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On this edition of the Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses the essential yet often overlooked simplicity of ministry, emphasizing that while ministry is challenging due to human sinfulness and the complexities of leadership, it does not need to be complicated.
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Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.
Hosted by SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg, this dynamic podcast provides insight for seasoned executives, aspiring leaders, or those in ministry who are simply passionate about personal growth. The Lead On Podcast offers actionable, practical tips to help you navigate the complexities of ministry leadership in today's ever-changing world.
From effective communication and team building to strategic decision-making and fostering innovation, each episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiring stories to empower you on your leadership journey.
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Welcome to the lead on podcast. This is Jeff Orge, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, carrying on our continuing conversation about practical issues related to ministry leadership. We welcome you to the podcast for 2025 and encourage you to focus your attention on ministry leadership with us for the next few minutes. Last week, I started this year by saying ministry is difficult, but it's not complicated. And last week on the podcast, I focused on why ministry is so hard.
Jeff Iorg:It's really hard on the negative because of the fact that we are working with sinful people. We are ourselves sinful leaders, we are encapsulated in an atmospheric sea of sin, if you will, and the devil is on the prowl. But on the positive side, we also talked about ministry being hard because sometimes the difficulties are the results of ministerial effectiveness as we reach more people and have more and more responsibility thrust upon us. And also ministry is hard because God allows difficult circumstances to shape our character and make us more like Jesus Christ. So ministry is hard.
Jeff Iorg:No doubt about it, but ministry is not complicated. Now I think this is something that needs to be heard in our generation because quite frankly, we seem to want to overcomplicate everything. I mean, I know I'm old, but I wish they'd stop reinventing the cell phone. It works just fine. That's just one example of how we keep working on things, and they seem to keep getting more complicated and not always more useful.
Jeff Iorg:We make the same mistake in ministry. We just keep making it more and more complicated when it's really not supposed to be that complex. Now, again, ministry is hard. It's difficult. No getting around that, but it doesn't have to be this complicated.
Jeff Iorg:So over the next couple of weeks, I wanna see if I can, on this podcast, talk about the simplicity of ministry. The first thing I'd like to say about that is we have a basic building block for ministry effectiveness, and that is the church. We are responsible for building, strengthening, enlarging churches. That's what we do. And I know there's a tremendous amount of energy in our world today to build ministry organizations that focus on one particular need or the other.
Jeff Iorg:And there's a particular need in terms of the work that I do every day to focus on building the work that we do communally or commonly or cooperatively together. Those certainly have their place, but nothing, and I mean nothing, replaces the importance of building a strong, local,
Jeff Iorg:functioning church. Nothing replaces that.
Jeff Iorg:That's why for years, I've said that the single most important thing I think I've ever done in ministry was planting a church near Portland, Oregon. Because now these 30 plus years later, that church is still reaching people, still making disciples, still sending missionaries, still giving generous offerings, still providing leaders for other churches and church plants. That church has become the generative source for so much spiritual good in our world, planting a church, pastoring a church, the most significant work of my lifetime of ministry. So let's talk about today what it means to be committed to the church, to building a local church, to strengthening, enlarging, and enhancing the work of ministry
Jeff Iorg:of the church. Now first of all, let's ask a very simple question. What is the church? Well, the answer is the church is people. Now the word church comes from the word kuriakos, which even sounds
Jeff Iorg:a little bit like church. But kuriakos is used in the Greek language to describe church buildings. It is never used to describe
Jeff Iorg:a church functioning. It's
Jeff Iorg:never used to describe the people of God. A different word is used throughout the new testament translated church, and that's the word ekklesia.
Jeff Iorg:Not kurikos, which means building, but ekklesia, which means two little words joined together, ek, out of, kaleo, called. And so ekklesia means the called out ones or the selected ones. And so in the New Testament, the church is the people, the called out ones, the selected ones. In the New Testament, church is never a kurikos, which is a church building.
Jeff Iorg:So a simple definition of the church is the church is a fellowship of people on mission. It's always about people and about people coming together and about people coming out of something and into something, and that something being the mission of God. And so the reason that we prioritize the church, building, strengthening, enhancing local churches, is because they are the people of God. So when I say that ministry is simple, it's about building churches, I'm not talking about putting up facilities. Now there's not anything wrong with having a church facility.
