Calvin Institute of Christian Worship - Christian Reformed Church

Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry"

A. Materials:

Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry" Report, pp. 263-301

B. Background

The Study Committee on Ordination and Official Acts of Ministry was originally appointed in 1995 and reported to Synod 1999. In 1999, the committee proposed a fifth office of Minister of Education. Synod 1999, reluctant to establish additional offices, was not persuaded to adopt the committee's recommendations and sent the report back to the committee. The committee was augmented and its mandate expanded to include the definition of the nature of the" official acts of ministry," and their relationship to office and ordination, ". . . providing guidelines to help the church deal with matters of ordination and office, and being sensitive to the various cultural and ethnic communities in which our churches minister" (Acts of Synod 1999, pp. 500-501).

Synod 2000 established two additional principles. The principle of proportionality, which says that the greater the level of responsibility assigned, the greater should be the level of understanding, skills, and training. The second principle is that the Christian Reformed Church is committed to a theologically well-trained ministry.

The advisory committee considered whether the name of this expanded office of evangelist should be changed. We note that the meaning of the root word here is "good news." All Christians, not just those traditionally called to the office of evangelist, are responsible for telling the good news. In our discussion, we were reminded of the model that already exists in the office of minister of the Word, where some persons are appointed to positions, the skills and job descriptions of which do not focus on the proclamation of the Word, but are deemed compatible with the office of minister of the Word. The names for positions of persons ordained to the offices of minister of the Word or evangelist may vary, including such titles as chaplain, executive director of ministries, pastor of education, field education director, minister of congregational life, and so forth.

The youth committee has been regularly updated on the progress of the study committee, is very supportive, and looks forward to the adoption of these proposed guidelines.

The advisory committee found the study report to be extensive and very helpful, both historically and theologically, in its review of the nature of ordination and office.

C. Recommendation

1. That synod grant the privilege of the floor to Robert C. DeVries (chair), David Holwerda, Stanley Jim, and Clayton Libolt (reporter) as representatives of the study committee when this report is considered.

-Granted

2. That synod adopt the following guidelines for understanding the nature of, and relationships among, the concepts and practices of ordination, the "official acts of ministry," and church office:

Guidelines

a. Re mission
1) As the church of Jesus Christ, we have been called together to serve the mission of the Lord. We believe with the apostle Paul that this mission is above all

. . . from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
(2 Cor. 5:18-20)

2) The role of the church in this mission is to be the body of Jesus Christ, manifesting his presence as we together and separately offer" our bodies [our whole lives] as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" (Rom. 12:1). This is our public work, our liturgy, our great calling.

3) We are called to be a sacrificial presence in the world, giving of ourselves as Christ gave himself for the sake of others. We are" a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

4) For our role in the mission of Jesus Christ, every Christian has been anointed (2 Cor. 1:21; Heidelberg Catechism Q. & A. 32) and called to serve the Lord. This is the office of believer.

-Adopted

b. Re leadership

1) For the purposes of this redemptive mission, the Lord also calls some to serve as leaders. Leadership is centrally a relationship of trust and responsibility. Leaders are entrusted by Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, to take pastoral responsibility for a part of his flock. With this responsibility comes the authority of Christ for the purposes to which the leader has been called.

2) Leaders must at the same time be recognized and trusted by the people of God as those who come with authority and blessings from the Lord. This dual relationship of leader to Christ and leader to the people is what above all defines leadership in the church. Leaders are those who have both the call of Christ and the call of the people.

-Adopted

c. Re the "official acts of ministry"

1) Certain acts of ministry-among them the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, the pronouncement of blessings for the people, the laying of hands on new leaders, and the reception and formal dismissal of members-are part of the ministry of Christ to his followers and are entrusted to the church and, within the church, to its ordained leaders, not to a specific office.

2) Therefore, no long-standing, organized congregation of Christians should be deprived of these liturgical acts simply because it cannot provide for the presence of an ordained minister or evangelist.

3) These acts of ministry symbolize and strengthen the relationships among the Lord, leaders, and the people of God. Their use is a sacred trust given to leaders by the Lord for the purpose of strengthening the flock. Therefore the administration of these acts should continue to be regulated by the church.

-Adopted

d. Re ordination

1) Ordination is the church's way to recognize and enact the relationships
of leadership. In ordination, the church recognizes that a person has
- The appropriate excellencies for ministry
- The callings of Christ and the people of God
- A call to a role of pastoral responsibility

2) The laying on of hands is the ceremony by which the church symbolizes and enacts the relationships of ordination. By this ceremony, the leader on whose head hands are laid is symbolically offered to Christ, included in the succession of leaders of the church stretching back to the apostles, and given the power of the Spirit. Since by the laying on of hands the church recognizes pastoral leadership as such and not a specific office or role, this ceremony is appropriate for all church offices.

3) Ordination is appropriate when, and only when, a person is called to pastoral leadership within the church. "Pastoral" is here understood to embrace the functions of all the offices, including deacons, elders, evangelists, and ministers of the Word. Ordination is not a way of recognizing a person's academic credentials, elevating the prestige of religious professionals, or granting of tenure in the church. It is a recognition and enactment of a pastoral relationship between Christ and the church, mediated in a certain leader. As such it should not be entered into lightly. Therefore ordination ought to be regulated by the church according to the nature of the office.

-Adopted

I. Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry"

A. Materials:

Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry" Report, pp. 263-301

B. Background

The Study Committee on Ordination and Official Acts of Ministry was originally appointed in 1995 and reported to Synod 1999. In 1999 the committee proposed a fifth office of Minister of Education. Synod 1999, reluctant to establish additional offices, was not persuaded to adopt the committee's recommendations and sent the report back to the committee. The committee was augmented and its mandate expanded to include the definition of the nature of the "official acts of ministry," and their relationship to office and ordination, ". . . providing guidelines to help the church deal with matters of ordination and office, and being sensitive to the various cultural and ethnic communities in which our churches minister" (Acts of Synod 1999, pp. 500-1).

