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Supporting the Body of Christ: a Theological Exploration of Lay Diaconal Ministry in the United Methodist Church”

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Supporting the Body of Christ: a Theological Exploration of Lay Diaconal Ministry in the United Methodist Church” “Supporting the Body of Christ: A Theological Exploration of Lay Diaconal Ministry in The United Methodist Church” Anne Hillman PhD Candidate Boston University School of Theology 745 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA 02215 [email protected] Abstract While upholding the ministry of all believers, The United Methodist Church also recognizes certain specific ministries as lifetime callings: elder, deacon, deaconess, and home missioner. Individuals called to these ministries need communities of support and accountability. The creation of orders for these ministries is an extension of Jesus’ focus on peer relationships among his disciples and John Wesley’s creation of classes and bands. Thus, the extension of order to the lay ministries of deaconess and home missioner from the ordained ministries of elder and deacon is a natural and necessary component of supporting the ministry of The United Methodist Church. Multitudes of Ministers United Methodist churches are full of ministers. On any given Sunday, even in the smallest of congregations, one can easily state that the vast majority of those present are ministers. No, there is not a disproportionally small number of lay people within United Methodist churches compared to other denominations. No, there are not scores of secretly ordained individuals hiding in plain sight. United Methodist churches are full of ministers because all baptized Christians are called to be ministers. The United Methodist Church has long upheld the belief that all Christians are called through their baptism to ministries of love, justice, and service. This belief is grounded in the example of Jesus’ ministry on earth and his commission to all those who called themselves his disciples. Christ “calls all persons to receive God’s gift of salvation and follow in the way of love and service. The whole church receives and accepts this call, and all Christians participate in this continuing ministry.”1 All Christians, all United Methodists, are called to be ministers in the world. Each individual is called to participate in and further the ministry of Jesus Christ. The ministry of all Christians is both an incredibly simple and radically profound theological statement. Its simplicity lies at the core of a Christian life: to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Christ. Christ called all of his followers to participate in the good news he brought of the coming kin-dom of God, to help him minister to the world. Through baptism, individuals become members of a community of disciples and join themselves to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 The United Methodist Church, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2008 (Nashville, TN: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2008), ¶301.1. 1 To be a Christian is to take part in the fullness of Jesus’ ministry. To be a Christian is to be a minister of Jesus Christ. For United Methodists, “Christian” and “minister” are almost synonymous. The radical nature of this theological assertion lies at the core of a Christian life: all Christians are called to be ministers. The responsibility for continuing and furthering the ministry of Jesus is on the shoulders of all who desire to follow Jesus Christ. Everyone shares the load of serving and loving their neighbors and world. No one is exempt from ministry, and no one is appointed as the sole worker in the vineyard. Great equality can be found in the application of the belief in the ministry of all Christians. No one can claim special status in the Christian community as the only one who can further the ministry of Christ. All Christians are called contribute to the ministry of the Church and live as servants of love and justice to each other and the world. United Methodists are taught of the ministry of all Christians from a young age, even if not explicitly. Many young Methodists learn through song and story of the responsibility and universality of Christian discipleship. Throughout The United Methodist Hymnal are songs whose verses instruct and encourage the singer to enact their faith in their daily lives. In some churches children can be heard raising their voices with these words: I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green; they were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping, to be one too. They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, and his love made them strong; and they followed the right for Jesus’ sake the whole of their good lives long. And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast; and there’s not any reason, no, not the least why I shouldn’t be one too. They lived not only in ages past; There are hundreds of thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store, in church, by the sea, in the house next door; they are saints of God, whether rich or poor, and I mean to be one too.2 2 The United Methodist Church, The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), #712. 2 They sing of the saints of God both past and present who lived as ministers of Jesus Christ in the world. They sing of the desire to become a saint of God, to become a minister of Jesus Christ, and are assured that there is “not any reason, no, not the least” why they can’t be one right now and throughout their lives. While there may be times when individuals forget their calling to be ministers, deep in their hearts lies the assertion of their role in the ministry of Christ: the assertion that they are meant “to be one too.” While all are called to lives of Christian ministry, as early as the time of Paul, it became clear that each individual is not called to all aspects of Christian love, justice, and service. The tasks of the believing community were divided among its members according to their individual gifts. While each task of the community is grounded in the servant ministry of Christ, “the forms of this ministry are diverse in locale, in interest, and in denominational accent, yet always catholic in spirit and outreach.”3 The diversity of humanity is reflected in the numerous ways in which Christian ministry is realized. The gifts, graces, and skills given by God are unique to each individual, and the contexts within which individuals live out their calls contain different challenges and needs. Thus, how individuals live out their calls to ministry will be unique to themselves and their context. Yet the multiplicity of ministries undertaken by Christians are grounded in the common source of Christ’s ministry. Through his metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ and his teachings of the many gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul communicated to the believing community the need to recognize the diversity of ways in which individuals lived out their calling to ministry. Particularly in his letters to the Corinthians and Ephesians, Paul taught of the variety of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit to the Christian community. These include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discernment of spirits, and tongues, among many others.4 He wanted the early church to understand that the diversity of ministerial gifts within their communities was a blessing. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 is “oriented towards one principle point: there exists a variety of spiritual gifts which are shared among Christians. All do not receive the same gift, but all the gifts come from the same Spirit who distributes them as he wills. These gifts are for the common good.”5 Paul taught the early Christians to celebrate the diversity of gifts they received for the common ministry of Christ. Paul also stressed the equality of the various gifts in his letters. When the Corinthian community seemed to value some spiritual gifts over others, he cautioned them against unduly assigning greater worth to the individuals who had received such gifts. He taught that the variety of gifts was necessary to the health and mission of the community. Spiritual gifts were to be used for the good of the community “not to raise the stature of the beneficiaries. Everybody had something to contribute. Some gifts might appear banal, like administrative ability, but a variety of gifts were necessary. A human body could not just be an eye or a mouth. The big toe is also indispensable.” 6 In order to fulfill the ministry of Christ they were called to in baptism, the early Christian community needed all of the various gifts given by the Holy Spirit. Each gift was necessary; each gift was valuable; each gift needed the other gifts in order to make real the ministry of Christ. Each individual 3 The United Methodist Church, The Book of Discipline, ¶125. 4 1 Cor 12:8-10 (NRSV) 5 Njiru, Paul Kariuki, Charisms and the Holy Spirit’s Activity in the Body of Christ: An Exegetical-Theological Study of 1 Corinthians 12,4-11 and Romans 12,6-8 (Rome: Editrice Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, 2002), 200. 6 Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, “1 and 2 Corinthians,” in The Cambridge Companion to Paul, ed. James D.G. Dunn (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 81. 3 was necessary; each individual was valuable; each individual needed the others in their community in order to make real the ministry of Christ.
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