The View from the Pulpit:

Dear People of God, as We Journey through Epiphany,

GRACE AND PEACE TO YOU ALL!

A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD!

Dear Friends in Christ our Lord,

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people be-longing to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”   [1 Peter 2:9]

Pastor Arnold Deknatel, of Risen Christ Lutheran Church, Fairport, NY, (and a Seminary classmate of mine) relates this story:

“I remember a few years back, when I was an Assistant Pastor of a large congregation in North Carolina, I visited a woman in the hospital.  We had a good visit.  I cared for her spiritually and otherwise, and I felt that I had been a good pastor to her.  As I was concluding my visit with her she asked, ‘Oh, by the way, when is THE Pastor coming to see me?’  She was referring to the Sr. Pastor.  The Assistant Pastor, or an Elder or Deacon, or a fellow parishioner just wouldn’t do!  It had to be THE Pastor!”

The question that hospitalized woman should have us ask is: “Who IS the minister around here?  Is there only ONE MINISTER in any one congregation?  Or, is there ONE PASTOR, but MANY MINISTERS as there are those connected to that congregation?”

What this is really getting at is this: Everyone at Resurrection is a MINISTER!  (Be sure to read that statement again!).  Each and every Christian is called by Jesus Christ, and equipped by the Holy Spirit, to carry on ministry in the name of that same Jesus, our Savior.  Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses” [Acts 1:8].  The YOU He is referring to is ALL believers – YOU – not just pastors!

Think of the differences in the quantity and quality of ministry if the pastor is the only one doing ministry.  Think of the number of souls that could be saved if the pastor was the only one who could be used as an instrument in their saving rather than the tens or hundreds or thousands that are connected to churches.  Think of what it would mean in your place of work or in your community if you figuratively hung out a shingle in front of your house, “John and Jane Smith, Minister-at-Large for Jesus Christ!”  What a wonderful multiplication of ministry when we all accept the role God gives us as His royal priests, His ministers – “that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light!”

Celebrate and Share the Good News of Jesus!                                                                                  Pastor Hank Hollar