"The congregation thought this was a great idea" (Acts 6:5) --

A biblical imperative for specialized ministries

Specialized ministries, it seems, get a bum rap from the church. The Bible has a different view. It's high time we embrace passionate mission-task workgroups that work alongside but not under the umbrella of the church - even if their focus challenges us a lot. Our witness to the world depends on them.

Specialized ministries deserve a mention today given the attention on how the church should regard The Presbyterian Layman and the validation of the ministries of its Presbyterian officers. But the scope is far larger than The Presbyterian Layman. Every presbytery and church is familiar with these essential specialized ministries. Seattle Presbytery, for instance, has partnerships with (and validates the ministries of its clergy to serve in) Christian organizations focused on the physically disabled, homeless women, international students, refugees, street youth, chaplaincy opportunities, and more. It's the richer for it.

My own ministry with Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship is a specialized ministry call. While we are a PC(USA) Validated Mission Support Group in a covenantal relationship with General Assembly Council, we are nonetheless an independent renewal group advocating and facilitating denominational mission among unreached people groups around the world.

My comments are from the missiological side. The local church has often recognized that it can't do certain types of ministry very well - or as well as - second-commitment-level individuals and teams can do them. That's an easy lesson to be drawn from Acts 6, where some underlying racial tensions and social ministries in the early church were causing undue stress. Urban mission specialist Ray Bakke, speaking at a recent meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Mission Pastors (APMP), said that "Acts 6 describes the first hunger program. The first church fight, incidentally, was not over doctrine, but racism. Luke says it changed its constitution and created a whole new structure and leadership – with all Greek names – to provide for serving women!" The result: "The congregation thought this was a great idea." (Acts 6:5, The Message) And it was!

The problem is that the "institutional" church has never felt very comfortable with these free-ranging specialized ministries. Vision- and passion-led, these groups doggedly pursue their focus, driven by their commitment and spiritual call with little heed to catering to the cradle-to-grave comprehensivity of the institutional church. I suspect this tension is well at hand in the actions being directed toward Parker Williamson and The Lay Committee.

The seminal teaching on the interrelationship between these second-level commitment groups and the institutional church was formulated by one of our own, Presbyterian missiologist Ralph Winter. His 1973 landmark address on this topic to the All-Asia Missions Consultation in Seoul, Korea is available online as "The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission."

Winter argues that God's redemptive purposes have been carried out through not one but two primary structures: modalities (the local church), and sodalities (mobile, task-oriented missionary enterprises). Both structures are ordained by God, he says, and both are necessary to manifest the gospel to the world.

One commentator gives a helpful summary of the differences between a modality and a sodality. See if you begin to recognize ministries you know (and even admire) as fitting into that sodality category.

Modalities (local churches)	Sodalities (task-oriented enterprises)
Congregational structures	Mission structures
People oriented	Task oriented
Government by consensus	Government by vision
Basic level commitment (Arises from the depth of your love for God)	Second level commitment (Arises from the depth of your obedience to God)

"God seemingly blesses the creation of task-oriented mission structures because sodalities have: 1) vision and a narrow, task-oriented focus; 2) personnel with career commitments who are more than volunteers; 3) selectivity with personnel; 4) quick decision making and the ability to respond rapidly to opportunities; and 5) expertise and professionalism in accomplishing tasks and achieving goals," adds the commentator.

These specialized ministries cover the entire field of human needs: international students, the homeless, governmental leaders, youth, children, even (yes) journalism. I have helped two very talented individuals become ordained as clergy to journalistic specialized calls. These are extremely valuable aspects of the body of Christ at work and can be appropriate validated calls to gifted Presbyterian clergy. There is a lot of latitude here, of course. Some journalists don't view their calls as an ordained ministry while others do. Prolific church journalist Marj Carpenter has intentionally refused ordination as a clergyperson. But veteran newsman Rev. Jerry Van Marter personifies the journalistic reverend.

Modalities (the institutional church) and sodalities (specialized ministry organizations) not only need to exist and recognize each other as legitimate, but also to work together harmoniously for the fulfillment of all that God desires for our time.

-- Dave Hackett