An Upside Down View
Most churches in America today exist in an upside down condition where the roles of the individual members (saints) are switched with the roles of its leaders or authorities.
The purpose of the visible church is first and foremost to worship God according to His will. Also, other functions exist as well. The church is to exhort, teach, and support the members (saints), keep the sacraments, and to protect the purity of the doctrine of the faith. Within the church there are a number of different positions designed to accomplish these tasks including deacons, elders, and pastors.
The responsibilities of the members (saints) are many and include evangelism. Too often the members advocate this responsibility of evangelism to the church. It is so often assumed by so many members that the pastor or perhaps the outreach committee will fulfill the great commission.
Too often the outreach committee is involved in planning ice cream socials, bean dinners, book sales, backpack stuffing programs, and all sorts of other activities under the guise of presenting an opportunity to share the Gospel.
Perhaps the outreach committee would function more readily if it were to engage in evangelism training and leave the special evangelism outreach events up to the newly trained saints.
These saints may then organize amongst themselves any special events regarding evangelism. They could even solicit support from the church in many various forms to support their efforts, all the while shouldering the burden of evangelism themselves.
When the roles of the visible church and the roles of the saints are in proper order then there exists sanctity within the sanctuary, an edification of the saints, and a proper Gospel preached.