I'm not a big fan of getting sucked in by marketing types who want me to pitch books, conferences, personalities, or movies. Granted, it's a part of what I do as a networker and executive editor of a national pastors magazine. But I recently saw a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. It's Ben Stein's Expelled, which deals honestly and smartly with the issue of intelligent design vs. evolution. One of the things the movie highlights is how a person's worldview affects everything he or she sees in life -- this includes scientists and atheists.

It got me thinking a bit about a pastor's "worldview." Most think that the job of the pastor is to minister to the people and provide quality God experiences for those who attend his or her congregation. But when you begin to look at the Bible through the lens of equipping and multiplication, you see quite another pastoral model. The equipping pastor's role is primarily one of preparing others to use their gifts in ministry to each other. By providing hands-on experience and structure, those of us called to part-time and full-time Christian service are paid to get "them" to work.

Perhaps the ultimate model for this is God. Orthodox Christianity recognizes the Trinity -- the three-in-one God. In Genesis God says, "Let us make man in our own image." I guess you might say that even God didn't do ministry alone. Jesus perpetuates this example as he invests a majority of his three years in messianic ministry by pouring into a mere dozen followers -- who turned the tide after he left.

I don't want to get into a deep philosophical or theological diatribe, but the "We" God is often turned into a "wee god" when we don't trust our Creator to be able to use others for Big ministry. Why do we think that the only good stuff comes from those of us who've been vetted by a seminary or legitimized by a Bible degree? Rather our job is to replicate ourselves, turning out "mini-sters" and mini-pastors who teach Sunday school, run businesses, coach soccer, change diapers, and sing on the platform. It's time for all of our ministries to think "us." The result will be far less "me vs. them" in congregations where pastors feel that their people just don't "get it." We'll have far more allies when people are truly empowered and unleashed to experience ministry as we do.

So next time you read the Bible, look at it from a We perspective, especially when it comes to pastoral role models. Whether its Ephesians 4, Exodus 18, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, the gospels, or Genesis, your worldview will impact your understanding of what you read, which in turn will influence how you approach your ministry.

Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine, the author of a dozen books, and has been a pastor for 20 years. email him at anelson@group.com or visit his blog, Rev! Unplugged.

ME to WE: A Pastor's Discovery of the Power of Partnership Explore practical way to move your church from a pastor-centric model to one that maximizes its volunteers, staff, and everyone in your church. Includes a variety of "best practices" from interviews with churches that have released their pastors from "doing it all" -- and successfully turned the way they do ministry upside-down. more here