The Priesthood of Believers

Did you know that three out of five newly ordained ministers bomb out of the ministry within five years? I just made that up, but I do know that you have to turn over ten rocks to find two clergymen who are happy, satisfied, and fulfilled in their work (another made-up statistic; we all know clergy don’t live under rocks!). Well here’s the indisputable fact: there are a lot of burned out clergy walking the streets of Phoenix and every city. Lots! So why is this happening? Why are so many clergy leaving, being pushed out, or just dissolving into cynical messes?

I think I know the answer and it might surprise you. Simply put: hired clergy are considered hired clergy, and not mutual, equal members of the Body of Christ as described in 1 Corinthians 12, where we see a picture of the church in which every member is valued equally, and where there are no special classes of ministers.

Here’s what typically happens. A church buys the best clergyman they can afford – like we hire a yardman or an employee – and then we expect them to perform to our standards like good contract laborers. If someone contributes financially they feel they own the priest to the extent that you give, and if they contribute a lot, they feel that they are entitled to complete access day and night. This is not as true of Christ Church Anglican as most other churches because Father Chris is refreshingly down-to-earth and honest about his own struggles as a Christian, but to the extent that it is true (even of us), the end result is a minister who ministers and a congregation that congregates, as Terry Fullam has put it.

The New Testament picture of church does not look anything like this. The Reformers in the 16th century, as Christians began to read the Bible in their own language for the first time, rediscovered what came to be called the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. The priesthood of all believers doesn’t mean that everyone is a priest (in the ordained sense), but it does mean that every Christian has equal access to God without the need for an “ordained” intermediary.

There is no hint in Scripture of a hierarchal order where clergy are closer to God by virtue of their ordination. And lay folks are not inferior Christians because they are not ordained. In fact, every Christian is specially gifted, specially baptized with the Holy Spirit, and specially called by God to ministry. Clergy are separate in terms of function, but not status. This may upset some of you, but clergy have no more Holy Spirit or grace than every other Christian who asks God to fill them. They are not endowed with a “priestly character” that makes them hyper spiritual. Like all Christians, clergy struggle – with sin and temptation, with how to make time for God when they are raising a family, with what to do with that nasty patch of grass that just won’t grow in the backyard, and with what it means to live with the confidence that God has won our full salvation.

The best gift we can give Father Chris is to resist putting him on a pedestal. Treat him as a fellow member of the Body of Christ with the respect that all members deserve. He has extraordinary gifts, but so do you. Allow him grace to develop the talents he has from God and don’t expect him to be someone he is not. And then pray for him that he will minister out of the joy of the Lord.