The youth committee has been regularly updated on the progress of the study committee, is very supportive, and looks forward to the adoption of these proposed guidelines.

The advisory committee found the study report to be extensive and very helpful in its review, both historically and theologically of the nature of ordination and office.

C. Recommendations (continued from Article 53)

2. That synod adopt the following guidelines for understanding the nature of and relationships among the concepts and practices of ordination, the "official acts of ministry," and church office:

Guidelines

e. Re office

1) The church has chosen on the basis of biblical example and for the purposes of good order to recognize certain offices. These offices or ministries vary with the needs of the church at different times and places.

2) For the present purposes of the Christian Reformed Church, the four offices already recognized by the denomination are sufficient for good order.

3) The office of evangelist may be understood to have the character of pastoral extension. Evangelists extend the work of pastoral leadership by founding and working in new congregations and by extending the ministry of organized congregations into specialized areas, including, but not limited to, youth ministry, education, pastoral care, worship, and evangelism (Cf. Church Order Article 24). By the broader application of the office of evangelist, with its existing regulations, to a variety of ministry positions, the church avoids the multiplication of offices and provides a way of recognizing and regulating a variety of pastoral positions in our churches. These ministry positions may be identified by titles that indicate their ministry distinctiveness such as chaplain, pastor of education, pastor of youth, minister of congregational life, and so forth.

4) In congregations that cannot provide an ordained minister or evangelist, the right to exercise the "official acts of ministry" may be granted by the classis to the elders, who should be specifically trained for this purpose.

-Adopted

3. That, in order to enact these guidelines, synod adopt the following:
a. That Church Order Supplement, Article 23 be modified to read as follows (replacing those sections of the supplement adopted by Synods 1979 and 1994):

The office of evangelist is applicable to a variety of ministries, provided that these ministries fit the guidelines adopted by Synod 2001 and that the other Church Order and synodical regulations for the office of evangelist are observed. These include the ministries such as education, evangelism, music, and ministries to children, youth, adults, and others within or outside of the congregation. Before examining a person for the office of evangelist or granting permission to install a previously ordained evangelist in a new position, the classis, with the concurring advice of the synodical deputies, will determine whether or not the position to which the person is being called fits the guidelines adopted by Synod 2001. In addition, the candidate for the office of evangelist must have proven ability to function in the ministry to which he or she is being called.

The candidate shall also sustain a classical examination. The classical examination shall include the following elements:
1) Presentation of the following documents
a) A conciliar recommendation from the church in which the appointee holds membership
b) Evidence (diplomas, transcripts, etc.) of formal general education and of specialized training in the ministry area to which the candidate is being called
c) A copy of the letter of appointment from the church that is requesting ordination of the candidate as evangelist
d) A copy of the candidate's letter of acceptance

2) Where applicable, presentation of a sermon
a) In an official worship service, preferably on the Sunday preceding the meeting of classis and in the church to which the candidate for ordination has been called, the evangelist shall preach a sermon on a text assigned by classis. Two members of classis shall be present to serve as sermon critics.
b) A copy of the sermon shall be provided to the classical delegates. In the presence of the evangelist, the sermon critics shall evaluate the sermon and the evangelist's manner of conducting the entire worship service.

3) Examination in the following areas
a) Knowledge of Scripture
b) Know ledge of Reformed doctrine
c) Knowledge of the standards of the church and the Church Order
d) Practical matters regarding Christian testimony, walk of life, relationships with others, love for the church, approach to ministry, and promotion of Christ's kingdom

When the evangelist accepts another call, his ordination shall require the approval of the classis to which his calling church belongs, to which the evangelist shall have presented good ecclesiastical testimonies of doctrine and life given to him by his former council and classis.

The classis shall ensure that the candidate meets the standards of character, knowledge, and skill adopted by Synod 2000 (Acts of Synod 2000, pp. 702-4).

The classis shall also ensure that evangelists, especially those working at some distance from their calling congregations, will have proper supervision and support for the ministry.

Grounds:
1) These changes recognize the broadening of the office of evangelist to include ministry-staff positions that fit the definition for ordination given in the guidelines above.
2) Classical approval of the position for which a person will be ordained as an evangelist is consistent with the long-standing practice of classical approval for ministerial positions outside of traditional congregational roles and will promote consistency and good order.
3) Proper supervision and support of evangelists promote consistency and good order.

b. That synod propose to Synod 2002 the following changes in Article 55 of the Church Order (additions underlined; subtractions struck through):
The sacraments shall be administered upon the authority of the consistory in the public worship service by a ~~the~~ minister of the Word, an evangelist or, in the case of need, an ordained person who has received the approval of classis, with the use of the prescribed forms or adaptations of them that conform to synodical guidelines.

Grounds:
1) The gifts of the sacraments are an integral part of the relationship between Christ and the church and should not be denied to a congregation because it is unable to support clergy.
2) Approval and supervision of the exercise of these gifts by the classis will promote consistency of practice and good order in our churches.

-Adopted

4. That synod dismiss the committee with thanks for their significant contribution to our understanding of ordination and office.

-Adopted

Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry"

I. Introduction

A. Questions about leadership

In recent years the Christian Reformed Church has faced a number of issues related to leadership in the church. Among them are the following:

1. The need for various types of leaders
Congregations within the denomination are less similar to one another than they once were. There are large congregations and small congregations/ congregations with staff ministries and congregations with bivocational pastors, congregations in urban settings and congregations in rural settings, wealthy congregations and poor congregations, congregations that minister to African-Americans or European Americans or Hispanic Americans or Korean Americans or Native Americans. These various congregations not only need leaders with different kinds of training, but they have different ideas about what constitutes good leadership.

