everyday Ministry
To make this practical, let me share three stories of how ordinary believers lived out this calling.
1. The Secretary
A businessman visited a Christian college one graduation day. He had one request. Bluntly he said, “I am here to hire a Christian secretary.”
He explained, “I don’t mind if she makes a typing mistake or two. I don’t mind if she isn’t the fastest at shorthand. But I am looking for a Christian secretary.”
Why? Over the years he had hired many secretaries. But the most recent one, a believer, had changed the entire atmosphere of his office. She didn’t preach sermons to him. She didn’t argue theology. But in her presence, he found himself unable to curse or swear the way he once did. Her quiet influence, her faithful work, her spirit of grace touched his life. Now that she was leaving, he wanted another secretary just like her.
That is laity in ministry. That is a royal priesthood at work in the marketplace.
2. The Farmer
Another story. A biochemist named Peter worked in a major city, earning a good salary with all the benefits of modern life. But eventually, he and his wife grew weary of the noise, the pace, the emptiness of it all. They longed for something simpler. They moved to a small town, bought a little property, and set out to live a quieter life.
Peter, however, knew nothing about farming. One day he met a neighbor across the fence line. They struck up a conversation—about the soil, the weather, the crops. Over time, Peter asked if this neighbor would be willing to teach him about farming.
The neighbor agreed, and many conversations followed. Slowly, through simple talk about everyday things, deeper questions arose. What does it mean to live well? What does it mean to honor God? What difference does faith make in daily life?
Within a few months, Peter and his family had come to faith in Christ—not because a preacher held a campaign, not because a theologian argued them into belief, but because a farmer talked honestly with his neighbor about life and about God.
That is laity in ministry. That is a royal priesthood bearing witness in ordinary conversation.
3. The Janitor
A third story. Ken was a personnel officer in a company going through hard times. Employees were striking. Management was refusing demands. Factories were closing. Tensions were rising.
After one particularly exhausting day, Ken sat in his office, pen in hand, drafting a resignation letter. He felt hopeless, trapped, defeated. His career seemed finished. His confidence was gone.
Just then, the door opened. In walked Charles, one of the janitors. He stepped into the office and said, “Sir, pardon me, but I wanted to pray with you.”
Ken looked up in surprise. Here was a man who had no authority in the company, no seat at the negotiating table, no official power. But Charles came with something greater: the presence of Christ. He prayed for Ken, simply and sincerely.
Ken later said, “In that moment I found new strength. I found new meaning. And I asked myself, what kind of people are these Christians?”
That is laity in ministry. That is a royal priesthood stepping boldly into the workplace with faith and compassion.
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What Kind of People Are We?
So the question comes to us: what kind of people are we?
Are we content to sit quietly in church pews, believing that ministry belongs only to pastors and professionals? Or do we see ourselves as God’s chosen people, called to live as priests in the world—pointing others to Christ through our work, our words, our presence?
A secretary who changes her boss’s vocabulary.
A farmer who points a neighbor to God through everyday conversation.
A janitor who prays with a weary executive.
These are not extraordinary saints. These are ordinary believers who understood that ministry is not confined to pulpits and platforms. Ministry is the daily life of God’s people.
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Rediscovering “Laos”
Notice again what Peter wrote: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
The Greek word used here for God’s people is laos. From this word we get our English word laity.
In Scripture, this word is everywhere. It appears over 140 times in the New Testament and more than 2,000 times in the Old Testament in its Greek translation. The sheer frequency tells us how central this idea is. God’s people are His laos.
But here is the problem: in modern usage, the word laity often carries a very different meaning. Ask someone today, “What is a layperson?” and the answers are often negative. “Someone who is not clergy. Someone who is not ordained. Someone who is not trained in theology. Someone who is not in leadership. Someone who is not a missionary.” In other words, laity is defined by what it is not.
But in Scripture, laos is never defined in contrast to clergy. It is never used to mean “ordinary, second-class believers.” It always means the people of God. A chosen people. A holy nation. Those who belong to Him and are called to declare His marvelous works.
To reduce laity to “non-clergy” is not only inaccurate—it is damaging. It convinces the majority of Christians that they have no real role in ministry. It sidelines them into passivity. It places all responsibility on the few professionals. And it robs the church of its true vitality.
The Bible presents a very different picture: every believer, every member of the body, is part of the laos of God. Every believer is chosen, called, and commissioned.
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A Distorted Word
The tragedy is that the way most people use the word laity today is not the way the Bible uses it.
In the Middle Ages, a great divide grew between clergy and laity. Clergy were viewed as the higher order—the ones who dealt with holy things. Laity were viewed as the lower order—ordinary, untrained, worldly people who could not be trusted with sacred tasks. The clergy were the ones who ministered; the laity were simply there to receive.