Jeff Iorg:In fact, most churches eventually need one to call their own. There's nothing wrong with having a kuriakos. Just don't ever mistake the kuriakos for the ekklesia. They are not the same thing. So we prioritize building churches as the foundation stone, the building block if you will, of what God is doing in the world and what we should be investing our lives in order to fulfill
Jeff Iorg:the mission he's given us. Now that leads us to a second question. What does the church do? Well,
Jeff Iorg:the church does 2 things. The church does the great commission in the spirit of the great commandment. The great commission in the spirit of the great commandment. Now the great commission is so well known, but it's still important to hear it again. So let's read it from Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 18.
Jeff Iorg:Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. In very short order, Jesus reminded us that he has all authority, that we are a sent people, and that we are sent to make disciples evidenced by baptizing and teaching, so that people might learn to obey God in everything they do. And then we are reminded again at the end that God is with us always, even to the end of the age.
Jeff Iorg:This is what the church does, the great commission. But we do the great commission in what I call the spirit of the great commandment. Great commandment is summarized in Matthew chapter 22 beginning in verse 36. One of them, an expert in the law, asked Jesus a question to test him. Teacher, which which command in the law is the greatest?
Jeff Iorg:Jesus said to him, love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets depend on these two commands.
Jeff Iorg:And so the great commandment is love God, love people.
Jeff Iorg:That's what we're supposed to do. And so what does the church do? We fulfill the great commission in the spirit of the great commandment. We go. We teach.
Jeff Iorg:We baptize. We care. We love. That's what the church does. Now, this has been described in lots of different ways, but
Jeff Iorg:there are at least 5 functions that people have settled on as the functional work of the church. What does the church do? The great commission and the spirit of
Jeff Iorg:the great commandment summarized in these five functions. 1st, worship. 2nd, evangelism or mission. 3rd, discipleship. 4th, ministry, and finally, fellowship.
Jeff Iorg:Now you may find that people use a few different words in different ways to describe these. For example, sometimes people say evangelism or mission, meaning that we share the gospel with people and take the gospel places where it's not yet been heard. Sometimes people use the word ministry or the word service. They essentially mean the same thing. It's doing practical caregiving, need meeting acts for others, service or ministry.
Jeff Iorg:And so whatever synonyms you want to use, the 5 functions of the church really are worship, missions, or mission slash evangelism, discipleship, ministry, our ministry slash service, and fellowship. Now I'm gonna stop there because over the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna come back to these 5 functions, and I wanna talk about the simplicity of accomplishing each one of them. We are making this way too complicated. People say, well, what should the church be doing? The church should be doing these things, worshiping God, evangelizing the lost, making disciples of the converts, providing ministry to fellow believers and the
Jeff Iorg:community, and fellowship or strengthening each other by
Jeff Iorg:our mutual relationships. That's what churches do. We keep it really simple. We fulfill
Jeff Iorg:these 5 functions. Now, one more question for today. Why is the church, practically speaking, so important?
Jeff Iorg:Why is the church so important? Well, there are multiple reasons perhaps why we could say the church is so important, but I'd like to start by talking about it from a biblical perspective, and then I'm just gonna make some practical observations that I've thought about over the years as to why local church ministry building, enhancing, and strengthening local churches really is the foundational building block of what God is doing in the world today. The church is so important because of what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 9. Paul writes that grace was given to him to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. He's speaking, of course, about the gospel.
Jeff Iorg:He continues, this is so that God's multifaceted wisdom may now be made known through the church through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our lord. In him, we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. This passage teaches us that God's ultimate plan for the universe is the church. That's what everything has been created, constructed, guided, and shaped to accomplish the production of the church.
Jeff Iorg:This great mystery that God had kept hidden within himself for ages, the gospel, once it was revealed, resulted in the church, and the church becomes the final and ultimate revelation of God's wisdom. It is according to this passage the administration or the outworking or the public demonstration of the mystery. In other words, the gospel puts itself forward in such a way that it produces the church. That's the result of the gospel, and this is all according to God's eternal purpose. Do you understand that from before there was a creation, there was hidden within God the desire for an eternal companion people to worship him for all time, and that is the entire purpose of the universe, to create such a people.
Jeff Iorg:Think about how this elevates the importance of the ministry, the life, the vitality, the work of a church. You say,
Jeff Iorg:well, not our church. We're just 30 people or a 100 people. We've got struggles, difficulties, problems, challenges. We're we don't really have a big budget. We don't have a famous pastor.
Jeff Iorg:We don't have a a a strong presence on social media. We're just a we're just a church.
Jeff Iorg:No. You're not just a church.
Jeff Iorg:You are part of the revelation of what God is doing in the universe and what he is revealing and showing and shaping a companion people for himself for all time.