2. The desire for denominational standards
The very issues raised above with respect to the need for different kinds of leaders point to a concern about unified denominational standards. What holds the denomination together? What standards for leadership should be universally applied?

For many years the denomination developed its clergy at a single institution/ Calvin Theological Seminary. Ministers were trained in one way. They had experiences and teachers in common. They came to know each other informally. This common academic history, together with a common ethnic heritage, helped ensure denominational unity. The loss of these sorts of bonds should not alarm us/ but it does raise this question: where, apart from these ethnic and experiential commonalities, can the leadership of the Christian Reformed Church find unity? What qualities of training and perspective should we seek in our leaders?

3. The understanding of the nature of church leadership
The subtext of these discussions about diversity and quality in church leadership is a latent argument about the nature of church leadership. How is leadership defined in the Bible? What is church office? Which gifts are given to which offices? When is ordination proper and when not? These are questions related to the very idea of church leadership, the theology of church office.

In addressing these concerns, recent synods have appointed not one but three committees. To the Committee to Examine Alternate Routes Being Used to Enter the Ordained Ministry in the CRC were given a number of concerns having to do with diversity and uniform standards in the training of leaders particularly ordained ministers. This committee reported to Synod 2000 (see Agenda for Synod 2000, pp. 271-350). Synod 2000 heard the report, as well as several responding overtures and communications (Agenda for Synod 2000, pp. 150-56,489-93; Acts of Synod 2000, p. 557), and took several actions.

First, synod affirmed two governing principles with regard to standards for ministry:

1. The Reformed confessional heritage is the basic foundation for all ministry staff job descriptions. A "principle of proportionality" should be thoughtfully applied to all persons who fill staff positions in any Christian Reformed Church. The degree of understanding and skill required to apply the confessional tradition is proportional to the level of ministry responsibility assigned. As one's sphere of authorized service extends, so should one's capability for understanding, articulating, and discipling others in the Christian faith and Reformed confessional tradition.

2. The CRC is committed to a theologically well-trained ministry and to maintaining the expectation that "the completion of a satisfactory theological training shall be required for admission to the ministry of the Word" (Church Order Art. 6-a).

(Acts of Synod 2000, p. 702)

Special note should be taken of the principle of proportionality, articulated in the first of these principles. We will return to it below.

Second, Synod 2000 affirmed a set of general standards covering the areas of character, knowledge, and skills for persons who serve on church staffs (see Appendix of this report). Although these standards are specifically targeted at persons who, whether ordained or not, are employed by churches, they provide a general framework of expectations for those who serve in any of the offices, again, subject to the proportionality principle.

Finally, Synod 2000 appointed a new committee to "further explore and build on the implications of the report [of the] Committee to Examine Alternate Routes Being Used to Enter Ordained Ministry in the CRC by positively identifying flexible routes to credential those who seek entrance to the ordained ministry" (Acts of Synod 2000, p. 704). The new committee is slated to report to Synod 2003.

The Alternate Routes Committee considered and the new committee will consider matters having to do with diversity and standards in the training and credentialing of church leaders. Our committee has been given the task of considering the nature of office and ordination. Because these three committees were appointed by different synods (1996 for the original Alternate Routes Committee, 2000 for the new Alternate Routes Committee, and 1995 for the original appointment of our committee), their mandates were neither entirely discrete nor, taken together, comprehensive of the questions about leadership that face the denomination. But to gain an understanding of the state of the discussion about leadership in the Christian Reformed Church until now, it is necessary to consider all these committees and discussions.

B. The original mandate of the Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry"

The particular questions that gave rise to our committee came from three directions and raised three concerns:

1. The issue of boundaries
To whom and to which offices should be given the right to perform certain officially undefined" acts of ministry"? This concern was raised by Classis Alberta North, which overtured synod to identify the" official acts of ministry" to guide churches as they develop staff ministries (Overture 3, Agenda for Synod 1995, p. 324).

2. An issue of recognition
The Youth-Ministry Committee asked synod to appoint a study committee to consider how the 1973 synodical actions on office and ordination apply to "persons engaged in youth ministry and in other specialized ministries" (Agenda for Synod 1995, p. 209).

3. The issue of need
The third concern came from Classis Red Mesa and addressed a longstanding issue of need -- the need in some churches of this classis to be able to develop bivocational leadership and to give bivocational leaders not only the right to preach but also the right to administer the sacraments. Classis Red Mesa therefore asked synod to change Church Order Article 55 so that persons properly authorized to bring the Word may also administer the sacraments (Overture 7, Agenda for Synod 1995, p. 330).

Since all three of these concerns involve both an understanding of "official acts of ministry" and an interpretation of the 1973 synodical action on office and ordination, Synod 1995 decided to place the concerns together and to appoint a study committee with the following mandate and grounds:

That synod appoint a study committee to consider the matters of ordination and "official acts of ministry" (Church Order Art. 53-b) as these apply to youth pastors and persons in other specialized ministries who attain their positions by pathways other than the M.Div. degree.

Grounds:
a. Synod 1973 adopted a report on office and ordination, the conclusions of which invite a consideration of this matter, in that report ordination is seen as a "setting apart" of a certain person for a particular ministry within the church (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 63). .
b. Increasingly congregations are calling and/or employing persons who are gifted and trained for a particular ministry in the church. This development ought to be considered by the denomination in the light of biblical and confessional material and synodical decisions (see Agenda for Synod 1995, p. 324; Overture 3 shows that this is not an isolated concern).
c. If the proposed study would lead to the ordination of youth pastors, appropriate guidelines should be developed to increase the effectiveness of those whose career is to serve the churches in that capacity.
d. This proposed study extends beyond the scope and capacity of the Youth Ministry Committee as mandated by Synod 1991. The YMC does not have available the time and expertise needed for this study.
(Acts of Synod 1995, p. 744)

C. Revised mandate
The committee reported to Synod 1999 (Agenda for Synod 1999, pp. 281-303) with recommendations pertaining to the" official acts of ministry," bivocational pastors in Classis Red Mesa, and persons involved in the educational ministries of congregations. The report recommended the establishment of two ways of recognizing educational ministry staff: a nonordained position called "associate in educational ministry" and a new ordained office called "minister of education."

