David Anguish
It's among my oldest memories of how easily we can slip away from biblical terminology. As a child, following Dad from place to place in "Sunday appointment preaching," I can remember him asking more than one group of adults, "How many of you are saints?" The response was always overwhelmingly negative. After all, saints are the people canonized by the Catholics (a use we disapprove) or people who have it all together morally (a use we approve, but feel unworthy to claim for ourselves).
Biblically, we're wrong on both counts. And it takes just one passage to prove it. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul writes "to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, . . ." Say what? Those involved in division - saints? Those who tolerated the man who had his father's wife - saints? The ones who sued their brethren and forgot their bodies were temples of God's Spirit - saints? The ones who abused their gifts, turned the Lord's Supper into a contest of one-upmanship, even denied the resurrection - they were saints?!?!?!?!
Yes. You see, all the word means is "holy ones", and what "holy" means at its root level is "set apart." Biblically, sainthood does not deal with personal moral accomplishment, but with surrender to God (through which, in an irony never appreciated by moral perfectionists, purity is eventually realized).
What has all this to do with ministry? It's mainly illustrative. For just as we have allowed the world's definition of "saint" to become our own, so we have too often adopted the world's use of the word "minister". People who steadfastly (and correctly) refuse to call their preachers "reverend" or "pastor" consistently refer to them as "the ministers." In doing so, they both set preachers apart in an unbiblical manner and fail to properly appreciate their own identity as disciples.
Proof of this contention is found by looking at the New Testament's use of the words in the diakonia word-group. Turning first to 2 Corinthians, an epistle which says more about ministry than any other one book, we see that the word which is most often used to present Paul's teaching on the matter is diakonia. For instance, there is 2 Corinthians 3:8 which speaks of "the ministry of the Spirit." There is 4:1, where he says, "since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart." There is 9:1, where, in discussing the collection, he says that "it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints." The word, which if you remember, has "menial service" as its fundamental meaning, becomes the word to describe the work of service performed by the first disciples. In all its forms (diakone_, diakonia, diakonos), it appears some eighty-six times in the New Testament. Only nine books never use it (1-2 Thessalonians, Titus, James, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John and Jude).
What is of further interest is the variety of people to which it refers. It is used of men, women, preachers, apostles, Christians generally, Christ, and deacons (for uses of the noun diakonos, the one serving, see Matt 20:26; 22:13; 23:11; Mark 9:35; 10:43; John 2:5, 9; Rom 13:4; 16:1; 1 Cor 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6; 6:4; 11:15, 23; Gal 2:17; Eph 3:7; 6:21; Phil 1:1; Col 1:7, 23, 25; 4:7; 1 Tim 3:8, 12; 4:6). In short, "minister", like "saint", does not refer to a special class of Christians, nor even to Christians with a particular task. It refers to all those who have committed to follow Jesus as Lord. In light of this, do we not need to change some habits? Some stationery? Some prayers? And especially some attitudes about who does the Lord's work?
Fellow-believer, try this: The next time someone asks "can I speak to the minister?", don't put him on hold. See what he wants and what you can do to serve him. For whether he realizes it or not, he's talking about you.