Jeff Iorg:That's the church. So why is the church so important? Well, from this biblical reason, because
Jeff Iorg:it's the outworking, the fullness of the expression of the gospel, the demonstration of all God is doing for all eternity, and the culmination, if you will, of all of the trajectories of the universe combined. Now in light of that grandiose theological explanation, these practical observations pale, but they still encourage us. Some practical reasons the church is important. The first one is because the church is durable. The church is durable, meaning it isn't going away.
Jeff Iorg:Now one of the fascinating things that I've enjoyed doing over the years is reading church history. A few years ago, I determined that most of my reading had been about church history in the West and that I had never really studied church history as it developed in the East. In other words, when the gospel originated and the first churches were planted, we tend to focus, as the New Testament does, on the sweep of the gospel West as it moved toward Asia and then, Europe and then, onto Rome and beyond. That's the progression of the gospel. But do you know the gospel also moved east?
Jeff Iorg:So I found a very substantial two volume work on the gospel's advance into the east, and I started reading and studying it. And I met people and places that I'd never known about before, and I read about circumstances and situations and leaders and all the things that happened as the gospel moved toward the east in its earliest years. But we all know that the rise of other religious movements, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, all of these in various places and ways overran
Jeff Iorg:the gospel and, in many cases, almost extinguished it.
Jeff Iorg:But whether the gospel has continued in an unbroken fashion in every culture or location is not the point. Every part of history, every season or part of his era of history has had the gospel and has had churches resulting and has demonstrated the progression of the church overall, the church universal, the church global in ways that are unmistakable. The church is durable.
Jeff Iorg:It just simply will not go away. My wife has a saying when some church leader behaves badly,
Jeff Iorg:and, we're having to deal with the difficulty of that, My wife will often remind me, the church has made it this far in spite of its leaders. That's a bit humbling because I'm supposed to be one of those prominent church leaders, but quite frankly, knowing the weakness, duplicity, and sinfulness of my life, I'd have to agree that the church seems to be even more durable than its leaders and can survive even the leadership mistakes, problems, and difficulties that it has. So the church is durable. Another reason that I think the church is so practically important is the church offers holistic ministry.
Jeff Iorg:Now, there are a number of you
Jeff Iorg:who are listening to this podcast who who are already a little bit bored with it and a little bit frustrated with me because you really don't really wanna build a church. What you wanna do is build a ministry. You want to find your little niche and you want to plug into that and you want to be committed to that and you think that ought to be the sum, total of what everyone ought to be doing is supporting that ministry. Now there's certainly nothing wrong with having passion about a particular ministry or interest, but I remind you that the church
Jeff Iorg:is unique and that it's holistic.
Jeff Iorg:It reaches out to everyone, the entire family unit and even people who are displaced from or dispossessed of any family relationships. The church is for everybody. It's holistic. Let me give you an example or 2 of what I mean. I have a friend who has a ministry to bikers.
Jeff Iorg:He reaches out to the biking community in his city, and because of his own, love for motorcycles, his own, understanding of that culture, and his long standing efforts of ministry in that milieu, he has developed a pretty substantial ministry to bikers. They have, biker rallies, biker rides, biker bible studies. They do things in ministry to bikers.
Jeff Iorg:But guess what?
Jeff Iorg:Bikers often have girlfriends
Jeff Iorg:or wives, and those girlfriends and wives have children and other family members. And so this ministry that was designed only for bikers fairly quickly hit an impasse of re a recognition, if you will, that it wasn't going to
Jeff Iorg:be able to keep going on with its ministry unless it developed something that was more holistic, which, of course, is the church. Because while the church might not have a comfortable place for every biker, it does have a place for his preschool children. It does have a place for his children that's connected to that man. So while ministries can be effective in targeting 1 person or one particular need, they don't always have a holistic approach to reach out to large numbers of people that may be connected to the one the ministry is trying to reach. I remember another example.
Jeff Iorg:For years, I've been involved in a ministry to professional umpires, and we have various ministries, prayer calls, bible studies, and an annual retreat where these men come together and learn more about what it means to live the Christian faith in their context. And this ministry is specifically designed for professional umpires until some of them started becoming Christians. And then, well, what can you do for our wives? What can you do for our children? What can you do for our friends who are not umpires?
Jeff Iorg:Well, the ministry can't connect with any of those people because it's very specifically and narrowly focused and targeted on professional umpires. So where did we turn to direct our umpires to go and become involved in the church because the church is holistic. We said your wife, your child, your friend, all of those people are gonna need ministry, and a church is the place where you'll find that kind of holistic approach to reaching people. Now this is also some days what's maddening about church because church attracts everybody and is for everybody. I know sometimes when I go out and guest speak in churches and some of the different people come up and talk to me afterwards, and they are very needy.
