The Specified Lay Ministry of Pastor and its implications for the preparation of people for the Specified Ministries of the Uniting Church – a Contribution to the Discussion

by Amelia Koh-Butler, ELM Director

Setting the context: Relevant excerpts from the Basis of Union…

(7. BAPTISM)

…Baptism into Christ's body initiates people into Christ's life and mission in the world…

(8. HOLY COMMUNION)

(By participating in Holy Communion, the people of God )… are strengthened for their participation in the mission of Christ in the world…

(13. GIFTS AND MINISTRIES)

The Uniting Church affirms that every member of the Church is engaged to confess the faith of Christ crucified and to be his faithful servant. It acknowledges with thanksgiving that the one Spirit has endowed the members of Christ's Church with a diversity of gifts, and that there is no gift without its corresponding service: all ministries have a part in the ministry of Christ…

… [The Uniting Church will] provide for the exercise by men and women of the gifts God bestows upon them, and will order its life in response to God's call to enter more fully into mission.

14. MINISTERS, ELDERS, DEACONESSES AND LAY PREACHERS

The Uniting Church, from inception, will seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to recognise among its members women and men called of God to preach the Gospel, to lead the people in worship, to care for the flock, to share in government and to serve those in need in the world.

To this end:

(a) The Uniting Church recognises and accepts as ministers of the Word all who have held such office in any of the uniting Churches, and who, being in good standing in one of those Churches at the time of union, adhere to the Basis of Union. This adherence and acceptance may take place at the time of union or at a later date. Since the Church lives by the power of the Word, it is assured that God, who has never failed to provide witness to that Word, will, through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, call and set apart members of the Church to be ministers of the Word. These will preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments and exercise pastoral care so that all may be equipped for their particular ministries, thus maintaining the apostolic witness to Christ in the Church. Such members will be called Ministers and their setting apart will be known as Ordination.

The Presbytery will ordain by prayer and the laying on of hands in the presence of a worshipping congregation. In this act of ordination the Church praises the ascended Christ for conferring gifts upon men and women. It recognises Christ's call of the individual to be his minister; it prays for the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to equip the minister for that service. By the participation in the act of ordination of those already ordained, the Church bears witness to God's faithfulness and declares the hope by which it lives. In company with other Christians the Uniting Church will seek for a renewed understanding of the way in which the congregation participates in ordination and of the significance of ordination in the life of the Church.

(b) The Uniting Church recognises and accepts as elders or leaders those who at the time of union hold the office of elder, deacon or leader appointed to exercise spiritual oversight, and who, being in good standing in any of the uniting Churches at the time of union, adhere to the Basis of Union. It will seek to recognise in the congregation those endowed by the Spirit with gifts fitting them for rule and oversight. Such members will be called Elders or Leaders. …

___________________________________________________________________________________

In contributing to the discussion about the ‘Ministry of Pastor’, I am starting with a reference to our Tradition (as Uniting Church within a longer history of Reformed Churches) and our specific context and experiences, situated in 21^st century Australia.

As is evidenced by the above extracts from the Basis of Union, the Uniting Church in Australia has an expectation that all members of the Church have responsibilities in the shared Ministry of God and that some of these members will be ordained and that some others will share in responsibilities as elders and lay leaders.

We are baptised into the ‘priesthood of all believers’ (1 Peter 2:9) as followers of Jesus Christ, our ‘high priest’ and ‘only Head of the Church’ (BoU, p.15). Indeed, in the Uniting Church, we ordain Ministers rather than ordaining priests or ‘priesting’ people. We ‘commission’ lay people to serve in ministry in particular contextual settings – particular times and places. We participate as the ‘whole people of God’[1] and we are open to… 

“…renewed participation of all the people of God in the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, the building up of the fellowship in mutual love, in commitment to Christ's mission, and in service of the world for which he died.” (BoU, p.14)

It seems that this new Specified Ministry may have arisen out of some creative tension:

1. we are a Church organization that affirms and has a lot of lay involvement (including in leadership) and this can be both wonderful and very messy… and to be wonderful it needs some organization and discipline;
2. we are a Church that affirms and acknowledges the particular gift of Ordination, but are often unclear about the complementarity of people who are lay and ordained working together;
3. we live in an age where the relationships / responsibilities / accountabilities between the Councils of the Church and her ministers (lay and ordained) need clarification and we have spent the last decade or so developing Codes of Ethics and Ministry Practice, both for pragmatic and pastoral reasons.[2]  

All too often we seem to talk about Ordination in the absence of talking about the Ministry of the whole people of God. I suggest that we cannot talk for very long about any Lay Specified Ministry nor any Ordained Ministry without talking about how they might be both distinctive from and complementary to each other. There are significant aspects that are shared. There are also key differences.

