Guest Essay: The Need for Strong Laymen by Nathan Koenig

As a young Lutheran man, I often hear the same well-intentioned mantra: “You should become a pastor!”; “Have you considered going to seminary?” So far, there hasn’t been an older church member who has asked me if I’m going to be the new pastor, but, I’ll probably hear that one too eventually. That’s what happens when you’re one of the few young men who is active in his church/congregation.

But in all seriousness, I do appreciate when older church members tell me that I should become a pastor. I truly take it as a compliment.

However, the underlying premise of the “Are you going to be a pastor?” question is as follows: becoming a pastor is the best way to impact one’s church.

A Change in Thinking

Over the summer, one of the writers on this blog reminded me of an important fact: “the Lutheran Church (LCMS) needs strong laymen”.

So wait, I can still have a major impact in my Church body without having to become a pastor? Suffice to say, that statement produced a major paradigm shift in my thinking. I was implicitly taught growing up that the primary way to serve Christ was to become a pastor or some kind of Church worker. Of course, both of these vocations are extremely important roles that Christian men need to fulfill. I am not denying that point.

However, I now recognize that our Lutheran/Christian churches are not run by only the pastors.

The pastor is one man. His role is to preach the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and forgive sins. The pastor is not required to manage every single aspect of the congregation—such as handling the church’s budget or maintaining the congregational facilities. Laymen have a role to play in our local congregations and in our Church body as whole. That idea rarely gets talked about in most Christian circles that I am a part of.

Moreover, my church body (the LCMS) actually depends on laymen to function. For starters, laymen serve as delegates in the LCMS’s national synod convention. That means laymen vote on the very future of their church body—on matters both large and small. This model for the convention gives LCMS laymen much more power than laymen do in some other church bodies (e.g. the Roman Catholic Church or the various Orthodox Churches).

What’s more, the reality is that pastors come and go at churches. In my lifetime alone, my home church (LCMS) has seen five different senior pastors. Some pastors retire, and others take calls to serve other churches. It’s just the nature of the system.

That fact begs the question: who will steer the direction/future of a congregation if a pastor leaves? The answer: you, me, and all the laymen in one’s congregation. More specifically, it’s the laymen—who take up leadership roles—that congregational continuity for years and even decades.

The Time to Take Action

At this point, I hope to have convinced you of the importance of strong, active laymen in our churches. This topic has interested me for quite some time—as the future of our congregations directly depend on laymen taking responsibility and leadership roles.

To close, I just want to remind the reader that the decline of our local congregations (and the church body as a whole) is not inevitable. Many of our older church-goers remember when the pews were full and when baptisms/marriages were more common than funerals. Even so, we are all not as powerless as we all like to think we are. On a small-scale, Lutheran laymen both young and old have the ability to restore faithful practices among our families, friends, and congregations. It’s not the first-time that the Christian Church has ever seen trial and difficulty (and it won’t be the last until Christ comes again).

So, the goal for you and me—especially for laymen—is to take action. To take action by bringing our families to church on Sunday mornings. To take action by taking a leadership role in your congregation’s “Church council” or “board of elders”. To take action by standing up to the political tyrants who want to keep our churches closed in the name of “public health”.

At this point, don’t feel overwhelmed. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Restoring and renewing our congregations to faithful Lutheran practices and beliefs will take a long time. Nevertheless, the time to take action is now! I am truly excited to see what the future holds for our congregations—whether that means we worship as the early Christians did, or we see our church buildings overflowing on Sunday mornings.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is King. He is Lord over all—including over the things of this world! He will use laymen and pastors alike to further his kingdom and share the Gospel throughout the land. It is my prayer that our congregations and our Church body see an incoming wave of devout, dedicated young men—who will restore our congregations to devout practice, traditional liturgical worship, and renewed faithfulness to Christ.

Nathan Koenig is a recent graduate of Texas Christian University and a member of Atonement Lutheran Church in Metairie, Louisiana. He blogs at The Tin Can Conservative.