Few people are aware that the government of France has a department dedicated to the preservation of the French language.  This department monitors the use of language throughout the country.  Their desire is to preserve the French language from deterioration.  For example, if other nations and cultures dilute the French language with foreign words, then the people of France begin to lose their identity as a people.  They are no longer marked by their unique cultural heritage but instead bear the marks of mass marketing.  For example, many words within our own language are not actual nouns but name brands.  Today’s words were often yesterday’s brand names: Kleenex used to be tissue, Coke used to be cola or soda, White Out used to be correction fluid, Jell-O used to be gelatin, and Band Aids used to be adhesive bandages.  Due to the power of mass marketing, companies have literally changed the American lexicon and have influenced people to be walking advertisements.  This trend is not limited to the secular realm but has also found its way into the Church.

In the Church’s history ministry used to mean something entirely different.  Now, people typically use the term ministry quite loosely.  A frequently asked question within the Church is, What is your ministry?  These days one need not be a minister to receive this question since the misconception exists that almost anything within the Church can qualify as ministry.  One can perform ministry by juggling, going to work, preparing a meal, or preaching the Word from the pulpit.  This has most likely come about in Reformed circles for several reasons.  Because all life is under the control of God, there is not a single area of life that is not theological—true enough.  Hence, all of God’s people serve him in every area of life, whether it is sacred of secular.  But, people often combine this with two other factors.  

First, there is a misunderstanding of the priesthood of all believers; people are under the impression that they all perform ministry in any task, from preparing a sermon to baking a cake because it helps extend the kingdom of God.  Second, like the mass marketing of brand names that soon displaces proper terms, the Christian media industry mass markets all sorts of books on “ministry” aimed at the lay person.  Some titles include, The Ministry of the Christian School Guidance Counselor, Children’s and Family Ministry, Youth Ministry, A Ministry Guide for Trauma Victims, Who’s Who in Clown Ministry, The Puppet Ministry, et al.  This is a misunderstanding of the nature of ministry.

In years past ministry had a much more narrow meaning.  Comprehending the definition of vocation is the first step to a proper understanding of ministry.  A vocation is that function that God calls a person to perform and runs the gamut of professions, from butcher, baker, to candlestick maker.  These professions, what we may call secular, do not find value in the fact that they are somehow redemptive or play a part in extending the kingdom of God.  Rather, they find value in that God ordains them and calls people to them.  Ministry, on the other hand, is not secular.  Ministry is the specific task of preaching and teaching the Word and the administration of the sacraments.  There are specific functions that belong to ministry that no person may himself assume.

The first task of ministry is preaching the Word.  This is something that requires ordination.  A group of elders must decide to ordain a man to the ministry.  We see this in Paul’s words to Timothy: “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4.14; NAS).  A person does not himself decide to become a minister—it is an office that must be conferred upon a man by the elders of the Church.  The second task of ministry is the administration of the sacraments.  This too is something that is restricted to the elders of the church.  The requirement that the sacrament must be administered by an elder is evident in the strong warnings Paul gives the Corinthians about the way they approach the Lord’s Supper.  The elders must guard the Lord’s Table from the leaven of unrighteousness (1 Cor. 11.20ff).  Likewise, an individual may not baptize himself; rather, the elders of the church administer baptism to the new believer and his children.  When Christ gave the Great Commission, he gave it, not to the individual, but to the Church (Matt. 28.18-19); and, he entrusts the means of grace specifically to the elders, those who are responsible for leading the Church.  Matthew 16.19 best captures the nature of the task entrusted to the elders: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  How do the elders of the Church hold the keys of the kingdom?  They hold them through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments.  By preaching the Gospel ministers admit people to the kingdom of heaven; Christ also gives the elders the authority to bar the wicked from the visible church through church discipline and fencing the Lord’s Supper.

It is through the tasks of ministry, the keys of the kingdom—preaching and teaching the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and church discipline—that God extends his kingdom.  This understanding of ministry is not novel, but is how it has been understood in the past.  Zacharias Ursinus (1534-83), co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism, explains:

“The power of the keys which Christ delivered to the church, is the preaching of the gospel and Christian discipline, by which the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers, and shut against unbelievers.  Or it is the office of the church, according to the command of Christ, to make known the will of God by the preaching of the gospel, and ecclesiastical discipline; and to declare and publicly testify the grace of God, and the remission of sins to such as are truly penitent; that is, to those who live in true faith and repentance; and, on the contrary, to denounce upon the wicked the wrath of God and exclusion from the kingdom of Christ, and to exclude them from the church as long as they shall show themselves estranged from Christ in doctrine and life; and to receive them into the church again when they promise, and show real amendment” (Comm. HC, p. 441).

It is based upon the same understanding of the keys of the kingdom that the Westminster Standards also conclude that, “The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper . . . are to be dispensed by ministers of the gospel, and by none other” (WLC 176; cf. WCF 29.3).  So, then, if ministry is restricted to the ministers and elders of the Church, what is left for the person in the pew?

Just because a person does not perform ministry, as we now understand it, does not mean that there is nothing left for him to do.  Acts of love, service, and testimony are not restricted to the ministers and elders of the Church; they are required of all of God’s people.  If God loves us, then “we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4.11).  As God has gifted his people, we should “serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pet. 4.10).  While the person in the pew does not preach or teach the Word to the Church, all believers are should testify to the world about Christ (1 Pet. 3.15).  Moreover, parents must teach their children the Word.

With a better appreciation and understanding of ministry, this will have an impact upon the way we look at the Church.  While we can receive God’s grace through prayer and reading the Word, we cannot receive the grace that he pours out through the preaching of the Word or the administration of the sacraments or church discipline apart from the Church and her ministers and elders.   Ministry is not something that God gives to all but only to those men that he sets apart through ordination by the elders of the Church.  Para-church ministries only have their value to the degree by which they use ordained ministers to teach and preach the Word.  Even then, Para-church ministries are limited because they do not administer the sacraments.  Additionally, Christ gave the Great Commission to the Church, not Para-church ministries.  The divine placement of ministry into the hands of the Church, the keys of the kingdom, means that all of God’s people should long to be a part of the Church.  Those who do not participate in the Church cut themselves off from the means of grace.  As Cyprian, a second century theologian once said, If we will not have the Church as our mother, then we cannot have God as our Father.  Hopefully, with this knowledge of what constitutes ministry, we now know the answer to the question, What is ministry?