Who is called to ministry?

TROWEL & SWORD

Who is called to ministry?

Rev. B. Berends

Where I worshipped in Nigeria for many years every church had two pulpits, an elevated one for those who were ordained, and a lower one for the “lay” preachers. I often preached from the “lay” pulpit in order to make the point that the distinction between laity and clergy is not a valid one in our churches. In Reformed churches we preach the priesthood of all believers (Lord’s Day 12) and recognise that everyone has his or her calling from God. But do we always practice what we preach? Do we make enough provision for the unordained to use their God given talents to reach out to the world, to serve God’s people, and to glorify his name?

The Bible does not know of any distinction between laity and clergy. The word laos, which lies at the root of the word laity, is always used for the whole people of God, and never excludes the leaders. And the word kl_ros, which gives us the word “clergy”, is used for the apostles (Acts 1:17 & 26) as well as for the “flock” (1 Pet. 5:3). Even so there is no real problem in distinguishing the ordained from the unordained, and to give them different labels. But the division between laity and clergy has a long history, which was pointedly rejected by the Reformers.

The classification of laity and clergy was first used by Clement of Rome to distinguish the Levitical order from the rest of the Israelites. But soon after, when church leaders began to be called priests, the distinction was also applied in the Church to distinguish between the leaders and the congregation. It was Jerome, producer of the Vulgate version of the Bible favoured by Catholics, who first clearly defined the clergy as a class apart. Citing Ps. 16:5 and 73:26 he identified clergy as those who make the LORD the portion (kl_ros) of their inheritance. He argued that, like the Priests and Levites of old, bishops and priests should have no earthly possessions but lead an ascetic lifestyle, finding their contentment in serving the Lord.

A different definition of a cleric was given by Augustine, who referred to the election of Matthias in Acts 1 to argue that the clergy were those chosen for office. This would have been a more useful definition, since Jerome’s definition was more descriptive of monks and nuns, who had chosen a celibate and ascetic lifestyle. Some of these were ordained, but most were not. So when the church chose to follow Jerome’s rather than Augustine’s definition, the resulting confusion between priests and monks had two unfortunate results. First, those ordained to the priesthood were now required to refrain from marriage and worldly goods. And second, this approach created two classes of Christians, lay people and clergy.

This division can be clearly seen in twelfth century canon law, which stated:

There are two classes of Christians. There is one kind which is appointed to divine office, dedicated to contemplation and prayer, and who have agreed to cease from all worldly tumult to become clerics, devoted to God and clearly converted… There is another sort of Christians who are called lay folk. Laos means “people”. These are allowed to possess temporal goods, but only what they need for use… They are allowed to marry, to till the earth, to pronounce judgements on men’s disputes and plead in court, to lay their offerings on the altar, to pay their tithes: and so they can be saved, if they do good and avoid evil. (Gratian’s Decree)

This division was further enforced when Thomas Aquinas divided the world into the two realms of grace and nature, placing the clergy in the first, and the laity in the second realm. Not only were clergy restricted in their participation in the realm of nature, but lay people, similarly, were restricted in the realm of grace. It now was considered a sin for lay people to involve themselves in activities like reading God’s Word. This was reserved for the clergy, who alone could lead people to salvation.

The Protestant reaction to this division is well known. Martin Luther taught that all God’s people had a calling, not just the clergy, and that all God’s people were allowed to enjoy the bounties of God’s creation, including marriage. Moreover, all Christians were encouraged to read God’s Word for themselves, in the recognition that all believers were called to office, as prophets, priests and kings. Nevertheless we may well ask whether the Reformation went far enough in recognising the role of the unordained in the ministry of the church. In the context of Christendom the distinction between those who were called to minister in the Church and those who were called to other Kingdom tasks (in the widest sense of the word) perpetuated some of the distinctions between laity and clergy.

