CHRISTIAN MINISTRY Models of Ministry and Training
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CHRISTIAN MINISTRY Models of Ministry and Training Jesudason Baskar Jeyaraj Published by Theological Book Trust Bangalore Table of Contents PREFACE 7 FOREWORD 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13 ABBREVIATIONS 15 CHRISTIAN MINISTRY - Models of Ministry and Training INTRODUCTION 17 © Theological Book Trust 2002 ISBN : 81-7475-040-1 CHAPTER ONE First published 2002 by Theological Book Trust Terms, Definitions and Metaphors of Ministry 21 Reprinted 2006 All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any CHAPTER TWO form, except for the purposes of brief review in periodicals, without Theological, Contextual and Ecclesiological Basis of Ministry 43 prior permission of Theological Book Trust, P.O. Box 9529, Bangalore 560095, India. CHAPTER THREE Printed at : The J & P Print & Allied Industries, Bangalore Relating Ministry to Context 55 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER NINE Models of Ministry in the Bible 81 Models of Theological Education: Case Studies 275 Priestly Model Living and Learning in Villages: Inculturation Experiment Liberation Model (Arul Kadal Seminary, Chennai) Administration Model Prophetic Model Off-Campus Programme for Urban Exposure (Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, Madurai) Reformer Model Political Action Model Ministerial Training for Church Planting Wisdom Model (Madras Theological Seminary and College, Chennai) Chronicler Model Laity Formation in Secular Colleges: Equipping Women Son of Man Model (Lady Doak College, Madurai) Evangelistic Model Vocational and Theological Integrated Training Missionary Model (ACTS Institute, Bangalore) Charity Model Counselling Model CONCLUSION 331 Pastoral Model BIBLIOGRAPHY 335 CHAPTER FIVE Priesthood of all Believers 209 INDEX 345 CHAPTER SIX Structures and Partnership for God’s Ministry 235 CHAPTER SEVEN Developing Leaders for Ministry: Principles of Training 245 CHAPTER EIGHT Theological Education, Context and Involvement 263 4 5 Christian Ministry Preface J.B. Jeyaraj has put in a wealth of academic scholarship and personal experience into this book “Christian Ministry”. Minis- try is such a diverse involvement, and therefore no one book can exhaust all the implications. But here is one that can serve as a useful textbook with an excellent treatment of the subject. Many books on ministry have been used in institutions in India, but mostly from the West and therefore offering Western perspectives. Some of these are not only irrelevant but also out- dated. Jeyaraj writes as an Indian and relates ministry to the Indian context complete with some apt case studies. When speaking of the Indian context, it is clear that most treatments of ministry, particularly if coming from a Western perspective, would lack a contextual grounding. Jeyaraj gives a whole chapter to help us understand the socio-economic and religious context of our country. The reader would find this study very helpful to help make ministry more meaningful in our diverse situations. One very useful aspect of this book is its treatment of the varied forms of ministry. Most times we look at ministry as either evangelism or social action (including liberation) and some would bring these two together. This book gives us 14 models of ministry, and this serves to encourage every member of the church to consider himself/herself as being engaged in minis- try. Jeyaraj pleads for a much needed and relevant curriculum for ministry in theological educational institutions. The princi- ples he supplies for theological training are very appropriate. I fully agree with the writer that we need to look at training peo- ple for effective ministry and therefore an appropriate curricu- lum must be developed to assist in this task. Case studies are included to show different models of train- ing in Indian context. These case studies are carefully chosen to present the different ways in which theological training of ministers and laity is carried on in the Indian context. Com- mendably, the author stayed in these institutions to study their 6 7 Christian Ministry programme and has collected data for writing the case studies. Foreword More case studies on Indian theological education could be in- cluded but Jeyaraj has limited the study to 5 patterns. I am sure students will be encouraged to similarly document their own case studies. All ministry is God’s ministry. Every act of God, even that of India today is rapidly changing. Political and religious pres- creation, is the ministry of God. God’s ministry of word and sures, changing socio-economic contexts and other forces put deed breaks the silence and ends all speculation about whether pressure on the church to present a valid response. Those who or not there is a God and of how the deity might be disposed prefer to stand on the past will be left to grope in the dark or toward us. In responding to the cry of the people of Israel suffer- perhaps operate in their own limited circles with illusions of ing under bondage in Egypt, God’s ministry revealed the nature success. Others who dare to change and adapt to the changes of God as one who cares and acts. God’s ministry is the revela- will find ministry to be an exciting engagement. Jeyaraj’s treat- tion of God to humans and the basis for all human knowledge of ment is a good contribution to those who want to take ministry God’s nature and purpose. All ministry is grounded in God’s in our modern world seriously. ministry, and all theology is dependent upon God’s continued ministry as the source of revealed truth. There is no theological Ken Gnanakan task which has any basis in God’s truth other than the task of expounding the ministry of God. December 2002 In this comprehensive and immensely practical book, Dr. Jeyaraj, lays a solid theological foundation for Christian Minis- try which is biblically grounded, contextually sensitive, and ecu- menically relevant. Here we are reminded that the praxis of min- istry contextualizes and critically forms our theology even as God’s ministry precedes and creatively forms the people of God to carry out this ministry. The divine strategy for ministry is grounded in God’s gracious intention to reconcile the world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This has been accomplished from God’s side and now seeks comple- tion from the human side, as the people of God have been given the ministry of reconciliation, “. that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” (2 Corinthians 5:19 NRSV) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent and anointed by the Spirit of God to carry out and complete his ministry to God the Father. On behalf of the world, Jesus offers up to the Father a ministry of prayer, worship, obedience and service. His ministry is first of all directed to God and not to the world. The needs of the world are recognized and brought into this ministry, but do not set the agenda. As he was sent into the world, Jesus took 8 9 Christian Ministry Foreword up both sides of the ministry of the Father. Jesus brings to the theology by which the church defines its existence in the world, world the good news of the gospel of love for the world. At the it is then a matter of tactics as to how best to carry through the same time, Jesus came forward from the side of the estranged mandate—to be in the world as Christ is in the world. and broken world to reconcile humanity to God. The church is not formed by its own efforts, nor is it con- The Spirit empowers the people of God to continue the min- formed to the world (Rom. 12). Rather, the church is conformed istry of God to the world on behalf of Jesus. Jesus served the to Christ, who “though he was in the form of God, did not regard Father who sent him into the world. The ministry of Jesus to equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied the Father on behalf of the world is the inner logic of all minis- himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human like- try. Every aspect of the ministry of Jesus is grounded in the ness” (Phil. 2:6. MRSV). The church is the result of God’s mis- inner relation of mutual love and care between the Father and sion to the world. But, at the same time, the church is the agent the Son. Christian ministry is thus the continuation of the three- of this mission as it proclaims and expounds this gospel and fold ministry of God through the church as the contemporary penetrates into the world in partnership with God’s mission to manifestation and sign of the Kingdom of God. the world. The church, as the missionary people of God, con- The overall strategy of the church is conformity to Christ’s nects gospel to mission and mission to gospel. coming to the world for the sake of its reconciliation with God. If the church should become powerlessness and irrelevant to This strategy must never be abandoned, else the world would the world, it is not because it lacks tactical encounter with the be left to its own hopeless and fatal plunge into the abyss. A world, but that too often its strategy is one of survival rather tactic, is a particular maneuver within the overall strategy. While than sacrifice, of success rather than service, of reputation rather the church may and must take up and sometimes abandon dif- than of responsibility. The temptation for the church has al- fering tactics by which to carry out this ministry, it must never ways been to identify its own existence and institutional life abandon the basic divine strategy.