A renewed interest in the theology of Christian service has led in recent years to a reevaluation of the ministry of the deacon, beginning with Vatican II and the. Laos and diakonia are increasingly understood as separate but equal partners for the mission of the church in the world. In this section I will examine the first part of the argument that baptism is the entrance to the life of Christian service.
The final section suggests a movement from the sign act of the sacramental moment, through union with Christ, to a life of service in the world Jesus loves. The reconciliation of the entire cosmos through Christ is for the justification of all created things. This “ordinary means” evokes both the work of grace and the ministry of the church.
The sign act of baptism is the beginning of action together in Christ for the sake of the gospel in the world. The grace of baptism in the context of a theology of service is the grace of bringing together, of the rebirth of broken human relationships through the restoration of the image of God. Communion, the Eucharist, as the form of Christian service is the subject of the next section.
The Eucharist nurtures this unity and equality by pointing to the expectation of God's reunion with and redemption of the world. Anamnesis in the Eucharist has the ethical implication of calling one to participate in the sacrifice and service of Christ's life. This calls for self-examination under the grace of God in light of the body of Christ.
This call to service generally involves participating in the service of Christ as the body of Christ for the reconciliation of the world. This Holy Mystery regularly returns to the eschatological significance of the Eucharist, especially as it relates to Christian action in the world. The ministry of praise, in its orientation toward God and the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, is recognition of God's purposes for creation and creation.
The next section deals with the Eucharist as a means of grace in the context of the doctrine of sanctification. The experience and exposure to the ideas, actions and practices of the Eucharist bring about a new learning of God's ways in the world. In the United Methodist Church this is. expressed in the public service of baptism and in the church's public service to the world.
Christian service is an expression of the mind of Christ and the mission of a community of.
Christian Service as Public Theology
The Eucharist is the form of Christian service because through continued participation in it, Christians hear anew the great works of God and are moved to the service of praise. That is to say, all Christian service initiated and formed by baptism in the Eucharist is a public event, a public ministry, visible to the world with the hope of bringing about the redemption of the world. In the same way, the epiclesis prayer of Word and Table I points to the redemptive work in the world expected by those who come to the table: “Make [the bread and wine] for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may us can be the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.”90 The purpose of being for the world as the body of Christ is to incarnate into the world as the body of Christ in order to take direct action against the personal and systemic sin that continues today. Jesus Christ and Christ followers betrayed on the cross.
Christian service, understood in the form of sacraments, is not an automatic solution to the world's ills, just as Jesus' ministry did not destroy all manifestations of sin in the world. The concept of Christian service presented here in terms of baptism and the Eucharist can be described as a community-oriented expression of Jesus' sacrificial love for God's people, imbued with the hopeful expectation that the coming Kingdom of God will make all things right. . By seeking Christ together in the service of God and others, Christians embark on the path of a disciple who, by drawing closer to Christ, pushes himself outward into the world of service.
This means that one who draws near to Christ is compelled to serve the world as Christ served the world by being present in it. "Pushing outward" to the fringes of the world in the form of Christian service is a move that helps meet the needs of brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, not in the form of charity to an unknown other, but in the form of community-oriented praise of God by serving in mercy to the unmerciful. The 1961 New Delhi World Council of Churches Report begins the section's report on the theology of service by distinguishing Christian service from.
The more we are drawn to Christ, the more we are compelled to serve the world.”. The measure of God's love for people is to be seen in the fact that his Son was willing to die for them.”94 Philanthropy is giving and acting for a social cause that one chooses. Christian service, on the other hand, is giving one's life to the service of God for the hope of the world.
In light of the world events before the members of the committee, Christian service took on the role of addressing world developments through service as a sacrificial love that reflects Christ's sacrificial love for the world. The diakonia (service) of the Church is also expressed in various ways, through the presence of the individual Christian in the secular world and through the organized life of the churches.”95 The incarnational example of Christian service is the sacrificial love of God in Christ is present in the world now through individual and corporate acts of service that extend outward to the margins of the world. Acts of Christian service, rooted in baptism and shaped in the Eucharist, are ultimately transformative acts that profoundly impact the world by being Christ's presence in the public margins.
Thoughts on the Future of Ministry in the UMC
This meaning of the general service of all baptized as diaconia to the world has been confused by the ordination to serve. This would not be as much of a problem if the church maintained the language of the ordained as a representative office. While the intention of the distinction is to show that the ordained are in a form of "servant leadership" and authority through service in relation to the general body of the church, the effect is an overall diminution of the church's understanding of service as the ordinary service of the baptized.
97 It is confusing to claim that all baptized Christians entered into the ministry of serving the world with their baptism and that all baptized Christians who are ordained have a special ministry called "ministry" that is different from the general ministry of the baptized. 96 I was alerted to the problems with the language of "representation," namely, because such usage served to support notions related to the power of the ordained to determine the ministerial leadership of the church, among other power concerns. The service of Jesus Christ is precisely the greatest example because of the authority he had in the performance of his official duties.
The ordination to service as it currently stands systematizes Christian service and therefore makes it subservient to the system of the church at exactly the time when that system must undergo a massive transformation to avoid an increasingly certain death. Historically, the order of the deacon was understood to represent Christ to the church and thereby assist the bishop in serving the community by preparing the holy meal and taking it to the needy, while also delivering alms and other supplies . One of the recurring problems that theologians have faced in trying to develop a distinctive theology for the diakonia has, in fact, arisen from this foundational element of service.
Ordination makes them part of the clergy, but must they belong to the order of the clergy to feed the hungry or visit the sick?" (p. 12). What about the ordination to service made the ministry of the elder different or changed the world. The deacon prepares the members of the church for ministry in the world and supports persons in the exercise of their Christian service.
The elder, rather than belonging to an “order,” is ordained to and has the teaching authority of the Church, which further supports the elder's preaching and sacramental ministry (remember that the baptized learn from the Eucharist). Another hope is that the argument that the ministry of the deacon (who is ordained to ministries of Word and Service) is a different kind of service than that to which the elder is ordained (elders are ordained to ministries of Word, Service, Sacrament, and Order) will adopt a more positive and lay-oriented tone. Minutes of various conversations: between the study ministry committee, presidents of local ministers' orders and fellowships, boards of ordained ministry, various lay and clergy in the compound, and the General Conference of the United Methodist Church.
