When I was in high school and college, I saw a lot of conflict in the church. By the time I had finished college, I had seen seven pastors run out of their congregations. It seemed like every time I got involved, something bad happened in the church.

So I began to gravitate towards the parachurch.  A parachurch is “any Christian organization that is not officially recognized as a church”1 or “any ministry that comes alongside of the church.”2 In high school and college I began to gravitate towards that because I thought that the church was bad. I thought the church was what was wrong with Christianity so I became involved with prayer groups and Bible study groups and discipleship groups that were not affiliated with any local church. And I lived that way for much of my Christian life.

After college, I went to The Master’s Seminary3 and Grace Community Church4 and, for the first time in my life, I saw a church do what it was commanded to do in Scripture.5 I was so confused when I got there that it took me two years to realize that they were teaching me the Bible. It was all so new to me. I grew up in the church but I had never heard of church discipline or elder rule or expository preaching or Biblical Counseling or any of those things. It scared me because it was so different from what I had heard growing up.

However, every time they taught me one of these “new” ideas, they opened up the Bible and showed me where it was taught in God’s Word. After two years of that, they got my attention and I began to trust them and change. So did my views on the church.

I mention that story because my experience was not all that unusual.  Multitudes of Christians have had bad experiences in churches and chosen to live out their spiritual journeys elsewhere.  They have turned to Campus Crusade6 or Young Life7 or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes8 and left the church far behind.  But is there a better way?  Does the Bible approve of their decision?

We have all benefited from parachurch ministries but there is a difference between what they do and what the church does.9 At the end of the day, you can obey the Bible and never join a parachurch, but you cannot obey the Bible and never join a church. One is essential. The other is preferential.

With that said, here are five differences between the church and the parachurch.

I. A DIFFERENCE IN AUTHORITY

Some have said that the Apostles were the first example of a parachurch. As the argument goes, the Apostles were not actual members of a church, they only came alongside to help it out like the parachurch does.10

Ephesians 2:19-20 explains the role of the Apostles this way:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.

The Apostles did not serve outside of the church; they laid the foundation for it.11 They helped to build the church with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone12 and the Apostles and the Prophets as the foundation.13

What Paul is saying here is that the church is built on the Apostle’s teaching. The church is built on their doctrine.14 If you want to know how the church is to operate, just open your Bible where the words of the Apostles are recorded and it will tell you.

Go to First Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and see what kind of man is qualified to lead the church. Go to Matthew 18:15-20 and First Corinthians 5 and Titus 3:10-11 and see how sin is to be dealt with. Go to Titus 2:3-5 and read how the older women are to disciple the younger women in the church. Go to First Corinthians 11-14 and see how things are to be done in order. Go to Second Corinthians 8 and see how believers are to give their resources to the church.

To say this another way, the church has a guide for what it does. It has a map. It has a clear and detailed authority. As a member of the church, I can go back to the Bible to make sure that my ministry is following the rulebook.

The parachurch does not have that authority and guidance. There is no map for what it is doing. It has no set of directions guiding it in its ministry.

This does not mean that there are no rules for Christians in parachurch ministries. The Bible tells Christians how to act no matter where they are or what they are doing. If believers want to come together to minister to orphans, there are guidelines for that in Scripture, but there are no guidelines for how a Christian group outside of the church should operate. The Bible does not tell you how to create a Christian group that is solely designed to minister to orphans. So you have to be very careful when starting that particular ministry.

One author said:

The major criticism, and one that is easiest to make stick, is that [parachurch groups] lack accountability to anyone but themselves. Parachurch groups are religion gone free enterprise.15

We would all agree that churches can act that way too, but when churches act that way, we can point them back to the Bible. We cannot do that with parachurches because they are not mentioned in the Bible.

This does not make the parachurch wrong. Computers are not mentioned in the Bible, either. Neither is television or the Internet. It simply puts the parachurch in a different category from the church.

II. A DIFFERENCE IN APPROACH

A lot of good can come from the parachurch. I was saved at a summer camp for athletes. Some members of my church were saved through college ministries or military ministries. All of us have been discipled to some degree or another through groups like these. After all, www.justthesimpletruth.com is a parachurch ministry!

The Christian books we read are published through agencies that are not connected to a local church. Christian camps, schools, music, and movies are much the same way. Helpful ministries like Answers in Genesis,16 Desiring God,17 Ligonier Ministries,18 Grace to You,19 Way of the Master,20 Nine Marks,21  and ACBC22 are all parachurch ministries. They have all ministered to us and given us a deeper appreciation for the Word of God. So what I am about to say is not so much a criticism as it is a clarification.

