BLOG 11/12/14. CLERGY: AN ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE
This could appear to be a self-contradiction on my part since I have worn the designation of being clergy for some sixty years – but I do not see any such ‘clergy’ category in the New Testament documents. Let me say it more plainly: ‘Clergy’ is not a Biblical category. O, to be sure, there are all kinds of leadership and leadership functions mentioned, but all appear out of the communities of discipleship as those who have proven that in some particular area of the mission of God, and the community’s life, that they have a significant contribution to make. All of God’s people are to be priests to one another. All are to be equipped for the work of ministry. All are to be engaged in the missionary mandate, which Christ gave to his church—to every follower, every disciple of his. To say, then, that a ‘clergy-dependent’ or ‘clergy custodial’ church is a very weak church, actually anemic. To refer to a church as: “Rev. McGillicuddy’s church” says, somehow that Rev. McGillicuddy has never come to grips with the true function of church leadership. Leadership is anything but that of an institutional custodian, who performs the rites and expected duties of a traditional church professional.
Our telling clue comes from Paul’s inclusion in his Letter to the Ephesians, that the risen Lord has given to his church four equipping gifts, which reflect the four dimensions needed to be mature in carrying out the missionary mandate, which he gave to his church. Paul hardly ever even describes how these gifts emerge, so one has to extrapolate—which is precisely what I am attempting here. (When I read some of the seminal works on new church planting, it is fascinating to me how these four dimensions seem to be part of the algorithm necessary.)
What becomes clear is that these gifts emerge within the community, and one of these gifts is the gift of pastor-teacher, or teaching-shepherd. The church is a community formed, after all, by the word of Christ, by his life, death, resurrection, by his teachings. So there will invariably emerge from within the community one or several who are quite well informed, and are also the mature demonstrations of what they are teaching. But as with each of the four gifts, the purpose is that they will equip those they are teaching to be teachers themselves. The faithful pastor-teacher will produce other pastor-teachers. Does that sound strange? Check out Paul’s word to his young apprentice, Timothy: “… what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2), i.e. your goal is to reproduce yourself … or Hebrews 5:12, “By this time you ought to be teachers …”
Not only are these teaching-shepherds to reproduce themselves, so that the believers can be mother lodes of the word of Christ, so that they can teach and admonish one another (cf. Colossians 3:16) with all wisdom, … but so that the word of God can be formative and spontaneous in the mission of God—every follower of Christ should aspire to such maturity. Paul also does not talk of something he does not practice himself—which is where the praxis of the word of Christ comes into play. “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9), i.e., the teaching shepherds are to be model practitioners of what they are teaching, and this is how they will be recognized by the community—how their gift will demonstrate itself. It has nothing to do with an academic degree, or ordination as clergy—it is an obvious work of the Spirit in a life that the community calls forth in its ministry of equipping all of God’s people for the work of ministry.
Teaching-shepherds are equippers. They are a ‘resource’ for the community, but never the institutional ‘reason’ for the church. We’ve got to get over the notion of a clergy-centric church community. … And we need to keep in mind the other three gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4, and I’ll come back to them in future Blogs—they are all necessary for the equipping of God’s people for maturity and for their works of ministry
