Published on: 03/11/2026
This weekend I visited St Chad’s in Woodseats, and it was great to be able to talk with them about lay ministry and focal ministry and to worship the Lord with them. We also looked together at a passage from Revelation 7 which describes a multitude of people in the heavenly throne room, worshipping God together – people from every tribe, people group, nation and language. Picturing that vibrant scene filled with different types of people reminded me of one of the passages that we look at in the ‘Getting Ready’ training sessions with focal ministers before they are authorised – 1 Corinthians 12, which talks about variety and difference within the body of Christ, God’s people.
For me this is such a helpful picture when it comes to exploring lay ministry. The different body parts all have different abilities, they look different and have different tasks and skills, and all are needed. The body only functions as a whole because of the variety within it.
Some body parts are more obvious or visible, others quietly get on with their jobs behind the scenes, and yet are no less vital to the life of the whole body. It’s the same with the church as the body of Christ – in order to be healthy and growing we need every person to be contributing and playing their part, those in visible upfront roles and those in less defined roles, loving each other and praying for each other and living out their discipleship together.
Sometimes variety of gifts and skills can provide a challenge in our church communities. Other people don’t see situations the same way you do, people approach ministry and mission in different ways to you and it can be easy to assume that everyone thinks the same as you. Sometimes you can find yourself wishing that everyone was on the same wavelength!
The encouragement from Paul is that not only do we need the difference and variety in order to function as a healthy body, but that our variety is held by the Lord. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” (v4-6)
It is part of his design and desire for us, and so he will help us to recognise, celebrate and work well with our variety.
Your church may have lots of people in ‘recognised’ roles with titles like Reader, Children’s Minister, Pastoral Visitor, Focal Minister, Churchwarden etc, or you may have none of these. You may have folks who volunteer in a variety of ways during your Sunday/midweek services, your outreach events and your community work. You may have members of your church whose primary ministry focus is their workplace or their home.
Whoever you have in your congregation, large or small, you will have variety. I pray that this week you are able to appreciate afresh the variety in the body of Christ, and that your churches are united, in their variety, by the same God who is at work in us all. If you would like to explore the variety of lay ministry pathways we have within our Diocese, do get in touch – I’d love to chat to you.
This week’s Blog post was written by Beth Burras, Lead Lay Ministry Enabler. Beth can be contacted at layministry@sheffield.anglican.org