Synod 1999, influenced by a number of overtures (Overtures 6-11, Agenda for Synod 1999, pp. 395-408; Overture 30, Acts of Synod 1999, pp. 500-01), was not persuaded to adopt the committee's recommendations. The report was sent back to the committee, the committee was augmented, and its mandate was further clarified:

That. . . the study committee. . . continue its work and, in addition to the matters considered and reported on thus far, . . . define the essence and nature of "official acts of ministry," exploring the relationship between "official acts of ministry" and the nature and function of office and ordination, identifying practical implications for church ministry today, providing guidelines to help the church deal with matters of ordination and office, and being sensitive to the various cultural and ethnic communities in which our churches minister.

In recommending that the report be recommitted to the committee, the advisory committee of synod also raised the following specific questions:

- What acts of worship and ministry call for ordination and why?
- Who should be ordained and why?
- What is the relationship between ordination and a person's spiritual gifts, God's call, and the church's need?
- What is the basis for the academic standards maintained for some but not other offices?
- How can we define and specify the "official acts of ministry"?
- May the church create and terminate offices at will? Why? How?
- Ought elders in churches without pastors preach and administer sacraments?
- What is the ecclesiastical status of nonordained persons who in various ways serve in congregational ministries, such as worship and music leadership, youth work, evangelism, church administration, congregational life, counseling, pastoral care, and chaplaincies?
- What is the difference between ordination, commissioning, and appointment of staff?
- How can the needs of the organized and unorganized churches of Classis Red Mesa be met by bivocational pastors?
- How can the recommendation that licensed exhorters in Classis Red Mesa be ordained as elders apply in an unorganized church setting and within the context of limited tenure provisions in our current church polity?
(Acts of Synod 1999, p. 626)

The questions raised by the advisory committee are broad and difficult. They point out a sense of confusion in the denomination about the meaning, limits, and regulation of ordination. In the report that follows, We will attempt to answer these questions as well as we can. But before turning to the matter of ordination itself, we will attempt to set in historical perspective the questions that have arisen in the past few years.

II. History

A. The development of the office of evangelist

The questions raised by the advisory committee of Synod 1999, as well as the original and revised mandates given to our committee, must be seen as part of a larger discussion about office and ordination in the Christian Reformed Church. This discussion originally arose in reference to what were once called "layworkers in evangelism," most of whom were persons without seminary training who worked in founding new congregations. Over a long period of time, stretching back to the early years of the past century, it became evident to the Christian Reformed Church that these lay pastors were engaged in important pastoral work and ought to be recognized officially by the denomination. The question was how.

Beginning in 1946, the question of how to recognize lay evangelists was debated actively at the denominational level. Synods noted or took action on the debate in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1954, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978,1979, and 1994. Various solutions were offered and rejected, including ordaining lay evangelists as elders and ordaining them as ministers of the Word but restricting the office in various ways. A solution was finally found in 1978, when synod created a new office of evangelist (Acts of Synod 1978, pp 74-78). Synod 1979 approved the required changes in the Church Order (Acts of Synod 1979, pp. 64-68). Since then, the office of evangelist has been recognized as a fourth ordained office in the CRC, along with elder, deacon, and minister of the Word.

The addition of a fourth office in the polity of the Christian Reformed Church represented a substantial change. It abandoned a long-held assumption that there were just three kinds of offices, each representing one aspect of the threefold office of Christ: prophet (ministers), priest (deacons), and king (elders). The Revised Church Order Commentary by Idzerd Van Dellen and Martin Monsma (1965) claims,

. . . Our fall into sin was three-fold, in keeping with man's essential being as God's image-bearer. Consequently, we must be saved in a three-fold sense and restored in a three-fold sense, i.e., as prophets, priests, and kings. (P. 24)

. . . The Old Testament knew three primary offices; no more; no less: prophets,
priests, and kings. They were representatives of the Christ to come. For this same reason the New Testament has three primary offices; no more; no less; ministers, deacons, and elders, representing Christ respectively as Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church. (P. 24)

However, the idea that there are just three offices and that there is a formal analogy between the offices of ancient Israel and the offices of the church is not directly based on the Bible and can be misleading. Take, for example, the office of pastor (minister of the Word). Pastors do announce the Word of God. In that sense they are like the ancient prophets, although there are also many differences. For example, pastors usually receive the Word of God through reading and studying the Scriptures, whereas prophets often received the Word directly from God. But pastors are not only like prophets; they are also like priests. They preside over the liturgy and offer prayers and spiritual guidance for the people of God. In addition, pastors are at times like kings: they have ruling functions in the church. To focus the office on one of these functions, say, prophecy, tends to distort the office. It suggests that pastors ought above all to be good preachers rather than gentle shepherds or effective administrators.

The same could be said of the other offices. To suggest that elders are rulers (kings) first of all tends to distort the perception in the church of what elders should do. Elders do have ruling responsibilities, along with pastors and deacons, but they also have responsibilities to care for and pray for the people (priestly responsibilities) and to announce the Word of God (prophetic responsibilities). If all elders do is make decisions, they have failed to fulfill the full responsibilities of their office. So, too, for deacons, who are not only priests but also at times rulers and prophets (see the ordination form: "prophetic critics of the waste, injustice, and selfishness of our society," Psalter Hymnal, p. 1005).

