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Radicalising
the Reformation
by
Cadet Xander
Coleman
How contemporary Salvation
Army ideas about 'spiritual leadership'
relate to the
traditional concept of the 'priesthood of all believers'.
The term, 'priesthood of all
believers' is often bandied about in Salvation Army
intellectual circles when discussing 'spiritual leadership' (Clifton,
2010: 4).
Referring to both a biblical reality and a theological concept
proposed by Luther during the Reformation, the idea of a
'priesthood of all believers' abrogates the need for a
priestly caste to mediate between God and humanity.
Such an assertion, though, carries with it further
questions, particularly regarding the function of ordination,
the necessity for professional Christians, and the role of the
'laity'. In exploring
the idea of the 'priesthood of all believers', Salvationists
engage in discussion which includes varying views of how that
principle should be practised.
The biblical basis for the
concept is perhaps the best place to begin examining its
relevance to contemporary Salvationism.
The people of Israel in the Old Testament were called
to be a 'kingdom of priests' (Exodus 19:6, TNIV), but they
rejected this call: too afraid of God to approach his awesome
presence, 'they stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak
to us yourself and we will listen.
But do not have God speak to us or we will die”'
(Exodus 20:18-19, TNIV).
'The presupposition of priesthood is our sinful
estrangement from God' (Milne, 1998: 192), and Israel, aware
of its own sin, was unable to come into God's presence.
Relationship with God was broken, and they could not
overcome that brokenness without an intermediary, Moses.
'The priest is God's appointed mediator through whom
the estrangement is overcome' (Milne, 1998: 192): the Aaronic
priesthood was later established as an extension of the
priestly role that Moses fulfilled in interceding between God
and Israel. They
were tasked with offering sacrifices that appeased God's wrath
and reconciled the people with God.
In the New Testament, God
renews his call to the new people of God to be a new
priesthood through Jesus Christ.
'The Church as a whole, and Christians as members of
it, are spoken of in priestly terms...but individual ministers
are never called priests' (Hanson & Hanson, 1985: 149).
The title 'priest' in the singular form is only ever
applied to Jesus in the NT, and his priesthood renders all
others obsolete (Milne, 1998: 278).
Jesus is referred to as the High Priest throughout
Hebrews (e.g. Hebrews 4:14, TNIV), and it is through his
intermediary work that Christians can approach God.
Christians do not fear the awesome presence of God like
the Israelites did at Sinai (see Exodus 20:18), but through
Jesus 'approach the throne of grace with boldness' (Hebrews
4:16, NRSV).
Jesus' humanity qualifies him to act on humankind's behalf in
relation to God, and in offering his own life as an atoning
sacrifice for the sin of humankind Jesus reconciled humanity
to God in himself (Milne, 1998: 192), giving 'his life as a
ransom for many' (Mark 10:45, TNIV).
Thus we see that his 'priestly office covers the whole
saving work of Christ in his death' (Milne, 1998: 193).
The New Testament picture of
priesthood is of a new order of priests, not made up of a
special caste of Christians, but a priesthood of all
believers. In the
new covenant there is no longer any need for a human
intermediary to access God – Christ is our eternal high
priest, and we 'come to the Father' through him (John 14:6,
TNIV). Revelation
depicts scenes of heavenly worship in which the living
creatures and elders proclaim, 'with your blood you purchased
for God members of every tribe and language and people and
nation. You have
made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God'
(Revelation 5:9-10, TNIV).
Here, God's people are at last fulfilling the 'vocation
to which the ancient people of God were called' in Exodus 19
(Beasley-Murray, 1994: 1434).
The redeemed of Christ from every nation comprise this
new priesthood, not just a select family from a select tribe.
The only qualification needed is to have been purchased
by the blood of Jesus.
This classification of the redeemed as priests appears
twice again in Revelation: 1:6 ('has made us to be a kingdom
and priests to serve his God and Father,' TNIV), and 20:6
('but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign
with him for a thousand years,' TNIV).
Again echoing God's call in
Exodus 19, 1 Peter declares, 'you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light' (1 Peter 2:9, TNIV).
The identity of the new people of God is likened to the
ideal of the nation of Israel: 'holy', 'priesthood', 'special
possession', 'called'.
Christian ministry in the New Testament largely seems
to be based on participation of all believers according to the
gifting of the Holy Spirit.
The Church is likened to a body, every part functioning
differently yet contributing to a working whole; no part is
exalted over another, but each works according to its design.
'Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a
part of it' (1 Corinthians 12:27).
There is no distinction between 'clergy' and 'laity' in
the congregation: 'When you come together, each of you has a
hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an
interpretation.
Everything must be done so that the church may be built up' (1
Corinthians 14:26, TNIV).
Believers are not just gifted to minister in meetings.
