Barabbas Road Church in San Diego is focused on making ministers

One distinctive that the people of Barabbas Road Church in San Diego will always hear the pastors talking about is that the function of the church is to make minsters rather than make ministries. This does not imply that the pastors of Barabbas Road Church have something against ministries. What this does mean is that Barabbas Road Church has a different view on the function of the church in regards to ministries.

To help us understand this view we can look at the example in Ephesians 4. In this chapter, Paul tells us that the role of a pastor is to equip the local body of saints for the work of the ministry. This means that if you are a member of a church,the pastors should be equipping you to do ministry work. This is the focus of the pastors at Barabbas Road Church in San Diego, so that the church members can be properly trained and equipped to do the ministry work that is needed inside and outside of the church. Often times in other churches you will see the pastors primarily focused on running all of the ministries in the church. This can sometimes be beneficial; however, it is ultimately ineffective and sometimes damaging to the church. It can be ineffective and damaging because if the pastors are only focused on running ministries, then who is focused on the training and the equipping of the laity?

At Barabbas Road Church, the function of the pastors is primarily to teach and to equip the church. The function of laity, as they are being taught and equipped, is to do the work of the ministry. When the church as an institution can focus on making ministers and focus on making disciple making disciples through the personal investment of our lives, the bi-product of that is that the disciple maker can then go out and worship God and start doing the work of the ministry. An equipped disciple maker will be able to do tremendous work for Christ like start an orphanage, feed the homeless or help the needy. The beauty of this is that this can be done in such a natural way. This means that a disciple maker will not need to be told to do the work of the ministry, but he will instinctively go and do the work that needs to be done for God’s glory. This ultimately allows for the pastors to focus on their main tasks and the laity can focus on theirs.
The church will always be a resource for the laity, so they are not operating all alone in their work. What these functions do is that it gives the church clarity on the roles of the pastors and the roles of the laity.

The question that is always challenging is, “what ministry should I be working in?”This requires you to figure out what you love to do. What is helpful is to start thinking about what is needed inside and outside of the church. What are the needs of the community? What are some things that you would be passionate about doing? As you think about these things, the hope is that you will feel empowered to be able to do these things knowing you are not representing Barabbas Road Church, but you are representing Christ. We don’t want the name of Barabbas Road Church to be made known; we want the name of Jesus Christ to be made known through all of these things. As you serve and do these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the church can back you up and keep you accountable and help you to continue to be discipled and involved in the disciple making process.