For this reason, creating a new office, the office of evangelist, was an important step. By doing so, the Christian Reformed Church freed itself to see church office in different, more functional terms. By doing so, it also opened the question of who should be ordained and why. Many of the questions taken up in this report are a direct result of the decision to create the office of evangelist.

B. A broadening of the office of evangelist

Synod 1994 changed the regulations pertaining to the office of evangelist in a number of important ways. One of the most important of these changes permitted evangelists to serve in organized congregations along with a minister of the Word (Acts of Synod 1978, p. 488; Church Order Art. 23-c). This change introduced two new elements into the office of evangelist. First, the office is no longer limited to the persons who occasioned the creation of the office -- those lay workers in evangelism who worked by themselves in small chapels. Now the office has a place in staff ministry. The overture requesting this change had explicitly raised the issue of staff ministry and the need for recognizing persons with specialized training:

Increasingly, congregations are recognizing that the effectiveness of their ministry is enhanced by the addition of staff called to minister to specific ages/ groups of people. Some are adding staff to assist them fulfill the mandate of Church Order Article 74-a. . . .
In so doing, congregations are discovering that people gifted for this ministry do not have a Master of Divinity degree.

Second, the change suggests a relationship between the minister of the Word and the evangelist working in an organized congregation. By saying that an evangelist may work in an organized congregation only if there is also a minister of the Word present, the Church Order protects an important and traditional value: the value of an educated, seminary-trained clergy. But the Church Order now also allows a person other than a minister of the Word to serve, to preach, to administer the sacraments -- in short, to serve as a pastoral presence.

In this relationship the office of evangelist is much closer to the understanding of the office of deacon in some other traditions, especially the Roman Catholic and Anglican communions, where deacon is a clerical office distinct from the office of priest. Deacons in these communions preach, assist (but usually do not preside) in the sacramental liturgy, and serve in a variety of other pastoral roles. Usually they are not given primary responsibility for a congregation but serve with and under a priest.

This office of pastoral assistant and the use of the word deacon to name the office are very ancient. Ignatius of Antioch, writing at the very beginning of the second century AD., instructs the church of Philadelphia to send a deacon as its official representative to the church of Antioch:

. . . It is becoming to you, as a church of God, to appoint a deacon to go thither as God's ambassador, that he may congratulate them [the church at Antioch of Syria] when they are assembled together, and may glorify the Name. Blessed in Jesus Christ is he that shall be counted worthy of such a ministration. . . .

Here, as in several other places in the letters of Ignatius, deacon identifies a pastoral assistant, a person serving in a variety of capacities to extend and enhance the work of the bishop. The office of evangelist in the Christian Reformed Church is also an office of pastoral extension; in some respects it resembles the ancient office of deacon.

We will return to the functions and possibilities of the office of evangelist below, but before we move on, we need to look more closely at the understanding of office that undergirded the decisions of synod with respect to evangelists, the understanding that permitted synod to move away from the idea that there may be only three offices.

C. A new understanding of office: Report 44 of 1973

As synod after synod was engaging in the discussion about how to properly recognize lay evangelists that eventually led to the decision to create a new office, the need was expressed for a theological study of the "nature of ecclesiastical office and the meaning of ordination." A committee for the purpose of studying these matters was appointed in 1969 (Acts of Synod 1969, p. 85). It reported for the first time in 1972 with a biblical and historical study of ecclesiastical office and ordination. The committee reported a second time in 1973. This report, Report 44 of 1973 (Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 635-716) remains the major synodical statement on ordination and office.

Report 44 begins with a biblical and historical study of the terminology and theology of ordination and office, taking up first the vocabulary, concept, and rituals of ordination. The report begins with the word ordain itself. It observes that ordain corresponds to no single biblical word, or at least to no New Testament word. Noting this, the report raises the question whether ordination is a biblical concept at all. Does the concept of ordination arise out of the Bible, or is it imposed on the Bible? The report notes that, though the King James Version uses ordain thirty-five times to translate several different Hebrew and Greek words, modern translations use the term far less often, preferring appoint in many contexts.

Though this is true, it should be noted that the word ordain has itself undergone changes. It does not mean quite the same thing now as it did when the King James Version was being prepared. In general, it has lost something of its breadth of meaning. Though it retains something of the basic meaning of "to set in order" (the word being derived from the Latin ordinare), it has mostly lost its senses of "to deploy" (as an army), "to arrange," and even "to prepare." In our time the word has come to be specialized as an ecclesiastical and theological term. The less extensive use of ordain in modern versions is probably more a result of internal changes in English than of a new understanding of the text.

That having been said, the report is correct in suggesting that the words which are translated by ordain in the New Testament do not represent a specialized vocabulary of church office. The terms are general terms meaning "to appoint, put in charge, elect, and choose." The report does not take up the Old Testament terminology, especially mille' 'et-yad, "to fill the hand," which is clearly an ancient technical term for something like ordination (see Milgrom, The Anchor Bible: Leviticus 1-16, New York: Doubleday, 1991, pp. 538-40). What is more surprising is that the report does not consider another set of biblical words that are key for understanding office and ministry, the vocabulary of holiness or consecration.

From considering the word ordain, Report 44 (1973) moves on to the Old and New Testament ceremonies having to do with office. The first is the Old Testament ritual of anointing. Key here is the relationship between the Old Testament anointing rituals and the New Testament. Report 44 holds (correctly, in our opinion) that there is no New Testament support for anointing to special office. What the report does not take account of is the possibility that the New Testament church, at least in some places, did anoint new Christians to the office of believer at baptism, a custom certainly attested in the early church after the New Testament era. Paul hints at baptismal anointing in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22: "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." First John 2:20, 27 may refer to the same practice. It is also possible that these references are metaphorical and that baptismal anointing developed later. In either case, the basic sense of the New Testament on anointing is clear: Jesus is the anointed one, the one and only Christ (messiah), and Christians share in his anointing (see Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 31 and 32).