The approach of the parachurch is very different from that of the church. The parachurch is built around its commitment to Jesus and to a cause. Now, that may be a good cause or it may be a bad cause but the parachurch, by nature of what it is, is built around a cause.

In 2011, over 91,000 Non-Profit Protestant organizations filled out a tax form for Christian work and they brought in a combined total of 2 billion dollars.23 To highlight this, I asked our church secretary to keep track of how many promotions we receive from parachurch ministries in a given week. The week before I put this article together, she counted 20.

She said that was a slow week. Our church gets a supply of over a thousand advertisements a year from parachurch ministries. Sometimes we get 50 emails over the weekend. It is mind-boggling at times.

So many parachurch ministries exist because there are so many causes. One parachurch group wants to reach out to athletes. Another one wants to reach out to the military. Another one wants to reach out to people in foreign countries, orphans, divorcees, prisoners, college students, children, teenagers, politicians, the homeless, alcoholics, stay at home moms, single moms, or divorced moms. Some want to teach Biblical manhood and womanhood, end times, creationism, apologetics, or discernment. Some want to teach Bible translation or the sanctity of life or marriage. The list is endless because the causes are endless.

The church has a different approach from all of that. Its top priority is to worship Jesus Christ. That means that the church is not built on its commitment to Jesus and a cause; Jesus is the cause of the church. He is the glue that holds it together. He is why the church is here.

The implications of this are wonderful: every born-again child of God has a place in the church.   Those who are seeking Jesus Christ and recovering from divorce can join the church. Athletes and college students and military personnel and people in foreign countries can be ministered to by the church. The church can teach Biblical manhood and womanhood and creation and discernment and apologetics al as it relates to Jesus Christ. No matter where you come from or what your interests are, if you have been clothed with Christ, then you are a part of the church.

First Corinthians 12:13 says:

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slave or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Galatians 3:28 says:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

III. A DIFFERENCE IN LEADERSHIP

Since the parachurch is not mentioned in Scripture, it has to find its model for ministry somewhere else and it often finds it in the business world. To demonstrate this, First Timothy 3 gives us the qualifications for leadership in the church. It gives us the conditions a man must meet if he wants to be an elder or a deacon. The passage says:

It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

 Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus (vv. 1-13).

God has revealed His will concerning leadership in the church.  If a man fits the character qualifications in First Timothy 3:1-7, then he can lead in the office of elder. If he fits the character qualifications in First Timothy 3:8-13, then he can lead in the office of deacon. If he does not, then he cannot. It is as simple as that.

However, there is no list like this for the parachurch. Nothing in the Bible says that this is what a parachurch leader should look like because parachurch ministries are not mentioned in the Bible. So what many parachurch ministries do is copy from a business model and create a Board of Directors instead of an Elder Board. They put men in leadership who are good at business but not necessarily good at Christianity. They can balance the budget, market the product, and raise the funds but they do not have the character qualifications mentioned in First Timothy 3.24

Now obviously parachurch ministries are all across the board on this. You have to take them one at a time because some have Godly men leading them.  However, the danger is in the freedom they have in choosing those leaders.  The Biblical qualifications for an elder or a deacon do not apply to leaders within the parachurch.

The 9 Marks website published an article in 2011 entitled “9 Marks of a Healthy Parachurch” that talked about this. Here is what it said:

Modern corporate culture values efficiency, risk management, clean organizational structures, and a strong financial ledger. Corporate culture and structure is routinely imported into parachurch ministry leadership. As a result, many parachurch organizations place a high value on what raises the most money, minimizes risk, or produces the most efficient management structure . . .

This past October, I attended the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town (an amazing parachurch event) and happened to meet an old friend from InterVarsity. We sat for coffee. I had written an article about IV last year with the hope that it would produce some discussion about worrisome trends within the movement. But the immediate response of IV was to distribute “talking points” for IV staff to use if their donors asked questions about my article. So I commented to my friend that I was amazed at the gears that began to spin within IV to protect the “30 million dollar donor base” rather than producing discussion about gospel faithfulness. He smiled, patted my arm,and said, “Mack, it’s more like 60 million . . .” He said it like it was nothing personal: just business.25

Whether this is typical of parachurch ministries or not, I do not know. I do know that it is a problem that exists in churches too, but the church has a Biblical way to deal with the problem.

First Timothy 3:3 says that an elder is to be “free from the love of money.” First Timothy 5:19-20 also tells us how to confront an elder who is in sin:

Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.

The parachurch cannot do that. It has no Biblical commands for that sort of thing.

