If the Church Did Its Job, Would the Parachurch Exist?

I’ve heard it said more than once: “If the church did its job, the parachurch wouldn’t have to exist.”

For instance, I was consulting with a local pastor who wanted to see the church serve people in poverty in his community. It was important to him that the church do it, not a nonprofit. Since he understood that God’s kingdom is bigger than his congregation, he wanted to engage multiple churches in the project.

I suggested he consider forming a council of pastors and collectively hiring a staff member to manage the operations of the combined program. He thought that could work well for his context. I’m not sure he was aware of the irony. I certainly was: We’d just reinvented a variant of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that he so keenly wanted to avoid in the first place.

While the allergy to faith-based nonprofits was especially strong in his case, many people accept the premise at a basic level. In my experience, this sentiment is just as likely to come from someone who works in nonchurch ministry as from a pastor.

If we understand the church is the core institution created by Christ to advance the kingdom of heaven, has it failed so badly that we need an army of auxiliaries to prop it up?

Clarifying Terms and Roles

I answer that the parachurch doesn’t exist because the church has failed. It exists because God’s commands naturally generate institutions beyond family, church, and state. Proving that starts with clarifying terms.

The parachurch exists because God’s commands naturally generate institutions beyond family, church, and state.

“Church” has more than one use in Scripture. In some contexts, it describes the people of God universally (Matt. 16:15–18; Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18). In others, it’s a local congregational institution with the parameters God has placed around its operation (1 Thess. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1–5; Philem. 1:2; James 5:14).

“Parachurch” typically refers to faith-based nonprofits who serve people in need or provide evangelistic and discipleship resources.

Certainly, as part of the universal church, all God’s people hold equal status in advancing God’s mission, whether they labor as nurses, students, pastors, or tentmakers (see Acts 18:1–3). Just as surely, all God’s people shouldn’t merely attend but be accountable to a local congregation that enables their spiritual formation.

When not assembled, God’s people are charged with many tasks—everything from stewarding creation to seeking justice for the oppressed. We can fulfill these tasks as individuals, but it often makes sense to create or join institutions dedicated to fulfilling them.

Which brings us to a crucial point: God ordained some institutions specifically, and some emerged organically from God’s commands.

Ordained or Emergent Institutions

The family, the local church, and the government are ordained institutions. The Bible gives each ordained institution some guidance but also leaves a lot open to interpretation.

While these ordained institutions are necessary for all people, they aren’t sufficient to fulfill God’s myriad commands to their fullest extent. Thus, some institutions emerge from the commands, rather than from a revealed institutional structure:

• The command to work led to the formation of businesses.
• The command to pass knowledge to subsequent generations led to the formation of schools.
• The command to care for the sick caused Christians to form the first hospitals.
• The command to care for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers led to the formation of charities.
• The command to make disciples of all nations led to mission boards, publishing houses, and Bible-translation ministries.

This ordained-emergent distinction parallels Abraham Kuyper’s “sphere sovereignty” in its recognition of institutions not explicitly outlined in Scripture. Many of these commands can be fulfilled to some lesser degree by the ordained institutions, but there are limitations. A family may work without forming a business, but they’ll never raise a skyscraper.

Most believers recognize that the bulk of emergent institutions are legitimate. No one says, “If the church did its job being hospitable, restaurants wouldn’t need to exist.” Similarly, I don’t hear a lot of people saying, “If the church cared for the sick, hospitals wouldn’t need to exist.”

Businesses, schools, hospitals, and charities all work best when operated by believers in accordance with God’s precepts. But they don’t have to answer to a plurality of elders any more than they have to be structured like a family whose children must answer to their parents.

Churches, Nonprofits, and Businesses

Ordained institutions have distinct mandates that limit what other institutions should do. That’s why Paul instructs Timothy that the local church shouldn’t aid a widow who has a family capable of aiding her (1 Tim. 5:3–4).

Without question, overeager nonprofits at times impinge on the core duties of a family or local church. But in general, emergent institutions are legitimate and complement the work of the government, congregation, and family.

Ordained institutions have distinct mandates that limit what other institutions should do.

The Bible acknowledges this by its support of businesses. While the command to work is ordained by God, Scripture nowhere defines a prescriptive business structure. Yet the employer-employee relationship is acknowledged as legitimate, and the institution as one that promotes human flourishing.

Once for-profit entities aren’t viewed as a local congregation’s failure, the line between a kingdom-minded business and a kingdom-minded nonprofit becomes fuzzy. For instance, plenty of for- and nonprofit enterprises intentionally employ and disciple people who are difficult to employ. Surely the tax structure doesn’t determine the theological validity of the enterprise.

Thus, claims like “God created the church; he didn’t create the pregnancy resource center”—while true in the most literal sense—don’t communicate much of value. It’s a bit like saying, “God made trees. He didn’t make your table.” My table is made almost entirely of trees. The table is a good thing for which I should be grateful to God.

The parachurch exists because God’s commands naturally generate institutions beyond family, church, and state. The more the church does its job, the more local congregations there will be, the more nonprofits there will be, and the more redemptive businesses there will be.

The question isn’t whether the church should replace the parachurch but whether God’s people will faithfully build every institution needed to accomplish his will.