Some reflections on ministry while sitting in a hospital room

Ministry is what a religious community does to fulfill its mission, and live its purpose. There is the ministry of prophecy and the ministry of healing in James Luther Adams words. In addition there is the ministry of spiritual and religious education, the ministry of pastoral care, the ministry of music, worship, and administration. People who do the ministry of the religious community are doing "ministry" and while doing that they are "ministers" but they are not "Ministers."

The capital "M" Ministers are people set aside and recognized and held accountable to do the ministry of the religious community. No one is a Minister who not accountable to a religious community, no matter how awakened their senses. On the other hand doing the ministry of the religious community does not make one a Minister. The religious community must designate that status.

The term clergy is a sociological term for religious functionary. Monks are clergy. The aren't necessarily ordained. Gurus are clergy. Unitarian Universalist ministers in fellowship are clergy, but that doesn't tell us anything about the theology of our religious calling.

Ordained once meant to be part of a ordered religious community, with accountability and standards. Most Protestants still refer to the order of ministry....once upon a time we did too. Making it into a graduation party without consequence is a recent deformation.

My major difference with some reflections on ministry that I read is that they start with the individual. Individuals are not self ordaining, one cannot do "ministry" outside of a relation that is accountable to religious community.

I believe we must start with the religious community. To use the language I was taught in Sunday School, the church does ministry, and it ordains and commissions ministers to do its ministry. It is a good thing when the ministers are spiritual, motivated, and alive to nature and all that, but it is essential that they are authorized.