When someone needs help at church, we tend to look for the person with the name tag. Perry Sorensen and Pastor Dave York talk with Dane Tornell, director of Youth for Christ, about every person ministry. Pastors equip, every believer serves, and God often works most powerfully through ordinary acts of love like a shared meal, a prayer or a kind word after church.
When you need help at Home Depot, you look for somebody in a vest. At church, we often do the same thing: when someone is hurting, new, or has questions about God, we look for the pastor or church staff. But what if God never meant ministry to be limited to the people with name tags?
Perry Sorensen and Pastor Dave York welcome Dane Tornell, director of Youth for Christ, to talk about every person ministry. That's the conviction that ministry belongs to every follower of Jesus, not just pastors and church leaders. Starting from Ephesians 4, they look at the pastor's role as one who equips, how churches slide into a consumer mindset, and what changes when ordinary members believe God has called them to care for others.
The conversation covers the barriers that hold people back, like fear, busyness and feeling unqualified. It looks at the power of ordinary acts such as a shared meal, a prayer or a word of encouragement. The guys also talk about the biblical "one anothers" and hospitality, and about what ministry looks like on Sunday morning and through the rest of the week. Dane offers a word to church leaders on equipping people without adding more programs or guilt, along with simple ways listeners can start ministering to someone this week.
Key Topics
What "every person ministry" means
Ephesians 4 and pastors as equippers
Consumers vs. participants in the church
Ordinary acts God uses in extraordinary ways
Overcoming fear, busyness and feeling inadequate
The "one anothers" and hospitality
Ministry at church, work, school and home
Noticing the lonely, new and overlooked
Evangelism and the Great Commission
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11–12, 16; 1 Peter 4:10; Romans 12:10, 13; 2 Corinthians 3:5; Hebrews 10:24–25; Matthew 28:19–20; 1 Corinthians 12:7