Ministry. You would think I’d have it down after working at it for so many years. Such an unpretentious word. It sounds simple enough, but rapidly becomes a complex, multidimensional proposition. The understanding of ministry, and who the ministers may be, is at the center of many church conflicts – especially when accepted general or local practices compete with the church’s theology of ministry.
Mine has been a lifelong venture in ministry. Developing a mission congregation, what some call being a missioner or church planter. Military chaplaincy in exciting times. An inner-city, multi-cultural congregation in distress. A large, regional, downtown congregation with what seemed to be unlimited resources and programs. A mission church and community center serving the homeless population. So what do all these circumstances and forms have in common that they could possibly share the word ministry?
I think I’ve found one possible answer in a report from the Standing Commission on Ministry Development of The Episcopal Church entitled Toward a Theology of Ministry.1 After tracing historical developments and carefully crafting a theology, the report explores the practical shape, expression, and challenge of ministry. Of course my attention drifted toward the section on Presbyters or Priests, and was captured by this descriptive image: Mediators at the Threshold of the Holy.
All priesthood—that of Christ, of all the baptized, and of the ordained—exists at the boundary of the “Holy” where divine and earthly realities touch…. Thus, priests are mediators, not as conduits or intermediaries, but as those persons who remind the whole community of the one priesthood of Jesus Christ and the presence of God in their midst.
That was a stunning description encompassing all those circumstances in which I ministered. Standing on the threshold of the Holy, helping people to see and make meaning of the presence of God in their midst. And more, the report spoke to the way such ministry takes expression, one that is sacramental in its living form:
The theological and liturgical recovery of the importance of baptism and eucharist…has found expression in a mission-centered theology of ministry.
I intend this to be a personal exploration of the pursuit of the sacramental lifestyle standing On The Border Of The Holy.
On the Border of the Holy 