The Reformed Tradition follows a practice that is different from our Anglican and Catholic cousins… rather than having ‘priests’ who have a ‘sacerdotal’ function – that is, having the priestly responsibility and authority for offering our sacrifices of worship and service, we Ordain Ministers to a representative[3]… we Ordain people who, in their exercise of leadership, embody that ministry which we expect our whole communities to participate in. ministry

When we ordain a person, we believe that the ‘priesthood of all believers’, that exists in our entire gathering, is evident in the life and character of this particular person, whom we believe to re-present our ‘community of faith’ in her/his life and actions, both now and for the rest of their lives.

Indeed, the biblical concept of ‘laying on of hands’ is not just about bestowing blessing on someone, it is also about demonstrating our willingness to ‘lean on’ that same person. It is a recognition that the one being ordained is not just receiving a sign of grace, but will herself/himself be an ongoing pillar of grace on which the community of the faithful will lean.

When we commission a person, we authorize a person to take up leadership within the ‘priesthood of all believers’ for a particular context (time and place). This is more specific than ordination, so it is both more limited and more liberating. At the end of the period of service, the person is released from those specific responsibilities but is still expected (as part of their fulfillment of their discipleship) to grow beyond the things which have been named for a time and place. So, it will not be surprising to us if people, who have served in a particular context in lay leadership, go on to serve in other (sometimes, more complex) ways. Indeed, some may present as Candidates for Ordination in the future.

One of the great joys of being a Minister is the privilege of presiding at Baptisms and celebrating marriages. At such times, there is attention paid to those being baptised or married… and that is right and proper… but one of the reasons why these are events of public worship is so that others who are baptised or married may be encouraged and affirmed.

In the same way, Ordinations and Commissionings enable us to pray for the ministry leadership of a people AND remind us of the responsibility to participate with them in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  An Ordination, in this church, is not simply a call to offer ministry leadership to a people, but a call to lead and be leant upon by a ministering people. A Co-mission-ing involves describing the mission that people will take responsibility for together and the particular leadership role that an individual will have in that mission.

A key feature of both Services of Ordination and Commissioning is the reminder and commitment to wider Church accountability – for Ordinands, Lay Preachers and Pastors this accountability is to the Presbytery of their designated ministry location – for individual Elders and Church Councilors (and non-Specified ministries) this is to the local Church Council (Congregation), however, the whole Church Council is also responsible to the whole Congregation and accountable (through Consultations) to the local Presbytery.

How, then, do we understand the Specified Lay Ministry of Pastor?

According to Regulation 2.14.2, the Ministry of Pastor includes:

(a) teaching the beliefs and practices of the Church; and/or

(b) pastoral oversight of members and / or groups operating under the auspices of the Church; and / or

(c) leadership of worship in congregations or faith communities of the Church; and / or

(d) evangelism or service beyond the gathered congregation but which is exercised under the auspices of the Church and where the Presbytery designates the ministry location as appropriate for a Pastor.”

What is implied by listing these four ‘tasks’?

When most people think of the term, Pastor, they list people who are engaged with (b) and (c). These are the tasks most closely linked with local congregational leadership.

The biblical term Presbyter refers to a leader in a local Christian congregation with some form of spiritual oversight. In modern usage, it may be used to mean priest, pastor, elder, or minister. In a Uniting Church context, we might understand Presbyters to be those people who are accountable to the Presbytery for their (oversighting) leadership in the local Congregation. This will include both some ordained and some lay leaders.

Some Pastors will be Presbyters. We have already had significant numbers of Lay Pastors, Community Ministers, Lay Ministry Leaders and Lay Pastoral Assistants who have filled a Presbyteral function in congregations over many years. Lay Pastors and Community Ministers have had some ‘wider Church education and formation’ and have experience serving in ministry placements ‘as if they were Ministers’ and have been invited to consider possible transition to Ordination. The remainder (including Lay Ministry Leaders and Lay Pastoral Assistants) are possibly the most obvious lay leaders to now be understood as ‘Pastors’. They fill a role as Presbyter in a particular place for a specific period of time. It seems logical to formalize their relationship with their local Presbytery.

The new Regulations are not limited to defining Pastors as those people who are fulfilling the role of Presbyter in a Congregation. Rather, they also try to capture: (a) teaching the beliefs and practices of the [Uniting] Church and (d) evangelism or service beyond the gathered congregation under the auspices of the [Uniting] Church.

