OK, here’s the weirdest illustration I’ve ever come up with….

In your Christian life – and particularly in what you think your role is as a Christian – which James Bond movie character are you? and which character is your pastor?

In the contemporary model of church in the western world, your pastor is the James Bond kind of guy. He can do everything, has more skills than you can shake a stick at and wins at everything he does.

In this model, you, on the other hand, are a member of the audience watching the movie. You pay for your ticket (most of the time) and then sit and watch while your pastor does church.

But that’s not the biblical model.

In the biblical model, your Pastor is Q – the weird scientist whose sole job is to equip James Bond (and the other secret agents) with the best equipment to do the job at hand.

Your role, on the other hand, is that of James Bond himself. You are the frontline person. You are the ‘agent in the field’. You are the one who gets the job done.

Your Pastors job is to equip the saints (that’s you) for ministry. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have to do any front-line stuff himself, of course He does. However, he only does a small part of it, as and when the time arises. His principle responsibility is to train you and give you the tools and knowledge you need to go out and be effective for Christ.

Until you understand that and get it the right way round in your head, your church will never reach its full potential because people will not be fulfilling their God-given roles.

Think about that this week…. how much do you take responsibility for your own calling and how much of what should be your job do you place on your pastor’s head?

….. and what are you going to do to fix it?