Among the tasks reserved for Ministers were the preaching of God’s Word, the administration of the sacraments, and the imparting of the blessing. If this had simply been a ruling of the Church Order this would have been appropriate, because such arrangements were expedient in the context. However, some of these task descriptions were taken up in the Confessions. Thus the Belgic Confession (Art. 30, 34) identifies preaching and administration as a task of the Minister, implying that it was improper for “lay” people to perform these tasks. The Westminster Confession goes further, explicitly stating that the sacraments may only be dispensed “by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained” (WCF 27:6).
But is this indeed what the Scriptures teach us? Are there some tasks which are reserved for the pastor alone? Indeed, by definition the minister of the Word (cf. 1 Tim. 5:17) is expected to preach. Moreover, since Word and sacrament should go together (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 11:18; Belgic Confession Art. 33), we would also expect the minister to administer the sacraments. But does that mean no-one else, under the supervision of the session, should ever do these tasks? There are no directions in Scripture as to who should administer the sacraments, not even in Paul’s detailed instructions in 1 Cor. 11. But when it comes to preaching, it would appear that this was open to all those who were gifted to preach.

The Apostles, who had a special task to witness to Christ’s resurrection, gave their special attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 1:22b; 2:42; 6:4). But they were not the only ones to preach the word. When, soon after Pentecost, believers prayed for boldness to witness in the face of opposition we see that:

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31)

Also following the persecution at the death of Stephen we read:

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. (Acts 8:2)

Clearly preaching the Gospel was not limited to the apostles. But does this mean, as some have suggested1, that lay people preached only outside of the fellowship – in witnessing? This is hard to tell from the book of Acts. Those “deacons” who preached (Stephen and Phillip) are shown preaching in the context of evangelism. Judas, Silas and many others preached in Antioch, but possibly they were all ordained leaders (Acts 15:35).

It is probable that Christians continued in the way of the Synagogue, allowing mature males to read and expound the Word (see Lk. 4:16ff.). Paul and Barnabas made use of this practice to share the Gospel (Acts 13:15), and when Priscilla and Aquila first came across Apollos he was preaching at a synagogue at Ephesus (Acts 18:24ff.). But the book of Acts is descriptive rather than prescriptive, and we must be careful not to draw too many conclusions from it as to what was the rule in the church in its primitive state. For this we must go to the epistles.

Here, too, we see that all Christians were encouraged to share the Gospel. Paul writes the Colossians: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God” (Col. 3:16). And the author of Hebrews upbraids his readers for their immaturity, when they ought to have been teachers (Heb 5:12). But the place of all in the ministry of the church comes out most clearly in teachings on the gifts:

We [each of us, v. 4] have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (Rom. 12:6-8)
The context shows that all of these are gifts for use within the church community, the body of Christ. They are not gifts for kingdom work, like gifts for medicine, architecture, cooking, etc.

The same is true for the lists of gifts in Eph. 4, where the gifts are linked to specific offices and functions in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, whose job it is “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”

It is especially in 1 Cor. 12 –14 that we learn that all church members may have gifts to be used in the worship service. Again it is emphasised that everyone has “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” and that this comes to expression both in gifts and offices (some of which we believe to have been unique to that period of time, though we can’t go into that now). But what is interesting for us here is Paul’s conclusion:

When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. (14:26

Women have a specific contribution to make within the Christian community. Paul counsels:

- that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children. (Tit . 2:3,4)

Clearly there is no room here for a division of Christ’s body such as the division between clergy and lay people, as seen above. Ministry is the calling of the whole body of Christ, each contributing according to their gifts. The important rule here is that “everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:30). And that is why we need a Church Order, and a session, and pastors, elders and deacons. That’s why we don’t have the sacraments at our small group meetings, and why we come together for a formal worship service.

Let me encourage the readers to seek to use their gifts in ministry: in outreach, in small groups, and even in the Sunday services. Develop your gifts, making use of the various courses taught at local Bible colleges, or the RTC’s Distance Education Program. And allow me to urge church leaders to make this possible, by removing any divisions between laymen and clergy; and any barriers left over from a different age, and a different context. But when such changes are made let us also remember to do things in an orderly way, guided by the Word and Spirit. Because our God is an orderly God, and we are to reflect his image in our worship also. This is how we all can minister, bringing glory to his name.

1 E.g. Yves Congar, in Lay People in the Church (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965), p.425f.

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