Logically, this involves teachers, evangelists and those who are engaged in diaconal-style ministries (who are not ordained). In research undertaken by the Board of Education in 2007-2008, over 175 lay people (not including those serving with UnitingCare or in Uniting Church Schools) were identified as potential Pastors under the new definition[4]. Approximately 140 of those fell into categories (a) and (d). Here, the relationship with Presbyteries is less clear because it is not based on current reporting practices and established relationships. Most of these people were previously accountable to local Congregation, School, Institution or Agency only. This raises questions about what we expect of Presbyteries. What are their functions and responsibilities? Will their character change with these changing relationships? How will this impact on relationships with the Congregations and Agencies that they may be linked with?

Already, there has been enormous demand for education in the Core Competency areas involving Polity and Ethos and Sexual Misconduct Awareness Training (which we cover in the ELM Living Values Course). There has also been high demand for options for Lay Ministry Formation, with increasing numbers attending the Synod’s Lay Ministry In-service (ELM) and Leadership Intensives (Leadership Institute). This is already having a significant impact on longer term planning for adult lay education (and where and when it takes place) across this Synod and forms the basis of much conversation among the National Lay Educators.[5]

Some questions may help us to identify some points of both tension and motivation:

1. Are we trying to form individuals for ordination AND/OR are we trying to form the people of God as a ministry people? Do these concepts sometimes work against each other?
2. Are there possible strategies to employ that would help us align our work towards these two goals?
3. Are the approaches of The Academy and Vocational Education[6] necessarily ‘in tension’ or is it possible to view them as complementary?
4. Would different systems and structures allow greater cooperation and relationship?
5. Do the current concerns call us into a fresh reformation of approach? Are people prepared to enter new territory together? Are we open to being shaped by one another?

I would suggest that there are a number of markers that suggest that some fresh spiritual breeze might be picking up:

• with a new Ministerial Education Board it seems timely to commence some of these conversations;
• the four current Heads of School have made significant headway in developing respectful relationships;

There are also threats, obstacles and hurdles, but I believe these are challenges to be overcome rather than the things that should drive our conversations, so I would prefer to leave them to another forum. Suffice to say, conversations about “ordination, ministry and the church”, and our particular interest and commitment to ministry formation and theological education, should give us opportunities to explore the common goals and shared dreams that God places before us.

There are a number of areas that might bear some shared explorations.

The list of possible conversation areas might include, but certainly not be limited to):

• our contextual considerations for theological education and ministry formation… time, manner and place…
• educating and forming who for what?
• curriculum:
  • What do we consider to be foundational or elementary components? 
  • What would be secondary and tertiary components?
  • Where and How might these be addressed? (How much should be formally or informally done? What knowledge and formation can/should be ‘assumed’ when people commence formal education?)

I do not believe any of these areas are the sole domain of any discreet group, but that the conversation will be shaped by individuals, congregations, presbyteries, synod bodies (including College) and Assembly. To take our Inter-conciliar model seriously, people need to contribute to the corporate conversation with some discipline. We start it by making time and space for it.

- AKB

[1] This concept comes initially in the covenant history of Israel as seen in Isaiah 55. The Assembly docByte on Ordination puts it like this:

Ordained ministers exercise their ministry as part of the ministry of the whole people of God. They have a particular relationship to other parts of the body of Christ.

It is also interesting to note that the Synod of NSW-ACT highlights this on the front page of its website, as follows:

The Uniting Church is committed to the ministry of the whole people of God, and to discovering the gifts that each person brings to the service of Christ and the church. Church people gather regularly as congregations. Congregations in each local area are central to the church's life. They provide caring faith communities to which all people are welcome. They aim to unite people with each other and with God.

[2] We acknowledge that recent years have seen the wider Church face detailed exposure and strong criticism for poor accountability and practice and all denominations need to clarify and strengthen systems of good pastoral practice.

[3] Assembly DocByte on Ordination http://assembly.uca.org.au/doctrine/images/stories/resources/docbyteordinationnm.pdf (accessed 28/11/2009)

[4] It has been something of a relief that we do not have to process all current lay leaders… if they are already employed, they can continue under previous arrangements, but these figures give us some indication of the potential development of this ministry. i.e. we are not talking about a handful of people, but about a growing population in the Church.

[5] In January-July 2010 (over 182 says), ELM has allocated 90 face-to-face teaching days! This effectively represents a doubling of course delivery time within 18 months.

[6] Obviously, my local interests here include the relationships between the four schools based at the Centre for Ministry in the Synod of NSW-ACT, but I see this struggle played out in other Synods, too. In using the terms ‘Academy’ and ‘Vocational’ we risk stereotyping both and the activities and philosophies of the various schools are deeper and more complex than the stereotypes. Nevertheless, I wonder if we suffer from the lack of time and courage to value the distinctive gifts that each brings which leads us to treating each other as if we believed in the stereotypical myth.