Disappearance of the Ministry?
While degrees of change and variation are features of the life of the church throughout the centuries, there are, unmistakably, eras when the pace of change is quickened. Certain forms of church life, for instance, may remain basically the same over a long period of time; then, comparatively suddenly, new ideas and new influences may bring about an upheaval and a reordering of the old patterns, and not necessarily for the better. At the present point in time, in many parts of the English-speaking world, there is unquestionably an increasing demand for a major change with respect to the ministerial office and calling. Given the strength of this feeling, one would have to be blind to realities to suppose that the position of ministers in years to come will necessarily remain more of less what it has been during these last three or four centuries. The potential now exists in many quarters for the virtual disappearance of the Christian ministry in the form in which it has hitherto been known in most Protestant Churches. Indeed, this movement has already gone so far, and its opinions have been so widely spread, that it has become difficult for ministers to disagree without giving further impetus to the very influence which they wish to check. To some innovators, any defence of the traditional position will only be seen as further proof that ministers have a vested interest in upholding ‘clericalism’. Be that as it may, the subject of the Christian ministry is of great importance. In some respects it is one of the most urgent issues in the contemporary Christian scene.
The New Testament does not permit us to separate the Christian Faith from the means which God has appointed for the preservation and advancement of the Faith in the world. We cannot say that ‘the gospel alone matters’ because the Scriptures show us that men are ‘put in trust with the gospel’ (I Thess 2:4), and how such men are to discharge their work is the responsibility of ‘the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth’ (1 Tim 3:15). For just such reasons as these John Calvin wrote on the significance of the ministry:
‘Whoever, therefore, either is trying to abolish this order of which we speak and this kind of government, or discounts it as not necessary, is striving for the undoing or rather the ruin and destruction of the church. For neither the light and heat of the sun, nor food and drink, are so necessary to nourish and sustain the present life as the apostolical and pastoral office is necessary to preserve the church on earth.”
Statements of this kind are scarcely in harmony with the present mood on the subj ect of the ministry. On the contrary, there is a whole series of influences which, with varying degrees of explicitness, would oppose the emphasis supplied by this quotation.
Dislike of Organization
First, there is a common dislike of thinking of the church in terms of organization and structure. In part this is due to a re-action among Christians to serious error. As evangelicals we have stressed that union with Christ is the only necessity for salvation and we have held that, irrespective of denominations, all true Christians are one in Christ. Our concern has been not so much with tradition and visible structures but with living Christianity—with ‘organism’ not organization.
There is, of course, vital truth in such statements. Protestantism does not make men dependent upon churches, or priests, or sacraments for salvation. And yet this attitude is often carried to an unbiblical extreme. New Testament churches were not haphazard associations of individual Christians who happened to meet together just as and when they pleased. Church membership was not a variable, voluntary option. On the contrary, New Testament churches had government, discipline and authority. ‘Life’ and ‘structure’ are not to be seen as opposites. ‘Organism’ and ‘organization’ belong together. Paul joyed to behold the ‘order’ of the church at Colosse (Col 2:5).
Today a loose attitude to the order of the church is world-wide. It has been brought on, in part, by the prevalence of ‘para-churches’ and of non-denominational organizations, but this looseness is not uninfluenced by the spirit of our times. There were many in the pagan world of the new Testament age who ‘despised government,’ ‘spoke evil of dignities’ and did not recognize that ‘the powers that be are ordained of God.’ Even Christians had to be instructed to recognize rightful authority both in the church and in the State: ‘Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they must give account’ (Heb. 13:17).
In the modern secular ethos of independency and individualism there is sometimes even in Christians an unconscious prejudice against the very spirit which Scripture enjoins.
Downgrading Preaching
Second, there is at the present time a widespread depreciation of the foremost public work for which the ministry exists. This is not an age of preaching. In many churches mid-week preaching died out years ago. Days of revival when preaching was a daily occurrence are almost unthinkable. In many churches preaching is tolerated–people may be willing to hear one sermon per Sunday-but there is a fairly common doubt as to its real importance. Many seem to think that, perhaps, it is out of date for a man to ‘declaim’ from the pulpit to ‘passive pewsitters’; discussions or dialogues would be better; perhaps group-Bible studies are more useful; and that in all probability today visual representations of the gospel in mime or drama are more effective. Certainly a little preaching for most professing Christians seems to be quite enough. It is, then, scarely surprising that the view which regards the ministerial office as outmoded should be gaining ground at a time when the chief work of that office is so devalued.
“All Christians Are Ministers”
Third, in addition to the general attitudes mentioned above, specific teachings are now being energetically propagated which deliberately aim at changing the historic view of the Christian ministry. So commonplace and recurring are these teachings at the present time that no one can have missed them. But while their tendency is all in the same direction, there are widespread variations in the views presented. Some now reject ‘professional’ ministers altogether. Others will grant ‘paid preachers’ a role provided it is markedly different from their present one. A writer in The Evangelical Times,2 for instance, clearly not uninfluenced by the ideas of which we speak, quotes the words of Juan Carlos Ortiz with approval: ‘The pastor is the cork in the church. Nobody can go out because the pastor is not perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry. Rather he is preventing the saints from becoming ministers.”
A thousand publications, often from the United States, and trading on ambiguities of language, proclaim the same point. All Christians are ‘ministers’—the old-time usage which applied the word exclusively to one group must be done away! Thus Paul Benjamin, in The Equipping Ministry writes: