From the back cover......"Stevens challenges the idea that a select few are called to minister to others and argues that the clergy-laity division is not only biblically wrong but practically counterproductive."
Professor Stevens lays out the complete aurguement that a person's "calling" is a call to salvation, holiness, and to service. He also insists that "calling" is to before do.
Anyone wrestling with whether or not their work is their ministry will want to read this book and consider the Stevens' points and and references. In this 255 page read, scripture is referenced over 800 times and at least 50 different pages mentions the Holy Spirit.
In particular, chapter 2, Reinventing Laity and Clergy is a must read. He starts the chapter out with this provocative quote from Karl Barth....
Theology is not a private reserve of theologians. It is not a private affair for professors....Nor is it a private affair for pastors...Theology is a matter for the church. It does not get on well without professors and pastors. But its problem, the purity of the church's service, is put to the whole church. The term 'laity' is one of the worst in the vocabular of religion and ought to be banished from Christian conversation.
Stevens: The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective
See document: Theology of Work.mmap
1 Part I: A People Without 'Laity and Clergy'
1.1 1. Doing People Theology
1.1.1 1. 'Of' the Whole People of God: Beyond Clericalized Theology
1.1.2 2. 'For' the Whole People of God: Beyond Unapplied Theology
1.1.3 3. 'By' the Whole People of God: Beyond Academic Theology
1.2 2. Reinventing Laity and Clergy
Karl Barth: Theology is not a private reserve of theologians. It is not a private affair for professors....Nor is it a private affair for pastors...Theology is a matter for the church. It does not get on well without professors and pastors. But its problem, the purity of the church's serice, is put to the whole church. The term 'laity' is one of the worst in the vocabulary of religion and ought to be banished from Christian conversation.
1.2.1 1. A People without 'Laity'
Introduction
Lay is defined as (though slippery and usually in terms of negatives) by...
Function - does not administer the Word and sacraments
Status - does not have a 'Rev'
Location - - serves primarily in the world
Education - is not theologically trained
Remuneration - is not full-time and paid
Lifestyle - is not religious but occupied with secular life
The Laos of God
Laos originally meant 'the crowd' and 'the people as a nation'
The Greek translation of the Old Testament employed is as the universal designation for 'the people of God' translating the Hebrew 'am.
Acts 15:14 - James makes the deliberate connection of the OT national Israel with the newly reconstituted people of God in Christ
This word does not mean 'untrained' or 'ordinary'.
Laos means a truly extraordinary people
Contrary to the most church, we discover in the NT one ministering people with leaders, also members of the laos, serving them to equip the people for the work of the ministry Ehp 4:11-12)
The people of God laos) is one people composed (miraculously) of Jews and Gentils, men and women, rich and poor, bond and free - all being together the chosen inheritance of God.
Clergy under the Old Covenant had functions abolished in the New Covenant; rather universalized in the 'people of God.'
The reason has to do with the lordship and mediatorship of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, the New Testament use of the word "clergy.'
1.2.2 2. A People without 'Clergy'
Contemporary concept of clergy
1: the vicarious function - service is redndered representatively not only on behalf of, but instead of the people
2: the ontological difference usually associated iwth abslute ordination - namely that a person becomes a priest or religious in virtue of ordination and not in virtue of character (can't resign from ministy: ? ds)
3: the sacramental function whereby the term sacerdos is used routinely for the bishop
4: the professional status which implies a quasi-unique function with social significance, specialized functions which are interchangeable and with the assumption that a well-trained profession can do it better than an amateur or volunteer.
A church full of clegy
Kleros - the Greek work from which clergy is dervided is used to describe aspects of being the whole people of God
In no situation do the apostles use this term to describe appointment to an ecclesiastical office
This term was only used by Ignatuius of Antioch prior to the third century.
The church in the New Testament has no 'laypersons' in the usual sense of that word, and is full of 'clergy' in the true sense of that word.