The report turns next to a ceremony that does appear to be a New Testament ordination rite, the laying on of hands. Laying on of hands is not exclusive to the New Testament; it is also attested in the Old Testament. Noteworthy are references in Exodus (29:10) and Leviticus (1:4; 4:4) to laying hands on sacrificial animals, a reference in Numbers 8:10 to laying hands on a group of Levites, and a reference in Numbers 27:15-23 to Moses laying hands on Joshua to designate Joshua as his successor. Also important is Deuteronomy 34:9, where it is said of Joshua that he "was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him." It appears that the ceremony of laying on of hands in the Old Testament could convey a solemn setting aside for sacrificial service, succession, and spiritual endowment.

The ritual of the laying on of hands also appears in several key places in the New Testament, including Acts 6:1-6, Acts 13:3, and the epistles of Timothy (1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6). These passages equally convey the ideas of a solemn setting aside, of succession, and of spiritual endowment for the persons receiving the laying on of hands. It is surprising, therefore, that Report 44 concludes its lengthy discussion of the laying on of hands with the following paragraph:

The ceremony of the laying on of hands symbolizes the appointment of a person as the representative of a group which has laid hands on him. After such a ceremony the person appointed acts in behalf of this group and on the authority of the group. The group has empowered him to use in their name certain divinely bestowed gifts which they recognized in him.(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 649)

This conclusion seems to back away from the biblical significance of the ceremony of the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands is more than a mere "appointment. . . as a representative of a group," as if those on whom hands were laid were elected officials in a democratic political order. Rather, the sense conveyed in the biblical passages, both Old and New Testament, is that the laying on of hands endowed new leaders with spiritual gifts, gifts for which they were responsible to God (2 Tim. 1:6). The conclusions of Report 44 step away from the awesomeness associated in the Scriptures with the setting aside of a person for special service.

From ordination, Report 44 turns to office. Again, there is a problem here of alignment between the Bible's words and the report's words. For office it suggests that the closest biblical word is diakonia, "service" or "ministry" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 650). The report appears to be unaware that "service" was once the primary meaning of the word office. But the authors of the report are right in thinking that the modern word office has something else in mind, not just a service, but a specific appointment to a specific service. Thus, every Christian is called to service, but not every Christian is appointed to service as an elder. Or, alternatively and better, every Christian is appointed to the office of believer, but not every Christian is appointed to the office of elder.

With respect to the offices (in the sense of special appointments) mentioned in the Bible, Report 44 draws three broad conclusions. The first is that the Old Testament pattern of prophet, priest, and king is not" a normative pattern for ecclesiastical office and ordination in the church today" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 652). The second is that the New Testament does not present a definitive pattern or a certain number of offices that must be followed by the church for all time (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 673). The third conclusion is that the assumption of certain functions by one office does not exclude others from performing the same functions. Not every baptism was performed by an apostle; not every sermon was given by someone ordained to preach (Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 662-69).

The second major part of Report 44 treats the development of office and ordination in the history of the church. The report adopts a two-part approach, concentrating on the ancient church and the church of the Reformation. This approach runs the risk of distorting the data by presenting the ancient church as moving toward clericalism and hierarchism and the Reformation church as returning to a functional and pragmatic view of office, when, in fact, both points of view are represented in all eras of the church. Thus, the report concludes its historical survey in this way:

In summary we may observe that the Reformation emphasis on the priesthood of all believers -- or, more broadly, on "universal office-sharing" -- means that "office" is primarily committed to the whole church, and that the task of ministry is assigned to all believers, not simply to a special, professional class.
(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 686)

The Reformation view of these special offices is quite functional and pragmatic.
(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 686)

This view of the Reformation is one-sided. While there was a reaction against certain forms of hierarchism and, especially, the abuse of office, Calvin, at least, seems to hold a high view of ordained office. In speaking of pastors, he quotes from 1 Corinthians 4:1: "So then, all ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God" (Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.iii.6). Or again, in regard to office, he speaks of God taking "some to serve as his ambassadors in the world, to be interpreters of his secret will and, in short, to represent his person" (Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.iii.1).

Throughout the report, then, the authors insisted on two things: first, that all Christians are equally called to service and, second, that the special offices should be understood as pragmatic and functional accommodations to the needs of the church. The first of these claims is undoubtedly true; the second idea and its implications were less readily accepted. When the committee brought its report to Synod 1972, the synod was not entirely persuaded of the committee's approach (Acts of Synod 1972, pp. 94-95). It sent the report back to the committee with additional questions and instructions:

A. To address itself to such (inter-related) questions as these:

1. To whom does the exalted Christ delegate his authority (Matthew 28:19f.), to the church as a whole, to special offices within the church, or to both?
2. What is the nature of the authority involved in the special office in its relation to what is known as "the office of all believers"? What is the relationship between the task and authority of the apostles and that of other offices (ministries) in the church?
3. To delineate the comparison between its conclusions and Articles 30, 31 of the Belgic Confession as well as the forms used for installation/ ordination of office bearers presently used in the Christian Reformed Church. . . .
(Acts of Synod 1972, p. 95)

In 1973 the committee reported a second time. It did not substantially revise its 1972 report, but it added to its exegetical and historical study a new section addressing the questions of Synod 1972. With regard to the question about authority in the church, the committee held its ground, concluding that

the church. . . is neither a hierarchy nor an aristocracy, oligarchy, or democracy. It is rather a "Christ-ruled brotherhood." The rule of Christ is represented in the special ministries in order to guarantee the growth of the brotherhood. It is also represented in the office of all believers, as they engage in mutual service and service to the world. At the same time, both special ministries and the universal ministry remain subject to the rule of Christ, the only Lord of the Church.
(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 693)

For the rest of the questions, the committee kept coming back to the idea that all authority belongs to Christ and that this authority is found not so much in offices as in the gospel:

