Illiterate but not Ignorant.

I feel like at times the church (I use this term loosely for the moment) holds itself to a substandard on purpose.  The majority of family members (being part of God's family, the church) aren't educated in the ways of God and things of Christ.  History proves this to be true.  We have created our own traditions of only using highly educated pastors to be the professionals Christians who have all the answers (even to questions no one is asking), lead all the ministries, and teach all the people.  This has left us at a major disadvantage for the gospel in the United States.  The concept of a priesthood of all believers is viewed only as an inward experience and has no ramifications outwardly or corporately as one body in Christ.  There is little to no desire for the average, church going Christian to participate in ministry.  They feel it's not their calling or that they are not gifted for ministry.

To me, this doesn't add up.  I read an article from Mission Frontiers a month or so ago about how Church Planting Movements (CPM's) in India are increasing dynamically along with churches in other parts of the world.  The key to their expansion was that every believer in Christ within a local community was brought together and taught very foundational things of Christ to create a church.  Part of their training included the mission and responsibility of sharing their new found faith with others.  The trainee's were so on fire, it almost seemed natural for them to share this new hope with others (i.e. family, friends, and co-workers).  Once the group was founded in the basics of faith and elders were selected (the elders were chosen based upon biblical qualifications which they produced almost naturally once they came to faith), they were left to go and continue this process of building the body of Christ.  Some of these Christians can't even read.  Yet, they still work towards fulfilling their mission of sharing the gospel with others.  Even our oldest, average Christians don't feel the need to do this kind of work.  This is a very scary thing.

Illiterate people, in this article about CPM's, were out in the front lines sharing the gospel with others.  They were illiterate but not ignorant of the truth and even they managed to preach the gospel effectively.  I think at times we are just the opposite.  We are literate but completely ignorant because of our traditional way of doing things.  Our minds are so capable of understanding but we don't know how or want to learn these basic principles of Christ.  We have the ability to be a driving force in the Church but remain dormant.  We are stagnant.  What will it take to become part of the mission of Christ?