Building Your Leaders
July 1, 1999
When I was a youngster, there was an ongoing argument about the "professionalization" of the Olympics. Americans carped that we sent amateurs to compete against professional athletes from Eastern Europe, whose full-time work was their athletic pursuit. That complaint has largely died down, of course, now that Americans now send highly paid professionals to Olympic events. In popular usage, amateur often means "second rate" while professional means "excellent." Both, though, are superficial understandings of the words. "Amateur" comes from a Latin word that means doing something "for love." An amateur athlete is not necessarily second rate but pursues excellence for the love of the pursuit, not for monetary payback. A professional, on the other hand, receives a paycheck. That may imply the professional does the task better, but it's no guarantee. The best person at a task may be an amateur who is motivated by love. As the saying goes, "Professionals built the Titanic; amateurs built the ark." Putting off and on
Given the Reformation's call to the priesthood of all believers, the church I serve, Brunswick Presbyterian Church, has one of its core values to "amateurize ministry." Here's what that means for us: We've established the amateur model of ministry not so much by programs but by a comprehensive understanding of who we are as the people of God. The first specific emphasis is a "putting off." We de-emphasize titles and avoid using words that suggest divisions in the church. For instance, we have dropped the words clergy and laity from our vocabulary. Saying "lay people" is really saying "people people." As an adjective, the word lay mainly suggests a second-class ministry. Clergy words had to go, too—titles like Reverend ...
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