Living Theology in
the Metropolitan
Volume 9, Number 1
Spring 2004
The Vocation of the Laity
Seth
Moland-Kovash
“The priesthood of all believers,” “the ministry of the
baptized,” “the call of the baptized”: all phrases and
concepts for ministry that are rightfully the source of much conversation and
reflection as we seek to order the ministry of the church for the 21st
Century. These phrases and concepts can
also be the source of much misunderstanding and disagreement when we move
beyond the quoting of well-worn theological phrases and move into concrete
expressions of priesthood, ministry, and call.
These misunderstandings and disagreements generally become
the most heated when we begin to talk about the distinctions within the
call/ministry of the baptized: the call/ministry of the laity and the
call/ministry of clergy. There truly are
(and need to be) distinctions between those calls, though we often seem to
attempt to diminish them out of democratic or egalitarian impulses.
In my capacity as Associate Pastor for Youth and Family I
have the privilege to lead the catechetical ministry for our congregation as we
prepare young people for the Affirmation of their Baptism (typically called
Confirmation). As part of this ministry,
I spent some time with our confirmands before
Reformation Sunday talking with them about the promises they were about to make
and what those might mean in real life.
I focused each of these individual conversations on one
portion of the liturgy for Affirmation of Baptism, the address to those making
affirmation (rubric #14 on page 201 for those of you following along in
Lutheran Book of Worship). If someone
were to ask me for the most concise and complete statement of what the “call of
the baptized” really is, I would point to this address. The call of the baptized as expressed in this
liturgy includes the call of the laity as well as the call of clergy. However,
it is instructive to observe what things specific to each of these groups we
might learn from reflection on this address.
You have made public profession of your faith. The call of all of God’s people begins with
the public profession of faith. It is the call of all the baptized, lay and
clergy, to make public profession of faith, to bear the redeeming Word of
Christ with them wherever they are called.
All of the baptized are called to follow in the footsteps of Mary
(called Theotokos: God-Bearer) in bearing Christ to
the world and pointing the way toward Christ.1 This is done through the public
profession of faith. All of God’s
people, whether clergy or lay, are called to make public profession of their
faith, to be God-bearers in the places in which God has called them to live,
worship, work, and play.
Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you
in Holy Baptism: to live among God’s faithful people... It is
the call of all the baptized to live as a part of the Christian community. That means that it is the role of the
baptized (for our purposes at the moment: the laity) to gather together with
the rest of the baptized. The primary
way that Christians gather together to express and to experience their unity is
in the Eucharistic celebration. It is
the role of the laity to gather. Clergy
clearly have a special role to play in this gathering.
I would maintain that the primary role of the clergy is to
gather the people together: to issue the call to worship and to preside over
the gathering. Perhaps we need to be
reminded of the image of the pastor as the president/presider
of the Christian assembly. The clergy’s
call in relation to the weekly gathering of the people is to ring the churchbell, to issue the call to gather and to issue the
proclamation of what it is that we gather around.
Sometimes in our modern era of hyper-egalitarianism and the
(rightful) fear of the misuse of authority, pastors (ones given authority by
the community) are afraid to or do not wish to exercise their authority. But the call and the role of clergy is to
issue the call to gather and to proclaim to the community what it is that we
gather around. If the gathering of the
community were left to the democratic impulses of the community, there is no
telling when, how, or around what the community would gather. It may be the latest social-justice issue,
the latest technique or need for self-help or societal help, or a desire to
sing the old favorites and get to brunch on time.
As it is the call of the people to gather together around the
life-giving Word of God, it is the job or call of the clergy, no matter whether
they wish to do it or not, to issue the call and to remind the community that
we gather around that Gospel alone.
Surely a pastor who exercises quality leadership with a listening ear
will issue the call to gather around the Word of God in a way that speaks to
the needs of today’s Christians.
If the pastor doesn’t issue the call, how will the people
know when, where, and how to gather?
