The Priesthood Of A Few Believers
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” – 1 Peter 2:9 (TNIV)
One of the major themes I see discussed in the pursuit of a missional mindset is the gap between clergy, those who have been recognized as the spiritual authority and tend to “do God’s work,” and the laity, everyone else. Our institution of church, built over centuries, is one where most Christ-followers aren’t fully living out what they can do for the Kingdom. Here are three ways that I see our current methods widening that gap.
1. Overemphasis on religious education
Now, don’t get me wrong, although I feel there are some aspects worth examining in Christian College/Seminary education, I am very glad it exists and very glad it was part of my own life. Nonetheless, in the non-denominational church I’ve noticed that we have traditionally “sold” Bible College to our young people as the ultimate step of faith and path to vocational ministry. The result is a two-class system in local church leadership, those that have the “official” training and those who do not. This flies in the face of the kind of ecclesiology Alan Hirsch describes when talking about missional DNA, where every Christ-follower has in the Holy Spirit the basic elements to bring the gospel the his or her community.*
My question is this: if this higher education is so important, why do we make it so hard to attain? Most Christ-Followers don’t have the time or resources ($200+ per class, just to audit) to get that kind of education. The path of high school»bible college»vocational ministry may have made sense in the 20th century middle class church, but what about other contexts?
The good news is that some schools are starting to release their teaching for free. While we are far from an open-source methodology when it comes to Biblical instruction, here are some links to the kind of resources that could lead us in that direction (iTunes audio links):
John Goldingay’s Biblical Hermeneutics course from Fuller Seminary
2. Ordination
The ordination of ministers is at best an impractical tradition that needs redefinition, at worst one that creates an institutionalized, limited transfer of spiritual authority. While some churches rightly view ordination as an endorsement of (and commitment of ongoing support for) a leader in their community, generally it is an inconsistent and unregulated process that just produces confusion. I’ve heard folks outside the vocational church world talk about ordination as if it is some sort of magical assessment by a council of wizards that bestows the power to “marry and bury”. There are a lot of traditional (and some legal) aspects to ordination I don’t have the opportunity to address in this post– maybe in a future article I can dig deeper. For now, I just want to question the value of our current take on ordination if we truly believe that all of those who God saves are also those who God sends.
3. Celebritizing church leaders
It is no secret that a lot of folks give undue attention to the people who lead them… but the church on a whole tends to emphasize this. Pastors often illustrate their messages with stories where they are the hero, or they are the star of the latest funny church video, or they make sure only certain key people get to have an audience with them. As soon as we idolize ministers as extraordinary people, we cause ordinary people to doubt their ability to minister. Likewise, a church that is based on a singular personality is built on a shifting foundation. Many pastors truly are worthy of our utmost respect, but we can’t forget that Christ is the head of all.