The New Testament opens up a world of universal giftedness, universal empowerment of the people of God through the gift of the Holy Spirit, universal ministry, and the universal experience of the call of God by all the people of God.
Old Testament Sources: see page 33 for an Old vs New Covenant Ministry chart
Old
limited Word ministry (Jer 31:34)
scerdotal mediation of priests (Ex 30)
occasional and exceptional spiritual giftedness (Ex 31:3)
unique and special 'calls' to service (1 Sam 3)
occasional gift of wisdom - the wise person (1 kgs 3:16-28)
New
unlimited Word ministry (Acts 2:18)
total/life priesthood (Rom 12:1-2)
unlimited spiritual giftedness (1Cor 12:7; Eph 4:7)
unlimited call to service and ministry (Eph 4:1)
wisdom available to all (James 1:5)
There are strands of revelation that suggest non-clergy ministry in the Old Testament (page 34)
Implicit Old Testament Clericalism
...viewing Adam and Eve as priests of creation and prototypes for the human vocation; experiencing corporateness and peoplehood and not merely making ministry an individual activity; envisioning the servant of the Lord as the paradigm for ministry by the los of God; seeing sabath (the threefolds rest of God, humankind, and creation) as the goal of the salvation story; and finally making covenant the relational basis of vocation, work and ministry.
The fuliflled Old Testament
In sum, under the OT the entire people were called to belong to GOd, to be God's people and to serve God's purposes (Ex 19:6)
Within that people only a few - prophets, priests, wise men, and princes - experienced a special call to ive leadership to God's people, to speak God's word and to minister on behalf of God (Is 6:8)
The apostles firmly believed that the promised day came with the arival of Jesus and the outpouring of God's Pirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-21)
Three great theological realities brought about the transformation of th OT laos into a newly reconstituted peopl in which all minister
The lordship of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:36)
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church for ethical living and ministry (1Cor 12:13)
The dawning of the end, by which believers 'already' live 'in the heavenly realms' - the way things will eventually become (Eph 1:3-4 - as we wait for Christ's second coming
The apostles used the Gree word kleros (clergy) to describe a wholly new reality; the dignity, calling and privilege of every member of the family of God
The Church as Ministering People
With the lordship of Christ, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the dawning of the end/last days (Acts 2:17), the whole church, according to Scripture, is the true ministerium, a community of prophets, priests and princes or princesses, serving God through Jesus in the power of the Spirit seven days a week.
All are appointed by God to service and dignified as God's inhertance
All have a share in the power and blessing of the age of the Spirit
All are laity in the sense of having their identity rooted in the people of God
All give ministry
All receive ministry
1.2.3 3. The Emergence of the Clergy
First century was marked by a people without clergy or laity
Second and third centuries brought about a fefinite clergy-lay distinction
1. imitation of the secular structures of the Gree-Roman world not unlike the professional-lay distinctions in the modern world
2. the transference of the OT peiesthood model to the leadership of the church
3. popular piety which elevated the Lord's Supper to a mystery which required priestly adminstration
The Church Fathers
Page 40...(Ignatius, Clement, Origen)....a develpment that led to...."from this time onward, the layman's function was to release the priest and levite form all his material concerns, thus enabling him to devote himself exclusively to the servie of the altar, a task that was necessary for everyone's salvation."
Priests within the priesthood
By the end of the second century we had moved from a community priesthood to a separated clergy that vicariously represents both the priestly and the kingly rule of the people in Christ
The mystique of the ministry
Chrysostom elimiantes all women from the priesthood of the church, and most men
Progressive clericalization
Form the fourth to the sixteenth centuries the clergy-lay distinction deepened; page 44-45
In due course the clergy-lay distinction became institutionalized in religious orders, priestly ordination and the seminary system.
Even the Protestant Reformation with its call to recover 'the priesthood of all believers' did not succeed in reinstating laity as one dignified serving people.
The Incomplete Protestant Reformation
Why the full implications of the Refrmation were not realized in the non-Catholic community is a fascinating and important question:
The Reformation was more concerned about soteriology (salvation) than ecclesiology. The priesthood of all believers was interpreted according to its effect on individual salvation, but with regard to the collective Christian experience it was 'business as usual.'
page 45
· buying indulges
· Luther mainly focused on how the gospel of personal salvation had been lost.
· Stevens is saying that it is good that Luther brought back the gospel. YET, he did not deal with "what the church was doing."
·
The preacher replaced the priest. The sermon became the central acto of Protestand worship. This event ultimately involved taking the Bible out of the hands of the layperson again and putting it into the hands of the biblical scholar. As early as the eighth century the languale of shcolarship and worship had ceased to be the language of the people.
Inadequate structures for renewal. The Protestant Reformation spawned denominations that took seriously the ministry of all believers. Quaker, Puritan, Baptists, Methodist - all or primarily lay oriented. But even denominations stemming from the so-called radical reformation have now 'gravitated' to the pre-Reformation clergy-lay distinction.
The Catholic seminary system was eventually adopted. Theological education remains, by and large, the exclusive preoccupation of those intending a career in the clergy.
Kingdom ministry has been almost totally eclipsed by church ministry. Ministry is viewed as advancing the church rather than the Kingdom. The letters are the primary guide; the gospels have been eclipsed.
Ordination is still retained almost universally for the full-time supported church worker; no adequate recognition of lay ministries in society exists.
An adequate lay spirituality has hardly ever been taught and promoted. The Reformation rejected the two-level spirituality of the monastery and the common Christian. With few exceptions Protestant spirituality has mostly focused either on charismatice and mystical experiences or the deeper life of outstanding Christian leaders. Instead we should have been exploring th holiness of the ordinary Christian in the totality of his or her life; eating, working, buying and selling, playing having sexual relations and dying. The Western church has never become free of Greek dualism which relegates bodily life to a lower level.
1.2.4 For further study / discussions
1 Read the whole of Paul's letter to the Ephesians as letter addressed to the people as a whole rather than to you personally and individually. Record your discoveries.
Subtopic
1.3 3. One God - One People
1.3.1 1. Two Peoples or One?
1.3.2 2. One God - Three Persons
1.3.3 3. Communion or Union?
2 Part II: Summoned and Equipped by God
2.1 4. Calling in a Post-Vocational Age
2.1.1 1. Personal Vocation
Personal Vocation in Scripture
Calling means that God is providentially involved in our lives so we are not a collection of accidents
The magisterial Reformers
Christian perfection is to be found in normal daily tasks
Secularization of the particular call
Luther: God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling - not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith
Is there a personal call to everyone?
First: effectual call of Christ to become a disciple
Second: providential call. Lives are not accidentts. Discerning the proviedential hand of God in our lives, birth, family, education, personality, opportunities, is part of discovering our personal vocation.
Third: charismatic call.
The Father gives us the mandate to subdue and develop the earth
The Son calls us to discipleship and summons us with the Great Commission
The Spirit equips us for a task
Forth: Heart Call
The Spirit equips And constrains
The Spirit provides ability and creates a desire for a particular service: the place God calls me to is the place where my deep gladness and the world's deep hungerr meet
we experience an inner oughtness
in is bigger than ourselves
it brings great satisfaction and joy
Summary: Vocational guidance is not discerning our 'call' but, in the context of our call to discipleship, holiness and service, discerning the guidance of God in our lives and learning how to live in every dimension to please him.
2.1.2 2. Christian Vocation
Old Testament "Call": use primarily for the people of God who are summoned to participate in God's grand purpose for the world. It is a call to salvation, holiness, and service
New Testament "Call"
Greek: kaleo - to call/summon forth and klesis - calling/vocation
Gospels: Jesus called as an invitation to repent, to turn to him, to live the Kingdom of God
Peter used 'call' to describe the initiative of God in our salvation
Paul's Letters - "Call"
First: Paul used call language to express the invitation of God experience salvation.
