Calvin Synod Herald, 2009 (110. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2009-09-01 / 9-10. szám

CALV IN SYNOD HERALD

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Calvin, our great Reformer, clearly discussed it in his teaching on the “Priesthood of All Believers:” “Every member of the church is charged with the responsibility of public edification according to the measure of his grace, provided he perform it decently and in order” (Calvin 1960, 1026). According to the teaching of John Calvin all believers are considered priests, servants of God. Calvin interpreted the priesthood of all believers in terms of the church’s threefold participation in Christ’s prophetic, kingly and priestly ministry. Specifically, every Christian is mandated to be a representative of Christ in His redemptive outreach to the world.

In the Reformed Church we have somehow forgotten these prerequisites and, along with this, the fundamental calling and responsibility of the Christian Church; that every believer has been given grace by Christ, each one is a priest, and each one needs to serve God as a priest, together with all other believers both within and outside of the Reformed Church.

What is the problem then in our churches? Why are we not that effective in this important calling and mission given by God? Let me just mention two main problems here.

In most of our Reformed churches in Hungary and America too there is confusion, and believers are not encouraged to exercise their spiritual gifts and talents for the building up of our congregations. In our churches the majority of our members function merely as spectators. They are the audience in the church. One of my professors said the following about this: “In our church services our members are more like an audience than a community " (Butosi). In the Hungarian language, interestingly enough, there is only one letter difference between these two words, audience and community: “közönség” and “közösség.” But why did he say that? Our members attend our services, they listen to the Sunday morning sermons or, when they attend the Bible studies on weekdays, they just listen to the pastor’s teaching and then they go home but they do not have a forum where they could serve one another and express their own thoughts and ideas.

There is another problematic view in the Reformed congregations, too, that the pastor should do all of the ministry and work. The churches usually consider the minister as a paid employee of the church and the members would not consider themselves as significant and effective parts of the church’s ministries. The minister does the work. “He serves us,” many say, “because he gets paid to serve us. ”

Seeing these problematic views, what would be those methods and effective tools that could help the pastors and our members to learn to work together for the one and same purpose: serving Jesus Christ? What are those areas in the life of a congregation and its ministry that would help the church to share the ministries with its members?

I strongly believe that understanding the doctrine of the “Priesthood of All Believers” would be the first and basic step for finding godly and committed leaders within our Reformed churches. Our congregations need to return to the teaching of the “Priesthood of All Believers” and they should promote this ministry based on the measure of the gifts of grace granted to every Christian, according to Calvin’s teaching.

But I need to take one step back before I would describe

some practical steps regarding ministry by lay members and lay leadership training. I think that our first and most important task would be prayer in this matter. We must steadfastly pray that the Lord Jesus would bring understanding and openness for pastors and lay members towards sharing the ministries with one another in our Reformed congregations.

Another thing that would be important to promote in our churches is to allow lay members to participate in the different ministries of the church. There was a practice that really grabbed my attention in one of the Reformed congregations in Budapest, Hungary. In our churches only the pastor is allowed to administer the holy elements, the bread and the wine, during Lord’s Supper. In that church, however, the chief elder, who was one of the lay leaders of the church, was handing out the wine to the members and the pastor was handing out the bread. They shared the ministry of Lord’s Supper with one another. There has never been a problem with this practice. But I need to mention that this is a unique practice in that congregation within the Reformed Church.

The other important step is seeing and finding our role, mission and responsibility as leaders by training godly and committed lay leaders. When I came to the United States in 2003 I received invitations to different pastor’s conferences. I was greatly encouraged and blessed by the different teachings and lectures by great pastors and Christian leaders. I think it is very important for pastors, presbyters and our members to participate in such conferences and meetings. It helped me to grow in my leadership skills and I also learned new methods and received a lot of encouragement, which were all greatly beneficial for my life and ministry.

When I started my ministry in the church I am serving now, I had a desire in my heart to start a “Ministry Group.” The pastor’s conferences and meetings also helped me to see the great importance of being together, praying and dreaming with lay leaders and also training them in my church. In 2006 that desire and dream came into being. I called a group of people together. Most of them were in leadership positions within our Consistory. After much prayer I carefully made the decision who would attend the monthly scheduled leadership meetings. I called this group the “Ministry Group.” At the first meeting I shared a vision with them that would lead us and our church to a deeper level with our relationship to the Lord Jesus and would strengthen our ministries. After I shared my idea and vision with them they were very enthusiastic about it. We were studying the Bible together and we were talking about and praying for the needs in our personal lives and in our church’s life. I believe this ministry with lay leaders and lay members would be a good start in our churches and a great way to accomplish our purpose and a step toward something that has been somehow forgotten for centuries in our Reformed Church.

One of our beautiful Hungarian Reformed hymns, hymn no. 396 says, “Arise witnessing soul...The work is plentiful, but the laborers are so few” (Énekeskönyv 1996, 477). This hymn was written after reflection on the words of Jesus when He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

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