The business model that most parachurch organizations follow can show up in a lot of different ways. A friend of mine who works for a parachurch ministry was having a fundraising banquet and was wondering what the Bible says about publishing the names of financial supporters, so he asked me about it. I told him that the Bible says nothing about the subject.

If my friend were serving in a church, I could take him to James 2:1-4, where it says that the church should not favor the rich over the poor. If he were serving in a church, I would quote to him First Corinthians 16:2:

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

But he was not serving in a church so those passages did not apply to him. He was like a traveler without a map.

IV. A DIFFERENCE IN DISCIPLINE

Church discipline can be a sensitive subject. It sounds awful to publicly mention someone’s sins and to call their name from the pulpit, but a lot of that concern comes from a misunderstanding of what the goal of discipline actually is. The goal is to restore a believer to a right relationship with God.

In fact, church discipline could be called “church restoration” because that is the goal. For an example of this, In Matthew 18 Jesus gives the Parable of the Lost Sheep right before He gives a lengthy section on church discipline. In verse 12, He says:

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?

Church discipline is the church’s attempt to go after lost sheep and, in verses 15-18, Jesus shows us what that looks like. It looks like confronting someone’s sin.

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

For another example of this, we can look at First and Second Corinthians. In First Corinthians 5, Paul tells the church to throw out a man who has been sleeping with his father’s wife.26 In Second Corinthians 2:5-8, Paul could be mentioning this man again when he says:27

But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree — in order not to say too much — to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

Paul told the Corinthians to throw out the unrepentant sinner and, when he repents, forgive him. Restore him. The goal of church discipline is to restore a sinning member back to the church. To bring back the lost sheep.

Another difference between the church and the parachurch is that the parachurch cannot find a restoration process in Scripture. It does not have guidelines for how to handle sin and doctrinal error.

So if a member is caught in sin, they can fire him. They can ignore the sin and hope that it goes away. They can dock his pay or put him on leave without pay. Again, there are not any rules for this sort of thing in the Bible.

Some parachurch organizations have no parameters when it comes to who can join. In some, you can join if you are a Mormon, a Roman Catholic, a Liberal Protestant, a practicing homosexual, or a Jehovah’s Witness. You can join if you are divorcing your spouse or living in adultery.  You can join if you are cheating on your taxes or enslaved to alcohol.

First Timothy 1:20 says to hand blasphemers in the church over to Satan.28  Second Thessalonians 3:6 says the same thing in regards to a Christian living in unrepentant sin:

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you received from us.

That command was written to the church but not to the parachurch. They handle discipline differently.

 V. A DIFFERENCE IN GOALS

Any parachurch ministry, if it is truly Christian, will have the goal of making disciples. It will have the goal of carrying out the Great Commission. For example, the Navigators, which is a parachurch ministry for the military, has some excellent tools for Bible study and Bible memorization.29 The Way of the Master does an excellent job of training believers in how to evangelize.30 The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors does the same thing with counseling.31 Answers in Genesis has good material on Genesis and the flood and other topics related to creation.32

However, the difference between these ministries and the local church is that they are there to help you temporarily and the church is there to help you permanently. The parachurch is there to help you while you are in the military or in college or struggling with drug addiction, but the church is there to help you through any and every struggle in life. The parachurch is there to disciple you in specific areas but the church is there to disciple you in all areas of life and doctrine.

We can add to this that the church administers ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and baptism, and it provides opportunities for you to obey commands like Galatians 6:1:

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”

Romans 12:15:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Hebrews 13:17:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

The church helps you obey these commands on a permanent basis while the parachurch does not.

Again, this does not mean that the parachurch is wrong; it just means that it is temporary. Most of us can think of times in which the Lord used parachurch ministries in our lives, but we can also think of times when we came to the point where we had to leave them. They helped us in college but, when we graduated from college, they could not help us anymore. They helped us in the military but, when we left the military, they could not help us anymore. They were there for a season.

The church, however, is not seasonal. It is a permanent disciple-maker. You will never graduate from the Body of Christ. If you are a Christian, it will be a part of your life forever; that is its goal.

CONCLUSION

The parachurch movement has brought many challenges but it has also brought many blessings.  Many wonderful parachurch ministries exist that have done great things for the Lord and they should be acknowledged for it.  However, they do not take the place of the local church. While it is messy, the church is still the people of God for this age. While it has its problems, God’s desire at this time is to grow the church. It is still Jesus’ bride.33 It is still Jesus’ body.34

If you want to serve in a parachurch, do it, and do it for the glory of God. Just be sure to serve one that serves the church. A lot of people join a parachurch ministry because they are leaving the church altogether. That is like leaving a bumpy road for no road at all. God’s plan for His people today is the church.