Authority does not exist abstractly in an "office" or "position" as such. It exists concretely in the gospel of Jesus Christ; it is channeled through appointment by his body; and it is verified, recognized, and accepted in connection with the serving work and godly example of the office bearers.
(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 707)

We will have occasion to deal further with Report 44 below when we reconsider ordination and office, but even from our brief review, the tenor of this extensive and powerful report is obvious. The authors were concerned about hierarchy, about a superstitious elevation of church office, about the authority of the clergy. The question is whether, in their concern for these matters, they lost an important part of the biblical and traditional understanding of church leadership. This was the question that Synod 1973 wrestled with. That synod eventually did two things: first, at several key points it modified the conclusions reached in Report 44, and, second, it adopted a six-part framework to guide the interpretation of these conclusions or guidelines. It is important to note that Synod 1973 did not adopt the report itself. What was adopted was the six-part framework and the modified twelve conclusions presented as guidelines for the church.

The points at which Synod 1973 significantly changed the guidelines recommended by Report 44 were in Guidelines 5 and 10. In Guideline 5 the synod was concerned that the authority of the offices not be lost. The sentence "The authority which is associated with the special ministries is an authority defined in terms of love and service" was replaced with "These ministries function with Christ's power and authority, a power and authority rooted in obedience to his Word and expressed in loving service. In turn, those who are served are to respond with obedience and respect." In Guideline 10 synod corrected a too strong denial of the sanctity and spiritual power of office by deleting from the first sentence of the original the following, "[The ceremony of the laying on of hands] . .. does not create a special priestly order in the church, and does not confer sacramental graces or mystical powers upon the one ordained" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 64; see also p. 715). The framework and guidelines as adopted by Synod 1973 are as follows:

1973's Framework for Understanding the Guidelines:

1. Although in the New Testament the organization of the church is not as clear as has sometimes been assumed, nevertheless there is an insistence that the church shall have organizational structure, and that this organizational structure shall include designated leaders to whom respect and submission are due.

2. Nowhere in the New Testament is there a conflict between authority and service, or between ruling and love. Christian service involves authority in the name of the authoritative Christ, and Christian service involves authority in the name of the serving Christ. Both before and after his ascension as our victorious Lord, Jesus is the authoritative Son of God who serves the Father and those whom the Father has given him.

3. Christ is the only Lord of the church, and no one may presume to rule in his place. Service and authority exercised in the church are in his Name and according to his Word.

4. Because God is a God of order, and because the people of God are subject to many weaknesses and errors and in need of spiritual leadership in the face of a hostile world, Christ grants, by this Holy Spirit, gifts of ruling service and serving authority (service and authority) to particular people whom the church must recognize, in order that their gifts may be officially exercised for the benefit of all

5. The office bearers, i.e., certain people appointed to particular tasks, are not appointed without the call and approbation of the church. When they are so appointed, however, they are recognized by the church to be representatives of Christ in the special function for which they have been appointed. As such they serve both Christ and the church, and are worthy of honor, especially if they serve and rule well

6. These guidelines are intended to offer helpful direction to the churches as they continue to seek practical solutions to the questions pertaining to the status and function of "layworkers in evangelism" and related questions. These guidelines do not re-define the basic types of service currently assigned to deacons, elders and ministers. . .

1973's Guidelines for Understanding the Nature of Ecclesiastical Office and Ordination

(Comprehensive Ministry: "Office of all believers")

1. The general term for "office" in the Greek New Testament is DIAKONlA, meaning "service" or "ministry." In this basic sense ecclesiastical office is one and indivisible, for it embraces the total ministry of the church, a ministry rooted in Christ.

2. This comprehensive ministry (office) is universal, committed to all the members of the church, and the task of ministry is shared by all The ministry of the church is Christ's ministry, and as Christ's ministry it functions with the power and authority of Christ the Lord. This ministry is shared by all who are in Christ.

(Particular Ministries)

3. It is not inconsistent with this universal office-sharing and is in keeping with apostolic practice that some individuals, in whom the church has discerned the required gifts, be appointed to special tasks. The Scriptures report a setting apart to particular ministries or services. Both in the Old and New Testament God calls certain people for particular tasks.

4. From the beginning these particular ministries were functional in character, arising under the guidance of the Spirit in the interests of good order and efficiency in the church, to enable the church to carry out Christ's work in the world most effectively.

5. The particular ministries are characterized by service, rather than status, dominance or privilege. These ministries function with Christ's power and authority, a power and authority rooted in obedience to his Word and expressed in loving service. In turn, those who are served are to respond with obedience and respect.

6. The particular ministries are to be distinguished in function, not in essence, from the comprehensive ministry shared by all believers, and the distinctions also are functional. Since all members are commissioned to serve, there is only a difference in the kinds of service of deacons, elders, ministers, and all other members.

(The Word and Sacrament)

7. The tasks of preaching of the Word and of the administration of the sacraments have been given by Christ to the church. Although in the Scriptures these tasks are not explicitly limited to special office-holders, historically they have been assigned to and carried out by those whom the church has appointed on Christ's authority.

8. There is no valid biblical or doctrinal reason why a person whom the church has appointed to bring the Word may not also be appointed to administer the sacraments.

(Appointment to Particular Ministries)

9. "Ordination" should be understood as the appointment or setting apart of certain members of the church for particular ministries that are strategic for the accomplishment of the church's total ministry. In this sense of appointment or setting apart, ordination has biblical precedent, and is valuable for the good order and well-being of the church.

10. The ceremony of laying on of hands is not a sacrament but a symbolic act by which the church may publicly confirm its call and appointment to particular ministries. As such it is useful but not essential.

11. To invite only ministers, and not elders also, to participate in the laying on of hands is a departure from biblical example. Furthermore, there is no biblical warrant for limiting the laying on of hands to the occasion of setting apart for the particular ministry of the Word and the sacraments.

