"Ministers";
with a mission
ALL
of "God's
People"
(link)
are "MINISTERS"... EACH with a "MISSION" --
assigned by God.
Selected
from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's
Terrific Tablets"
(
http://www.terrific-tabs.com
)
by John
N. Todd III, M. D.
(link)
The web-link to this
"tablet" is: http://www.terrific-tabs.com/print_ministry.htm
To send a "live" link to a friend, copy and paste
this web-link in an email message.
|
9/00;
6/01; 8/01; 9/01 11/01; 2/02; 3/02; 8/02; 10/02; 4/03; 5/03;
11/03; 12/03; 9/04; 11/04; 2/05; 3/05; 8/05; 5/06;
10/15/06
CLICK
HERE to go to the "FRONT
PAGE"
of "The
Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
CLICK
HERE for ALPHABETICAL
INDEX of
this entire
WEBSITE
CLICK
HERE to EMAIL
your thoughts to the author
1 Corinthians 3:
5 (NRSV) What then is Apollos? What is Paul?
Servants through whom you came to believe --
as the Lord ASSIGNED to each. 6
I
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the
growth. 7 So neither the one who plants,
nor the one who waters, is anything....
but only God, who gives
the growth. 8 The one who plants and
the one who waters have a common purpose.... and
each will receive wages according to the labor of
each. 9 For we are God's
SERVANTS -- working together.
You are God's field.... God's
building. 10 According to the
grace of God given to me.... like a
skilled master builder.... I laid a foundation; and
someone else is building on it. Each
builder must choose with care how
to build on it.
My purpose
in this section, is to raise the following question (and
then to answer it -- to my own
satisfaction): Must an individual be
employed by "the church".... in a certain "religious"
position, such as pastor, or priest, or bishop, or rabbi....
in order to be deemed to be a "minister"? That
is, are all of God's
"ministers" necessarily employed
by a church? (See link, What
is "the church"?)
OR.....
are there not many other
individuals -- indeed ALL
individuals who belong
to God, who are also
"ministers".... servants of
God -- each with a "mission"....
and ALL serving God, and God's people.... just
as surely as those church-ministers who are
"employed" by an institutional church?
The clear and apparent answer, to
me, is "yes".... each
of
God's
people
(link), individually, is indeed a minister
of God.
"A
minister". What is a "minister; who
is a "minister"? Who can be a "minister"?
According to the dictionary, the word "minister" comes from
a Latin word meaning "servant". A "servant" is one
who serves others. A minister is "one
who ministers to others". The verb "to minister"
means "to give care, service, and aid; as to the wants and
necessities of others". There is nothing about the
definition of the word "minister" that indicates that
its use should be restricted to functions having to
do with the institutional "church".
Also, according to the dictionary,
"The
ministry" is the "office,
duties, services, or functions" of one who ministers,
including the work of one who ministers in
"the church". (The term,"the church", also needs to be
defined, when one refers to service for
"the church". My understanding of what
constitutes
The
Church
[see link] is discussed in another section.)
In some
governmental organizations, the term "ministry" is
used in reference to certain departments of government;
e.g., "ministry of finance".
In "the church", a "minister" is one who is employed
by a church to "conduct religious worship" -- as a
pastor, church manager, and
supervisor.
Now, the
questions.... for you, and for me.
Does God's "call" to "the ministry" come only
for an individual's service as a clergyman for
an institutional church?
Or....
does God's "call" (to re-use that traditional term)
come also for the "service" of each of His
people -- in all kinds of different
"ministries".... ministries that may have
no apparent pertinence within the
confines of an institutional church?
Clearly, the answer is to the last question is ,
"yes".
Would anyone say that a prerequisite to becoming a
minister (a "servant") for God would be attendance at a
"seminary"? Of course not! Would anyone say that a
Godsperson (a "God's person") must study
homiletics and hermeneutics at a church
college, in order to become knowledgeable
about God, and about God's Bible? Must
a Godsperson be "ordained" by a group of men, before he or
she is accepted and
recognized, by God, as a
"servant" (minister) of God? Silly questions!
Is it not clear to everyone, that there are
innumerable "ministries" of God,
for God? Is any single "ministry" any
more important, to God, than another? Is not
the "ministry" of, say, being a mother -- raising and
training children -- just as important as the obligatory
duties of a church employee, referred to as a "preacher"?