Jeff Iorg:They have very many questions. They're sometimes very challenging to deal with even in
Jeff Iorg:a short term. I think as
Jeff Iorg:I drive off the parking lot, the difference between me and that pastor is I get to drive away. He has to stay there week after week after week after week, and I know that can be wearisome because the church is holistic. It's for everyone. It's for every man. It's for every woman.
Jeff Iorg:It's for every teenager. It's for every child. It's for every old person. It's for every very young person. It's for every person to be connected, to be a part.
Jeff Iorg:It's holistic. A third reason the church is practically important to me is because the church is relevant. The church speaks to and addresses the core issues of life. It's a church where we talk about life and death. It's a church where we talk about forgiveness and pain.
Jeff Iorg:It's a church where we talk about healing and moving forward in difficult circumstances. It's at church it's at church where we find the support we need to carry on when life is difficult. It's at church where we deal with relevant topics that are pressing us on every side. You know, you can tell, how relevant something is by how important it is in the crucial moments of life. Where do many people turn on their wedding day?
Jeff Iorg:They turn to the church. Where do even more people turn when death comes and end of life needs to be commemorated, celebrated? The church. When life and death are on
Jeff Iorg:the line, it's the church that steps to the forefront. And so the church is relevant
Jeff Iorg:in that it deals with the issues of life that really matter. And then finally,
Jeff Iorg:the church is effective. You know, Jesus started out with just
Jeff Iorg:a handful of people, and now there are literally 1,000,000,000
Jeff Iorg:of Christians. Billions of Christians.
Jeff Iorg:Listen, this idea that our focus needs to be on building strong, effective, healthy local churches, enhancing the work and ministry of churches, This work that we're
Jeff Iorg:that we're talking about, it works. It's effective. It it makes a difference. It changes things. We're relevant and effective because we are speaking, to the core issues of life, and we're doing it in such a
Jeff Iorg:way that it makes a difference, and that effectiveness shows up in the lives, the transformed lives of people.
Jeff Iorg:So ministry is difficult. It's hard. No doubt about that, but it is not complicated. The first and most simple thing we must be devoted to doing as ministry leaders is building local churches, enhancing the work of churches, strengthening churches. That's what we do.
Jeff Iorg:It's pretty simple. Now, we do that because the church is the called out selected people of God
Jeff Iorg:who've been sent with a mission, the great commission, in the spirit of the great commandment. To fulfill these functions that are summarized there, we're going to worship, do evangelism or mission, discipleship, ministry or service, and fellowship. We're gonna do these things because the church is God's ultimate plan for the universe. It's what he revealed as a result of the gospel that he had kept hidden within himself from the beginning of time, and the church is the conclusion of all God is doing in the universe as he produces an eternal
Jeff Iorg:companion people for his fellowship, partnership, companionship from now till the end of time. And just practically speaking,
Jeff Iorg:the church is durable.
Jeff Iorg:It does not go away. The church is holistic. It's for everybody. The church is relevant. It speaks to the core issues of life, life and death and other issues, and the church is effective.
Jeff Iorg:It makes the difference in our lives and in our communities. Listen, my friends. If you wanna focus on the building block of kingdom ministry in the world today, get busy building your church. Strengthen, enhance, enlarge the church. Give your life for the church.
Jeff Iorg:Now that doesn't mean that you can't be involved in a specific ministry that may be connecting people to God and the gospel in unique ways, but eventually, that ministry is gonna need to be connected back to a church if it's gonna have
Jeff Iorg:a long term and effective future. Doesn't mean you can't work in a role like
Jeff Iorg:I work in, where your primary responsibility is servicing churches and more specifically, church leaders, as they try to do this important work I'm describing today. But the reality is, even in those roles, they only have real value as we see them serving the church. So ministry is hard. It's difficult. No doubt about it.
Jeff Iorg:But ministry is not complicated. And the first and most simple step we must make is to build churches, to make church the priority, to give our lives for churches. That's why I say and continue to say the most important thing I've done in my ministry lifetime was planting a church near Portland, Oregon that has remained a people reaching, ministry providing, mission sending, offering, raising congregation for these generations. I
Jeff Iorg:don
Jeff Iorg:I don't know what you're going to do today, but I hope you will find yourself centered on building a church. Because when you do that, you are at the center of what God is doing in the world today. You've tapped into the simple and most direct means by which you can make an eternal difference. You are participating in the greatest work of all, building God church. I ask you to focus on it and make it your simple commitment of ministry effectiveness as you lead on.