From the Pastor - "Ministry" June 2015
Dear Friends in Christ, What is the church? The church may be considered in terms of our location, nature, redemption, and shape. According to Everist and Nessan in Transforming Leadership , the church may also be described in terms of its ministry. To speak of the church’s ministry, Martin Luther used the idea of the communion of saints. But his understanding of the living saints may surprise you. According to Luther, the living saints are our neighbors, especially the poor and the hungry. Our ministry should focus on helping our neighbors in need. Luther tried to reform the church’s thinking about sainthood from the idea of “merit” to “service.” We are called to serve others as Christ has served us. In this sense, there is a parallelism of between the priesthood of Christ and the priesthood of all believers. Every Christian is a priest in the sense of servant. In modern times, the church has focused too much on t...