Rom 1:6, to belong to Jesus Christ
Rom 1:7, to be saints
Rom 8:28, according to his purpose
1 Cor 1:9, into fellowship with his son
1 Cor 1:2, to be holy
Phil 3:14, heavenward
2 Thess 2:14, to salvation
1 Tim 6:12, to eternal life
Eph 1:18, to hope
Eph 4:1, we must live a life worthy of the calling we have received (to which you have been called
Second: Paul uses call language to describe the summons of God to holy corporate living. His letters show the people of God are not a self-elected community but a called people
Corporate context, not individual
Called live in peace (1 Cor 7:15, Col 3:15
Called to be free (Gal 5:13)
Called to one hope when you were called (Eph 4:4
Called to live a holy life (1 Thes 4:7, 2 Tim 1:9)
Third:: Paul uses call language for the 'place in life we occupy (slave, free, married, single. Such life situations are in God's call (1 Cor 7:17, 24) and transformed by it. The call of God comes to us in these situations (1 Cor 7:20) and is much more than occupation, marital status or social position
Forth: other NT writings show where call is used for the leading of God to a specific ministry, it is questionable whether one can make a doctrine of calling to a specific ministry from such scanty references (87). What can be confirmed from NT is the desire of God to 'lead' each believer.
Summary of entire NT witness: call is used for the invitation to salvation through discipleship to Christ, summons to a holy corporate and personal living, and the call to serve. All are called. All are called together. All are called for the totality of everyday life.
Belonging, being and doing. The call of God is threefold
First: the call is to belong to God (1 Pet 2:10). This is the call to discipleship
Second: the call to be God's people in life. A holy people that exists for the praise of his glory in all aspects of life in the church and the world. This is the call to holiness
Third: the call to do God's work, to enter into God's service to fulfil his purposes in both the church and the world. THis involves gifts, talents, ministries, occupations, roles, work and mission - the call to service.
Christian vocation and human vocation
2.1.3 3. Human Vocation
2.2 5. Doing God's Work
2.2.1 1. Changes in Work
2.2.2 2. Work Yesterday and Today
2.2.3 3. Work in Scripture
2.2.4 4. God's Work
2.2.5 5. Good Work
2.3 6. Ministry - Transcending Clericalism
2.3.1 1. Ministry Today
2.3.2 2. Ministry in Scripture
2.3.3 Trinitarian Service
2.3.4 4. Ministering Leaders
Subtopic
3 Part III: For the Life of the World
3.1 7. Prophets, Priests and Kings
3.1.1 1. Three Leadership Roles
3.1.2 2. The Prophetic People
3.1.3 3. The Priestly People
3.1.4 4. The Kingly People
3.1.5 5. Prophets, Priests and Princes in the World
3.2 8. Mission - A people Sent by God
3.2.1 1. The Sending God
3.2.2 2. The Mission of God
3.2.3 3. The Sending
3.2.4 4. The Sent People
3.2.5 5. Equipping for Mission
3.3 9. Resistance - Grappling with the Powers
3.3.1 1. Describing the Powers: Contemporary Confusion
3.3.2 2. Experiencing the Powers: Multi-level Resistance
3.3.3 3. Understanding the Powers: Biblical Theology
3.3.4 4. Grappling with the Powers: Mission and Ministry
3.3.5 5. The Final Pacification of the Powers: Eschatology
4 Epilogue: Living Theologically
4.1 Comments
4.2 1. Orthodoxy
4.2.1 Redeeming the routines
4.2.2 The danger of unapplied theology
4.2.3 Truthful living for God's glory
4.3 2. Orthopraxy
4.3.1 Humanizing theological living
4.3.2 Inside Christian practice
4.4 3. Orthopathy
4.4.1 Educating the Heart
4.4.2 Neighbour as educator
4.4.3 Passion for God
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