Just as dangerous and pernicious to true Christian community as a pastor
who misuses personal authority in the call to worship is the pastor who refuses
to exercise any authority at all. This
differentiation of roles and calls is nothing more or less than good
order. It has nothing to do with
hierarchy or personal pride.
To hear his Word and share in
his supper… Here is where the role of the clergy as
president/presider is most helpful as we seek to
discern the differing roles of clergy and laity in the life and ministry of the
church. It is the call of the laity to
hear God’s Word and to share in the Lord’s Supper. As baptized Christians, pastors need to continue
to hear God’s Word over and over in new and old ways all the time. Pastors also need to continue to find ways of
sharing in the Lord’s Supper, sometimes in roles other than as the presider. But there
is a distinction to be made here: the pastor is also charged with a specific
function, to preside over the hearing of God’s Word and the sharing of the meal
within a congregation.
As presider over the teaching and
proclamation ministries of a congregation, it is the call of the pastor to
ensure that God’s Word is proclaimed.
That is, to ensure that the Word is proclaimed with frequency, with
integrity, and with authenticity. It is
the call of the pastor to ensure that it is the Word of God proclaimed as
opposed to the many “words” of legalism or moralism
that abound in our world.
Often, that means that the pastor will do the proclaiming
while the laity will do the hearing. In
any congregation, however, there are dozens and dozens of people who proclaim
the Word of God that is heard by the gathering of the baptized: Sunday School teachers, choir members, Congregation Council
members. It is the call of the pastor,
as presider, to ensure that it is the Word of God
that is proclaimed.
Throughout the history of the church, and at the present
moment in the ELCA, there has been some controversy over the proper role of the
laity in relation to the Lord’s Supper.
If we see the pastor as the president/presider
of the assembly in relation to the Lord’s Supper, that would call our practices
back to the centrality of the assembly and its ministry (liturgy) in all our
practices related to the meal.
This is the basis for the practice of sending out lay
communion ministers to the homebound from the table around which the people
gather, at which the pastor presides. It
is more than appropriate for the laity to “share in [the Lord’s] supper” by
taking some of the meal from the table to share with those who cannot gather
with the community. For those who are
homebound to feel and to be truly connected to the assembly, that action needs
to be based at the table around which the community gathers around which the
pastor, who is chosen and called for this purpose, presides.
To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and
deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to
strive for justice and peace in all the earth? Here the promise ends with what I would call
the central call of the baptized and the center of what we mean when we use the
phrase “the priesthood of all believers.”
All believers are called to be priests in the sense of priests as
mediators between God and humanity; all believers are called to stand before
others who need it and speak (or act) the Word of God. And those same believers are called to stand
before God in prayer, speaking on behalf of others who may not have the
strength or the words.
All believers are called to be those “God-bearers” in the
world. Stephen Ministers, Sunday School teachers, lay communion ministers, and the ever
popular “casserole brigades” all live up to this call by bringing the saving
message of God in Christ to those they encounter.
The priesthood of all believers speaks to us of the way that
Christians mediate between God and the world.
The call of the clergy is to empower the people for this mediating
ministry. How are the
people best empowered? Are they
empowered by pastors joining the community in its action and priesthood, not
wanting to be too authoritarian? Are
they empowered by pastors who proclaim “Thus says the Lord…” without listening
to the needs and cries of the people? Of course not.
If the gathering of the baptized is to be truly empowered and
enabled to proclaim the Word of God to a world in need while praying on behalf
of the world before God, then the people need a priest themselves. The people of God need a priest who is not
afraid to stand in that uncomfortable space of leadership without
authoritarianism, not afraid to proclaim an alien Word of God while listening
to the cries of the people, not afraid to claim the call that has been given to
them by God and the community. If
pastors are unwilling to claim their priestly role, then there is no way that
the community can properly exercise its own.
Seth Moland-Kovash
Associate
Pastor, Our Saviour’s, Arlington Heights
1 For an excellent discussion of this call, especially as
related to ministry with young people, see The Godbearing
Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry by
Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster (Upper Room
Publishing, 1998).