So, whatever you do, if you want God’s blessing, make sure you are a blessing to the church. Make your priorities the same as God’s priorities. Work hard to build up the church.

 

 

1. Millard J. Erickson, The Concise Dictionary of Christian Theology, Revised Edition (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001) 148. This is my definition. Another definition is this one offered by Millard J. Erickson: “[A parachurch organization refers to] religious organizations created for particular tasks, such as evangelism or the reaching of young people. These organizations do not meet for regular Sunday worship services, administer the ordinances, or display other characteristics of the organized church. Their members frequently belong to various churches.” [↩]
2. Jerry W. White, The Church & The Parachurch: An Uneasy Marriage (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah Press, 1983) 19. All of these organizations do not come alongside of the church but that is the meaning of the word “parachurch.” Another definition is given by Jerry W. White: “[The parachurch is] any spiritual ministry whose organization is not under the control or authority of a local congregation.” [↩]
3. www.tms.edu. [↩]
4. www.gracechurch.org. [↩]
5. This is not to say that there were no other churches in my area that were doing what they were commanded to do in Scripture. This is to say that I was not aware of them. [↩]
6. www.cru.org. [↩]
7. www.younglife.org. [↩]
8. www.fca.org. [↩]
9. White, 35. This article will focus on the differences but there are some similarities. Rather than create a specific list here, it will be helpful to point out that there is a broad range of parachurch ministries out there. According to one book published in 1983: “Para-local church groups now number between five thousand and ten thousand, and that number is increasing daily.” Today it is almost impossible to come up with a specific number for these groups or to come up with a specific list of the things they have in common with the church. There are just too many of them. [↩]
10. Ibid., 37. “Ralph Winter claims that the earliest functioning missionary expressions were mobile functions and specialists similar to some para-local church groups today. They were related to, but not exclusively controlled by, the local congregations.” [↩]
11. Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians in Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) 152. “In these verses the writer introduces building and temple imagery for the new community of the Church, of which his Gentile Christian readers had now become a part.” [↩]
12. 1 Corinthians 3:11 also says that Jesus is the foundation: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” [↩]
13. Francis Foulkes, Ephesians in The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989) 94. To describe the relation between the Apostles and Jesus in this regard, Francis Foulkes quotes Allan Turner to say: “The Church rests on the total unique Event of which Christ is the centre, but in which the apostles and prophets, filled and guided by the Spirit and doing their work in unique closeness to Christ, had an indispensable and untransmissible part.” [↩]
14. H. A. Ironside, Ephesians (Neptuze, N. J.: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 2000) 84. “Does Paul mean that the apostles and prophets are the foundation? Not at all. He means God’s temple is built on the foundation that the apostles laid. What foundation did they lay? Paul wrote, ‘Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3:11). So the apostles and the prophets proclaimed the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and on that foundation this glorious temple is being built.” [↩]
15. “The Great Evangelical Power Shift” by Stephen Board, June 1979 in Eternity Magazine (17). [↩]
16. www.answersingenesis.org. [↩]
17. www.desiringgod.org. [↩]
18. www.ligonier.org. [↩]
19. www.gty.org. [↩]
20. www.wayofthemaster.com. [↩]
21. www.9marks.org. [↩]
22. www.biblicalcounseling.org. [↩]
23. This information was borrowed from “9 Marks of a Healthy Parachurch” by J. Mack Stiles, March 1, 2011 at www.9marks.org. [↩]
24. Some parachurch ministries have Boards that are very similar to Elder Boards in the character and functions of the members. The point here is that there is nothing in the Bible that says that it must be that way. Parachurch ministries have no parameters on how they select leaders. [↩]
25. “9 Marks of a Healthy Parachurch” by J. Mack Stiles, March 1, 2011 at www.9marks.org. [↩]
26. 1 Corinthians 5:1 says: “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.” [↩]
27. Simon J. Kistemaker, 2 Corinthians in New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997) 76. “To protect the identity of the person concerned and to encourage the offender’s readmission into the church, Paul now speaks indirectly about the disciplinary problem with which the Corinthian church had to deal. The incident itself is well known to the recipients of the letter, so Paul has no need to be specific.” [↩]
28. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 says: “Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” [↩]
29. To access some of these, go to www.navigators.org and click on the “Tools” page. [↩]
30. Their training materials can be found on their website at www.wayofthemaster.com. [↩]
31. Their training materials can be found on their website at www.biblicalcounseling.com. [↩]
32. Their training materials can be found at www.answersingenesis.org. [↩]
33. Eph 5:22-32. [↩]
34. 1 Cor 12:12-31. [↩]