Romans 12 speaks of spiritual gifting for
'prophesying', 'serving', 'teaching', 'encouragement',
'giving', leadership and acts of 'mercy' (Romans 12:6-8,
TNIV). 'For Paul,
ministry is a matter of what the Holy Spirit calls the
individual to do within the community' (Hanson & Hanson, 1985:
250-251). And not
just certain individuals: 'all the main NT passages dealing
with this theme assert that a gift or gifts of the Spirit are
the possession of every truly regenerate man or woman'
(Milne, 1998: 277, emphasis his).
The NT reveals that 'the whole body of Christians
constitute a single priesthood' (Hanson & Hanson, 1985: 254),
and that this priesthood involves different kinds of service
to God. A
priesthood of all believers.
Hill describes a process he
calls 'clericalisation' whereby hierarchies – informal or
formal – develop in worshipping communities as they
institutionalise.
Both he (2006: 7) and Hanson & Hanson (1985: 249) identify
this process affecting the early church in the first century
as the Pastoral Epistles were being written.
As the apostles died, their leadership was replaced by
the specific ministry of overseers/bishops (Greek =
episkopos), elders (Greek = presbyteros) and
servants/deacons (Greek = diakonoi) (Hill, 2006: 7),
though in the beginning there was no fixed hierarchy:
'overseer, 'servant' and 'elder' were used interchangeably
(Hanson & Hanson, 1985: 251).
The terms were functional, 'not of particular
theological significance', or intending to carry over priestly
terms or tradition from the OT (Hanson & Hanson, 1985: 252).
Nobody spoke of Christians leaders as 'priests' until
200 AD, when Tertullian applied the term to bishops (perhaps
to assure their status alongside equivalent pagan priests)
(Hanson & Hanson, 1985: 254).
He also posited that bishops, elders and deacons
'comprise a clerical order as distinct from the laity' (Hill,
2006: 9). 'By the
third century the various offices of the church were beginning
to be seen as a graded hierarchy, a ladder up which
clerics could climb' (Hill, 2006: 8, emphasis his).
Those in priestly offices assumed increasing privilege
and power, restricting ministries to the 'ordained'; by the
tenth century the laity 'were reduced to a spectator role in
the liturgy' (Hill, 2006: 10).
This is antithetical to Paul's instruction that 'when
you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of
instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation' (1
Corinthians 14:26, TNIV, emphasis mine)!
The 'development of the idea of the special “priesthood
of some believers”' meant that the concept of the 'priesthood
of all believers' was sidelined (Hill, 2006: 11).
The Reformation attempted to
correct many abuses of the established church, including the
corruption of priesthood.
Indeed, Gill claims that 'puncturing what they regarded
as the pretensions of the professional clergy came as close as
anything to being what the whole Reformation was about' (1958:
282). Martin
Luther coined the term, 'priesthood of all believers', to
describe a truth he saw revealed in the New Testament
(Clifton, 2010: 4).
'Luther...rejected the sacerdotal priesthood' and
'restored the idea of the church as a spiritual communion of
believers, all of whom are priests to God' (Milne, 1998: 302).
There was no need, insisted Luther, for any human
intermediary between God and humankind other than Jesus.
This assertion by necessity demanded a de-emphasis on
the role of ordained clergy in the life of the church (Gill,
1958: 282) though Clifton (2010: 5) and Hill (2006: 17) are
quick to point out that Luther's reforms did not dispense with
a functional clergy.
Rather, the understanding of what the clergy was
changed: ordination did not enact some ontological
transmogrification in the ordinand (giving status above mere
laity), it signified a special function that the priest or
minister fulfilled in church life, and no more.
It should be noted that Luther was ordained, and
continued to function as a priest: nothing much changed in how
Lutheran churches did ministry, and clergy continued to enjoy
pre-eminence in church life, reserving for themselves certain
rites and roles (Clifton, 2010: 5).
Hill points to Anabaptists as a type of radical
Reformers, who rejected any distinctions between clergy and
laity. 'Rather
than having no clergy, it could be said that they had no
laity' (2006: 19).
Their focus was on the local congregation of believers
ministering to one another and the world around them.
Any 'traditional concept' of
the 'priesthood of all believers', then, might consist purely
of Luther's meaning of the term, that is, that there is no
intrinsic difference between lay and cleric in status
(Montover, 2010: 73).
Or it might refer to themuch more radical New Testament
picture, which emphasises the role of each believer to
minister Christ to the world.
Contemporary Salvationist thought on spiritual
leadership tends to fall somewhere in the continuum between
these two ideas.
The official position of The Salvation Army seeks the best of
both worlds, acknowledging the calling and ministry of 'laity'
as equally valid and 'spiritual' as that of 'clergy'
(officers), but nevertheless recognising the unique calling to
Officership and its expediency in terms of leadership (The
Salvation Army, 2008: 33-62).
