Pastor, you’ve got a sleeping giant in your church. If you awake that sleeping giant, it’ll change your church, your community and the world.

This sleeping giant in your church is your unengaged lay people.

If 10 percent of your church does most of the work, you have nine entire churches your size sitting on the sidelines each week. Fully engaged, the ministry potential of your church is mind-boggling!

Each Sunday, church pews are filled with members who are doing nothing with their faith except “keeping” it. The designationactive member in most churches simply means those who attend regularly andfinancially support the church. Not much more is expected.

But God has far greater expectations for every Christian. He expects every Christian to use their gifts and talents in ministry. If we can ever awaken and unleash the massive talent, resources, creativity, and energy found in the typical local church, Christianity will explode with growth at an unprecedented rate.

I believe that the greatest need in evangelical churches is the release of members for ministry. George Gallup once took a survey and discovered that only ten percent of American church members are active in any kind of personal ministry. He also discovered that 50 percent of all church members have no interest in serving in any ministry.  No matter how much a church promotes involvement in lay ministry, half of its members will remain spectators.

The encouraging news that Gallup uncovered is this: 40 percent of all members have expressed an interest in having a ministry. They would like to be involved in ministry but they have never been asked or they don’t know how. This group is an untapped gold mine! If we can mobilize this 40 percent and add them to the current ten percent already serving, your church could have 50 percent of its members active in a ministry.

Most evangelical churches believe in the concept that every member is a minister. Many even give it a major emphasis in their preaching and teaching.  Still, most members do nothing but attend and give.

That’s what our C.L.A.S.S. system is all about at Saddleback—turning your attendees into members, disciples, ministers and missionaries. CL.A.S.S. 301 is particularly designed to get your congregation out of the pews and into a Christ-exalting local church ministry. Check out the C.L.A.S.S. resources here.

Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America’s largest and most influential churches. Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life. His book, The Purpose Driven Church, was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. He is also the founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for pastors.

For the original article, visit pastors.com.

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