What about the "ministry" of a teacher, a physician, a
nurse, a carpenter, an artist, an accountant, a plumber? Are
these "ministries" any less important,
to God, than those forms of "ministry" that
are confined to the institutional "church"?
Would anyone say that all "good" in the world, all
"service" for God, all "ministering" -- must
come only through the auspices of the human and
earthly institutional church? Of course not.
Can God not function through the hands of
His people, even when these individuals are not
attached to a "church" -- or when they do not "belong" to a
certain denomination? Clearly, yes!
Is it not obvious that God may choose to divulge
His truth, and His
message, to ALL of His people,
however they are employed; and whether or not they wear a
clerical collar, or a long black
robe? Would anyone say that God's people, whatever
their vocations may be, are unable to
understand God's Holy Bible, without the "help"
of a seminary-trained preacher? Who would claim that a
church-employed minister has more "correct"
answers about God, and about the Bible,
than any other devoted student of God? Does a college
degree in "theology" impart to a pastor the full and
final truth about God -- and about the Bible?
Do church-related ministers have any greater
closeness to God, or any greater
access to God, than any -- or
all -- of God's children..... God's "ministers"?
Obviously not!
Are the prayers of a preacher any more
effective with God, than your fervent prayers
-- and mine? Are Sunday ceremonial
invocations, in a great cathedral, any more
audible to our God, and any more
powerful, than an individual's earnest and
honest and heartfelt conversations with God?
Are our sincere pleas and petitions to God any
less influential, because we have prayed at
home, or in a closet, or in an
automobile? Must my prayers to God be heard
by other humans, in order to be
made effective? Silly questions! After all, our
prayers are for God to hear. (See
link,
Prayer
and Praying).
I say that
a degree in theology does not generate holiness, or
righteousness, or acceptability, in the
eyes of God. Training in a seminary may help a
novice to learn "facts" about the Bible, and
techniques of sermonizing -- but God alone
determines the power and effect and
influence, of each of His servants -- His
"ministers".
Consider the
following references, from Godsword:
Ephesians 2:
10 (NRSV) For we are what He has made us, created
in Christ Jesus for the good works which
God prepared beforehand -- to
be our way of life.
1 Corinthians 7: 7 (NRSV) Paul speaking: I wish
that all were as I myself am. But each has a
particular gift from God -- one
having one kind, and another a different kind.
1 Corinthians 7: 17 (NRSV) However that may be,
let each of you lead the life that the Lord has
ASSIGNED -- to which God
called you.
1 Peter 4: 10 Each one should use whatever
GIFT he has received to serve
others, faithfully administering God's grace in
its various forms. 11 If anyone
speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very
words of God. If anyone
serves, he should do it with the strength
God provides, so that in all
things, God may be praised through Jesus
Christ.
1 Corinthians 7: 22 (NRSV) For whoever was called
in the Lord as a slave, is a "freed"
person -- belonging to the Lord; just as whoever
was free when called, is a slave of
Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not
become slaves of human masters.
24 In whatever condition you were called,
brothers and sisters, there remain
with God.
1 Corinthians 12: 5 (NEB) There are
varieties of service, but the
same Lord. There are many forms of
work, but all of them, in all
men, are the work of the same
God. In each of us, the Spirit
is manifested in one
particular way -- for some useful
purpose.
Same (NRSV) There are varieties of
services, but the same Lord; 6 and there
are varieties of activities, but it
is the same God who activates all of them in
everyone. 7 To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit -- for the common
good.
Acts 17: 24 (NRSV) The God who made the
world and everything in it.... He who is
Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is He served
by human hands, as though He needed
anything, since He Himself gives to ALL mortals
life, and breath, and all things. 26 From one
ancestor He made all nations to inhabit the
whole earth; and He allotted the
times of their existence, and
the BOUNDARIES of the PLACES
where they would live....
27 so that they would search for God, and
perhaps grope for Him, and find Him.... though indeed He
is not far from EACH
ONE of us.
And,
yes, God's MINISTERS are also
"MISSIONARIES" -- appointed by
God to carry out the "mission"
assigned to each individual, by
God.... and to perform that "mission"
within this "world".... where
God has placed each of
His people. (See link Individuation
by God.)
Yes, there are many "missions" that
have nothing to do with serving an institutional church....
in our USA -- or in some distant and
"foreign" land.
What is your opinion?
10/15/06
|