Are ordination and baptism the same thing?
The discussion about online ordination has got me thinking about the way we order ministry within the UMC. Currently the United Methodist Church has two orders of ministry: Elders and Deacons (bishops are technically still in the order of Elders). We affirm that the laity are called to ministry and make that clear in baptismal vows and prayers, but they are not an order of ministers. Although we have incredible Lay (non-clergy) participation in the decision-making process of the broader church, I think we could do more to make it clear that they are called to ministry in their own right. We need to talk about it more and empower it more. So here’s my proposal:
Could we learn from the Episcopal Church?
This has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was funny
In addition to the clergy orders (priest, deacon, bishop), any baptized Christian is a member of he “order of the laity” and is called to ministry. When I served at an Episcopal Church in Dallas, they placed a stole upon the newly baptized and charged them with the calling to be a minister of the gospel.
What if we did that? What if we changed our Book of Discipline and introduced the “order of the laity?” Think of powerfully that would preach when pastors challenge their congregation to action! Think of how affirming that would be to the members of a congregation. We ordain Elders to “word, sacrament, order and service” and Deacons to “word and service.” Why not ordain the laity of our church to service? We wouldn’t need a bishop to do it. Ordaining someone to service seems like it fits perfectly with the calling of the order of Deacon, but I suppose we could let Elders do it too.
Thoughts?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: baptism, baptismal vows, bishops, book of discipline, deacons, elders, episcopal church, general conferece, laity, order of laity, orders of ministry, ordination, priesthood of all believers, resolutions, stoles, united methodist church
That’s an interesting thought. I was brought up in the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom. In that denomination, there is an ordained order of laity – confusingly (for us) called Elders [you'll gather that clergy don't go by that name ...]
Here’s what the URC’s equivalent of the BoD has to say about this …
23. Some are called to be elders. They share with ministers of the Word and Sacraments in the pastoral oversight and leadership of the local churches, taking counsel together in the elders’ meeting for the whole church and having severally groups of members particularly entrusted to their pastoral care. They shall be associated with ministers in all the councils of the church. Elders elected by the church meeting are ordained to their office and are inducted to serve for such limited period as the church which elects them shall determine. All elders are eligible for re-election, and those elected shall enter upon their office by induction. On moving to another local church an ordained elder is eligible for election by that church to the elders’ meeting, and, if so elected, is inducted. The ordination and induction of elders shall be carried out in the course of public worship by a minister of the local church (or, during a pastoral vacancy, by the interim moderator) acting with the serving elders.
Now, that’s not quite the same thing as you advocate here – but it is another model which affirms lay leadership in a way that we don’t always do in the UMC.
From that, you might gather that I was ordained as an Elder in the United Reformed Church … but am merely a lay person in the UMC!
Adrian
I think that this is a wonderful idea! Tony was getting jumped on for saying all should be ordained but THIS (I suspect) is what he was talking about!!! Not all are ordained to the same KIND of minstry but all are “set apart” for their own mission for the church. I think the concept may be threatening to some professional clergy but TOO BAD it sounds like accountability and expectations for members and that sounds more Wesleyan then the way we are doing it now! GREAT idea!!!
I don’t see how this could be threatening to clergy at all, Im la student local pastor and I’d love to be able to tell all my baptized/confirmed adult members that they are ordained into an order of laity in the ministry of service.
Of course, the problem with this is that words only have the power you allot to them. Membership in the local church is no different than this proposed order (other than their names), thus an order of laity can be dismissed just as easily as local church membership.
The only way any of this’ll work is if the order of Elders take seriously their call to equip the laity–be it an order or membership–to do the work of the church.