The extreme emphasis of Officer
distinctiveness is rarely articulated explicitly, but often
expressed. Clifton
reinforces it in chastising those who 'misuse' the phrase
'priesthood of all believers' by 'making it a slogan for
diminishing the role of a separate order of clergy or of
officers, thinking mistakenly that the phrase is a battle cry
which means: “Anyone can do anything within the church!”'
(2010: 4). A
General's position becomes precarious if the authority and
validity of Officership is undermined.
Other Army practices subtly perpetuate this view.
The UKI Territory allows only commissioned Officers to
conduct weddings (Official Minute Number OCW0809, September
2008), perhaps pointing to a quasi-priestly status of Officers
over and above that of Soldiers.
The very use of the term 'ordination' in creating
Officers is relatively recent, instituted in the late 1970s ,
and 'is a church term... to do with the offices of a priest
and, if truth be told, historically implies access to
sacramental authority' (Ryan, 2009).
Sandercock-Brown identifies self-perceptions among some
Officers that commissioning 'produces some ontological change
in them' making them 'somehow different to lay soldiers'.
He worries that 'our longing to see ourselves as
ordained ministers of the Church of the Salvation Army has a
great deal to do with settling back down to security, status,
power and prestige and very little to do with mission and
practice as we find it in the New Testament' (2009).
The existence of non-commissioned Officer ranks (such
as Auxiliary-Captains, Gowans' Lieutenants and Envoys) also
points to awkwardness about the status of Officers (Hill,
2006: 194ff). If
'spiritual leadership' merely denotes different function,
should not those filling that function be called Officers?
Hill's scathing conclusion is this: 'though the
Salvation Army rubric, in distinction from the Church's
clerical orders, is that “captain is as captain does,” the
exceptions seem to be too numerous to prove the rule' (2006:
206).
More radical understandings of
the 'priesthood of all believers' are applied to spiritual
leadership by those seeking to re-radicalise the Army.
These voices advocate for the mobilisation of 'laity',
making the ministry of the Soldiery, rather than the Officer,
the locus of corps ministry.
Yuill talks about leadership as a spiritual gift that
serves the whole body (2003: 3).
John Coutts insists that the Army follows the tradition
of the 'radicals of the Reformation', who focussed on the
ministry of the local fellowship, and that its view of
church leadership is purely pragmatic: we do officership
because it works (2001: 104-105).
Sandercock-Brown posits that Officership's 'great
virtue is its convenience to the Army's mission...It is a
glorious, sacrificial and a God-honouring convenience, but a
convenience nevertheless' (2009).
Missional expediency is the only justification for
having any distinction between Officer and Soldier.
Ryan laments that 'as the role and importance of the
officer increased [historically], conversely the involvement
and commitment of soldiers – the laity – decreased' (2009).
In contrast to General Clifton, Ryan recognises that
'the profound beauty of early-day Army operations was that
anyone and everyone could and did do everything that
eventually came to be regarded as the exclusive domain – if
not sacred obligation – of the officer' (Ryan, 2009).
Court goes further still, rejecting even functional
distinctives between Soldier and Officer: 'There is no
difference between the two functions [officer and soldier],
there is
no distinctive... The emphasis on ordination and the
professional nature of officership only serves to widen the
artificial gap existing between officers and soldiers. Note I
use the term “soldier” rather than the insidious term “laity”'
(cited in Hill, 2005: 19).
These voices emphasise the priest-status of all
believers, not just in the sense of immediacy of grace, but in
a practical, functioning way.
The Church's ministry must be carried by all believers:
if mission is just what the Officer/minister/priest can do,
then it will be sorely inhibited.
Finding resolution between
these differing perspectives is neither likely nor necessary.
In the vast continuum of thought on the concept of
priesthood, the extremes of Salvation Army thought are not far
apart, and dialogue between the positions reminds the Army
about this important issue, whether it conforms to the
traditional reformation concept of the 'priesthood of all
believers' or radicalises it towards biblical models.
The Salvation Army claims that
'all vocations are important opportunities for
expressing discipleship... In that sense there is no separated
ministry.' (2010: 252), but I wonder if sometimes the
prevailing attitude of Soldiers and Officers in some quarters
is that all Christian vocations are equal, but some are more
equal than others.
The biblical pictures of both 'priesthood' and ministry
involve all Christians.
There is now no need for an intermediary between
believers and God, other than Jesus; yet the Church is called
to be an intermediary between God and a humanity that is
estranged from Him.
What potential to see the world changed if a billion
believers took their role as priests seriously.
The collective effect of a billion believers living
their lives so as to bring Christ to a dying world will bring
his kingdom. The
harvest is plentiful, we cry, but the labourers are few.
That reason alone is motivation enough to embrace and
promote the concept of the true priesthood of all believers.
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