This negative view of laity found its way into language. By the thirteenth century, in English and Latin usage, the word layman meant something like “amateur” or “uneducated person.” If you needed advice, you didn’t go to a layman—you went to a specialist. If you needed a decision, you didn’t ask a layman—you asked an expert. Over time, the very word came to imply second-class status.
But none of this came from Scripture. It came from human tradition. And it created enormous damage. For centuries, the people of God were taught to think of themselves as spectators in the great drama of faith, while only a few professionals were seen as the actors on the stage.
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The Reformation Recovery
Then came the Reformation. One of the most radical and liberating truths that the Reformers rediscovered was the priesthood of all believers. Martin Luther insisted that baptism itself was ordination into the ministry of Christ. To be baptized was to be called. Every Christian, he said, is a priest. Every Christian is a minister.
John Calvin went even further, reminding people that he had never been anything more than an “ordinary believer.” He refused to accept the notion of a two-tier church, where some were “holy” and others were merely “ordinary.”
The Reformation struck at the heart of the clergy-laity divide. It proclaimed that there are not two kinds of Christians but one body of Christ. All who belong to Christ belong to His mission.
This was not a new idea. It was simply a recovery of what Peter had already written: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
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The Church’s True Product
Let me share another story—this time from the business world.
Donald Peterson, former chairman of Ford Motor Company, once described how the company turned around from its lowest point to new success. Interviewers asked, “What made the difference? Was it robots? Was it new machinery?”
“No,” he replied, “it was two intangible things. First, we redefined our goal: to build a car free of errors. Second, we gave our people the authority to stop the line whenever they found something wrong. We trusted them to act. When we did that, we went from forty-seven flaws per car to one flaw in every two cars.”
The key to renewing Ford was not more technology but a return to basics: trust the people, empower the workers, unleash their responsibility.
Isn’t that exactly what the church needs? We measure success in buildings, budgets, staff, or programs. But none of those are the true product of the church. The church’s basic product is people in ministry.
The measure of a healthy church is not how many people sit in pews on Sabbath or Sunday. It is how many people walk out into their workplaces, their neighborhoods, their families as God’s royal priesthood, ministering to the world.
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What Is Ministry?
If the measure of the church is people in ministry, then we need to ask: what is ministry?
When we read Scripture, we discover that ministry takes many forms, and most of them do not require a pulpit or a title.
For the servant girl who spoke to Naaman, ministry was simply bearing witness: “There is a prophet in Israel who can heal you.”
For Elijah, ministry was discipling Elisha: “Come walk with me. Learn what I know. Do what I do.”
For Mary and Martha, ministry was hospitality: opening their home so Jesus could rest, eat, and be refreshed.
For Lydia, ministry was using her home as the first gathering place for Christians in Europe.
For Priscilla and Aquila, ministry was mentoring Apollos, helping a gifted preacher understand the gospel more fully.
In each case, ordinary believers did extraordinary things—not because they held an office, but because they made themselves available.
Ministry, at its heart, is simply using what God has given you—your voice, your home, your work, your presence—to point others to Christ.
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Barriers to Lay Ministry
So why don’t more believers step into this calling? Why do so many still think ministry is for someone else?
One barrier is inadequacy. We think, “Who am I? I don’t know enough. I’m not trained. I’m not worthy.” We may even dress it up as humility, but often it is simply an excuse. The truth is, no one is “worthy.” God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
Another barrier is fear of failure. We think, “What if I pray and nothing happens? What if I speak and no one listens?” But ministry is not about visible results. Even in the New Testament, not every prayer led to a miracle, not every sermon won a crowd. Faithfulness is the measure, not success.
A third barrier is misunderstanding ministry itself. Too often we think ministry means having the right answers. But often, the most powerful ministry is presence—listening, praying, standing with someone in need.
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Back to Basics
The real measure of a church is not how polished the sermons are, how large the budget is, or how impressive the programs are. The real measure is how many people leave the gathering and live as God’s priests in the world.
When that happens—when believers see themselves as God’s laos, His chosen people, His royal priesthood—the church comes alive. Pastoral care expands far beyond what one or two leaders can do. Ministry multiplies. Needs are met. Communities are changed.
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The Appeal
So let me bring this home.
You are God’s people. Not just an audience. Not just “ordinary members.” You are His chosen people, His royal priesthood, His holy nation. You have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light.
This is not just about identity—it is about purpose. God has called you to declare His wonderful deeds.
That means your job is your pulpit. Your home is your sanctuary. Your conversations are your sermons. Your compassion is your witness.
A secretary in an office.
A farmer in a field.
A janitor in a hallway.
These are priests of God, declaring His works. These are ministers of Christ, serving in the everyday world.
And so are you.
Will you step into this calling? Will you embrace your identity as God’s laos—not passive spectators, but living stones, built into a spiritual house, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ?
The world does not need more spectators. It needs more priests. And that is what you are in Christ.
