Bible Studies
RECLAIMING THE MINISTRY
Read Luke 22, Acts 6, Ephesians 4, 1Peter 4
“The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God. Work and worship literally become one. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever; and man carries out that function when he does what God sent him into the world to do. Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to God. This means that the doctor on his rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the teacher in his classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at his canvas, the shop assistant at his counter, the typist at her typewriter, the housewife in her kitchen—all who are doing the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of worship.”
- William Barclay, The Revelation of John, vol. 1 [1961]
The road signs of many churches illustrate the problem. After listing the name of the church and times of services, there is often one person’s name, preceded by “reverend” and followed by “minister.”
The word “minister” isn’t the problem; the common use of it in the church today is. Minister is a good word, but it is generally used in exclusive ways today. If the church is to reclaim the biblical concept of ministry, there must be a radical change, a true paradigm shift, in our understanding of ministry. If the phrase “the minister” is allowed to refer uniquely and exclusively to what paid pastors do, the ministry will be hampered from happening. The challenge is that great; the stakes that high.
Evangelicals should welcome this challenge. After all, evangelicals consider themselves people of the Word. That is one of the widely agreed upon distinctives of evangelical conviction. We (I count myself an evangelical) hold a high view of the Scriptures. We discuss the nature of the inspiration of the Bible in serious ways, even to the point of argumentation, precisely because we care about the inspiration of the Word. Let there be no mistake, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God written, our infallible authority for right thinking and right living. The Reformation named the matter “sola scriptura,” reclaiming the singular sufficiency of the Bible for the church. It follows, then, that people of the Word should be people who care about words. Evangelicals are committed to preaching and teaching with words that serve and follow the Word. We like to hear sermons that deal carefully with words, unearthing their ancient and contemporary meanings, applying them faithfully to our lives. Words matter to us; words count.
I heard a well-known preacher/pastor lecturing at a well-known evangelical seminary on preaching. He was making the point that preachers need to do their own word studies, that commentaries may not be trusted fully to do that for us. He quoted C. S. Lewis to the effect that finding out what the words mean is worth a thousand commentaries. He told of how his own word studies occasionally unearth nuggets to be found by no other method and he shared a few moving examples. I was resonating with him, for on occasion (not as often as I’d like it to be) I have mined such a gem and nearly built a sermon around it. Then he made a comment about “clergy” needing to do this for the sake of the “laity.” We in “the ministry,” he suggested, need to do these intensive word studies, turning over every rock and pebble to find the meanings for the laity. He was right at one level and missed his own counsel at another.
Earlier that day I had met with a group of students for whom I was serving as a mentor in reclaiming the marketplace ministry of every believer. We had done some word studies that day and in previous meetings. We had looked at the New Testament words for “ministry,” “laity,” and “clergy.” We had discovered that ministry is what all Christians do and that the root words for laity and clergy are never used to distinguish between two distinct groups in the church. Indeed both words, laity and clergy, are used in the New Testament only of all believers. One of the students in my mentoring group was at the presentation I described above. On the way out he saw me in the lobby, pulled me aside, and said the guest lecturer needed to heed his own counsel—he hadn’t done his word studies in ministry, clergy, and laity. The student was on target.
These three words are vital to reclaiming the church’s right understanding of the ministry. The first is ministry itself. While the New Testament has a handful of words that can be translated as ministry, one is dominant: diakonia, from which we get deacon and deaconing. A look at four passages will establish the nature and scope of the ministry. The first one takes places at a crucial time in the passion of Jesus. In Luke 22 he has just instituted the Lord’s Supper. From the disciples questioning among themselves as to which of them would betray Jesus, an entirely different kind of dispute erupted.
24A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
It never ceases to amaze me that Jesus didn’t upbraid them. We might have expected him to say something like, “How dare you bring up such a mundane topic at such a poignant time. I’m about to die and you’re arguing about which of you is thought of most highly!” Instead he uses their vanity to drive home (again—how many times would it take them to get this?) the entirely different nature of his work. I have highlighted in bold Italics the way Jesus used diakonia in responding to the disciples query and in establishing the style of his service. We see that the disciples were using the Roman model of hierarchy, perks, and privileges. In drawing the contrast, Jesus uses the clearest language to drive the point home: “Not so among you . . . .” He goes on to portray himself as a table waiter (we’re not talking The Ritz or The Four Seasons, but perhaps the local truck stop or diner here) and offers that, no less, as the model for greatness in his kingdom. In fact the image works doubly here, for he had just instituted the central meal of the faith, at that an alarmingly simple meal, hardly a feast by anyone’s standards. Greatness in the Kingdom of our Lord is, in fact, available to disciples. All it means is finding humble places of service and serving humbly.
In Acts 6 the young church is facing a significant structural problem. The church has grown dramatically and here feels the pinch of unmet expectations. Church growth is always painful (more painful is lack of church growth!).
1Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5What they said pleased the whole community . . . . 7The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
The word diakonia is used in its purest form here in the first two instances (again highlighted in bold Italics). In both cases it refers to serving food to hungry people. The decision of the leadership twelve is not a put-down of the food ministry, but a recognition of two specific needs: the serving of the bread and the serving of the Word. The qualifications for serving bread are notable, “. . . men of good standing, full of the Spirit and wisdom. . . .” We might expect the same qualities in those given to prayer and study. The recognition is that both ministries are valid and, in fact, depend upon each other. The same word is used in verse 4 for studying the Word as is used in verses 1 and 2 for distributing the bread: diakonia. As a pastor I know that when the congregation is doing the ministry of fairly distributing of bread to the hungry (and all that stands for in responding to other kinds of temporal needs), my preaching will have a greater hearing. The ministry of the deacons will validate the ministry of the pastor, and vice versa. Each ministry serves and gives integrity to the other. There is no artificial weighting of one service against the other: both belong, side by side, in a healthy church. When churches put a higher value on the distribution of the bread they, while feeding the hungry at one level, do not serve the needs of the hungry fully. When churches put a higher value on the study and preaching of the Word they, while feeding the hungry at one level, do not serve the needs of the hungry fully. It is holistic ministry that responds to temporal and spiritual needs with the same urgency and refuses to set them against each other or see one as more inherently spiritual than the other.
In Ephesians 4 we have a clear reference to pastors (the only one in the New Testament). I am a working pastor. In fact, apart from summer and part time jobs during high school and college years, I have worked for churches full time for my whole adult life. I love being a pastor (well, for the most part—there are parts that I don’t love). God willing, I will retire or die as a pastor. Pastoring is a form of ministry, of serving, of diakonia. But it is not the ministry, the diakonia. Essential to my calling is preparing all the saints for work of diakonia, of serving, of ministering. The work of ministry is too important, too multi-faceted, too demanding to be left to a few. No few are gifted sufficiently for this work. The gifts are distributed among all the members of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12:3-8, 1 Peter 4:10-11, which will be treated next in this article, alongside Ephesians 4:11-16 to catch the New Testament’s insistence on this point).
11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
“The saints” always refers to the whole gathering of believers in the New Testament—it is never used of a select group of believers. The building up of the body of Christ is the work of all the believers. Does the pastor have a special role? Yes, in setting a tone that equips and empowers all the disciples for ministry. If pastors hold the ministry as their own, they simply keep the body from maturity. Note how in verses 15 and 16 Paul links all the members of the body together in what God is doing. The ministry belongs to all of us, pastors included.
No New Testament gift list is as simple and profoundly exhaustive as the one in 1 Peter 4:10-11. With whatever gifts we have received, each is to serve, to minister, to deacon. Some will have speaking gifts; more will have non-speaking gifts (I think a look at all the lists bears this out)—all will minister. Peter puts this admonition in the framework of stewardship:
10Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
As long as we are comfortable with pastors being called “the ministers,” as long as “the ministry” refers to what a few professionals do, we will be seriously hindered in moving forward as a church reformed by God’s Word.
I learned about deaconing from my mother. She never held the office of deacon in the church, but she showed me deaconing. When I was a young teenager, every Friday and Saturday afternoon she would leave our home, usually with dinner already prepared, and go to her waitressing job at Pasquale's Italian Restaurant in Los Angeles. She would get home late and there was a good chance there would be pizza in the refrigerator for me to eat cold for breakfast on Saturday morning. On Sunday morning she would be up to get us ready to go to Sunday School and worship together. Then she got me a job as the dishwasher where she worked. Then I got promoted to being the busboy. I would bus the tables for whatever waitresses were there, but I quickly learned that my mother was the best one. She cared about the people at the tables she served and they noticed. They tipped her accordingly, which mattered to me because no customers tip busboys, only waitresses do. If she had a good tipping night, so did I. So I started trying harder to help her so that she could be the best waitress she could be. And where did that hard-earned money she made on Friday and Saturday nights go? I'm guessing it helped her youngest son go to college someday.
I share this very personal recollection because the word for deaconing, the New Testament Greek word for deaconing, the word used three times in this important little passage of six verses--that word means to serve or minister. Herodotus, the Greek historian who lived nearly five hundred years before Jesus, used it to mean "waiting on table." It is often used of what is commonly called, "women's work." Knowing that deaconing means waiting on tables, caring for people's needs, even in menial ways, I remind you of what Jesus said in Luke 22:24-27. There a dispute broke out among his closest followers about who was the greatest. Jesus said this to them: "For who is greater, the one who is at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at table? But I am among you as one who serves (literally, 'deacons')." Remember that the next time you are being served a meal at a restaurant or at home. 'Deacon' is the normal New Testament word for 'minister,' which helps you know why I do not like to be called 'the minister.' Deacon is the word for all who are in ministry. Listen to how that word is used in Acts 6:1-6. The first time is in verse 1, of distributing food. The second time is in verse 2, of waiting on tables. The third time is in verse 4, where the apostles say, "we will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." You didn't hear it? It was the word for serving, serving the word. I have a deaconing to do that is different than the deaconing of others, but it is not greater or lesser.
The ministry of the Church belongs to all the people of the Church. Let’s reclaim our biblical birthright. Let the Church be the Church.
Harry Heintz is pastor of Brunswick Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York.
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