Some results of a study on Christian Community and on ministry in the Church by one of the founders of Willow Creek Community Church... "...the doctrine of the diversification of spiritual gifts means that no one individual can ever receive all the gifts and thus wear all the leadership hats and perform all the ministries single-handedly. Such a model of centralized ministry is not only absent in the New Testament but is also forbidden by it (1 Cor. 12:20–21). This is the issue on which clear scriptural directives and widely accepted ecclesiastical traditions collide head-on. Amazingly, tradition wins out over Scripture. The change from congregation-based ministries to the emergence of the “minister” as the performer of ministry for the local church did not occur overnight. It was the result of a long, historical process that began in postapostolic times, reached its full development in the medieval church, and was left essentially unchallenged by the Protestant Reformation. This gradual replacement of the priesthood of all believers by the ministry of a professional clergy has had disastrous consequences in two areas. The first is the disfranchisement of the laity from ministry. Awed by the elitist image projected by trained specialists, the average church member shrinks away from ministry involvements or reduces them to marginally supportive roles. The other deleterious aspect of the priestly model of ministry is the devastating effect it has on the ministers themselves. The clergy-dominant system of doing church places on pastors the unrealistic burden of acting as if they were universally gifted so as to be able to carry successfully the multitude of responsibilities that constitute the life of local congregations. Because no individual can claim to possess all the spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill the complex demands of ministry, such pastors often feel obligated to minister outside of their gift areas. As a result, they are in a no-win situation. Ministry easily becomes an incinerator for candidates to burn out. No minister, however gifted, can do everything, be everywhere, and meet all the expectations that are tacitly or explicitly built into a pastor’s job description. Biblically defined, the ministry of a local body requires the mobilization of its constituency. Congregations that foist their own responsibilities on their minister lock that person into a situation of despair. To make things worse, this manner of doing church has become institutionalized and given an aura of sanctity with the practice of “ordination.” At best, ordination is a public recognition of the calling of a candidate to ministry. At worst, it is a sacramental ritual that is thought to confer some spiritual grace on the candidate to habilitate and set him apart for a ministry to which laypeople are not supposed to qualify. In either case, the practice has scant biblical support, but it is heavy with traditional accretions that vary from denomination to denomination. It is commonly assumed that a connection exists between ordination and the ceremony of the laying on of hands, as if the latter justified the former. Although there are several reports of laying on of hands in the New Testament record, none can be understood as having much to do with ordination as it is currently practiced. Jesus laid hands on children and on the sick (Mark 6:5; 10:13–16; Luke 13:13; etc.), but he is never reported to have done so for the disciples or for anyone he commissioned to Christian service." Bilezikian, Gilbert (2009-08-30). Community 101 (pp. 154-156). Zondervan.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 14:02:27 +0000
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