12. Because the Scriptures do not present a definitive, exhaustive description of the particular ministries of the church, and because these particular ministries as described in Scripture are functional in character, the Bible leaves room for the church to adapt or modify its particular ministries in order to carry out effectively its service to Christ and for Christ in all circumstances.

(Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 62-64)

In the light of these guidelines and the discussion that surrounded them, as well as our own reading of Scripture and the history of the church, we now turn to a reexamination of the meanings of ordination and church office.

III. The meanings of ordination and church office

A. Introduction

The heart of our report is a reconsideration of ordination and church office. While in many respects our analysis depends on Report 44 of 1973, in some other respects it takes a new direction. It may be helpful briefly to outline the differences between the direction taken in this report and the direction taken in Report 44. Doing so may also help to clarify the flow of the argument in the following sections.

Report 44 takes a "functional and pragmatic" approach to office and ordination (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 686). The logic of this approach is outlined in the conclusions proposed by the committee and adopted with a few changes (see above) by Synod 1973 as "guidelines for understanding the nature of ecclesiastical office and ordination" (Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 62-64, 713-14). Foundational to this approach is the understanding that the central ministry of the church is diakonia, "service."

Report 44 understands diakonia as an office -- the office of all believers (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 650). This office "is committed to the whole church, not to a select group of individuals within the church." In this sense, for Report 44, there is only one office, but, in support of this central ministry of the church, some individuals are "appointed" to "certain special tasks." These appointments are "functional in character," "primarily in the interests of good order and efficiency," and" characterized primarily by service, rather than status, dominance, or privilege." These "special offices" (elder, deacon, and minister of the Word, at the time of the report) are said to be different from the universal office of believer and from each other only in function, not in essence (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 713).

Given this argument, ordination as a status conferred on certain people takes a secondary place. Report 44 does not reach the subject of ordination until the ninth conclusion and understands ordination as "the appointment or setting apart of certain members of the church for special ministries." The emphasis is on function, and the terminology that Report 44 employs is consistently the terminology of good order rather than spiritual endowment or consecration. Thus, the ceremony of the laying on of hands is said to symbolize the church's "call and appointment [of persons] to special ministries" and not to create" a special priestly order" nor to "confer sacramental graces" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 714).

We believe that the functional approach taken by Report 44 leaves some questions unanswered, such as who should be ordained and why? How many offices are there? To which offices are given what rights and responsibilities? For reasons given below, we believe that it is better to approach ordination and office in a different way -- relationally rather than functionally.

Key in what follows is what we mean by relational. We will suggest that church leadership (ordained church leadership in particular) is characterized in the first place by certain relationships of trust and responsibility. Leaders are entrusted by Christ with responsibility for and to the community. They represent Christ to the community. In addition, leaders are entrusted by the community to bring its cares, concerns, joys, desires, gifts, and ministries to Christ. They re-present the community to Christ. In these relationships, leaders serve and enable the church as a whole to serve the mission to which Jesus Christ has called us.

The above understanding has the effect of highlighting the importance of ordination. Ordination, in our view, is the consecrating of leaders into these relationships of trust and responsibility. If ordination is primarily a matter of relationship and not function, then it is the whole person of the leader that is being claimed by Christ and the community. Ordained leaders are set aside for the Lord's use. Ordination requires the giving of oneself for the Lord and the church; it sets over the leader the sign of the cross. Jesus was speaking to leaders when he said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24).

From this discussion of ordination, our report moves to the" official acts of ministry." These pastoral acts (traditionally the sacraments, the liturgical blessings, ordination itself, and the official reception and dismissal of members) are the acts that most clearly symbolize and embody the relationships of leader and community that are recognized by ordination. Therefore, ordination and these acts belong together.

The above observations, in turn, help us to answer who should be ordained and why. Our answer is that those whose ministries incorporate the relationships signified by the "official acts of ministry," that is, those who are looked to by a community of Jesus Christ for these central pastoral acts, should be ordained. Further, we argue that no community of Jesus Christ should lack persons to whom it can look for these pastoral acts, which are gifts of Christ to his church.

After working out in some detail a relational understanding of ordination, this report moves to the specific offices. We suggest that these offices -- deacon, elder, evangelist, minister of the Word -- are jointly responsible to Christ and community for the overall health and direction of the community. The offices share in all the responsibilities of leadership. But within these broad responsibilities, each office has its own particular set of core functions. In this we agree with the conclusions of Report 44, which says that "the Bible leaves room for the church to adapt or modify its special ministries in order to carry out its service to Christ effectively in all circumstances" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 714).

Finally, in response to the current needs of the church and so that it can "carry out its service to Christ effectively," we suggest a broadening of the understanding of the office of evangelist to recognize leaders serving in a variety of ministry settings where ordination is appropriate. By taking this route, we avoid the need to multiply offices beyond the four presently recognized by the Christian Reformed Church.

With this broad outline in mind, let us turn to the task at hand, beginning with the mission of the church, for all understandings of ordination and office should be rooted in a clear understanding of mission.

B. Mission

The mission of the church first, foremost, and always belongs to God. It does not belong to us. It is bigger than the church. We participate in it, but we do not own it. The Lord has gone before us to redeem the world that he created. The Lord calls the church into being as part of that mission. In Romans 16:25-26, the apostle Paul speaks of "the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him. . . ." This is not the place to spell out all the dimensions of the mission of God or all the ways that Christians participate in it. Our topic is narrower, not the whole of God's kingdom, but one important part of it: the church. God calls the church to be part of this great mission. The theologian Douglas John Hall says, ". . .

Christian mission is premised upon the belief that the triune God is already present and active in the world and that the church can only follow so far as is possible, this prior, extensive, and only partially comprehensible mission of God" (Confessing the Faith, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1996, p. 153).

The nature of the church's mission and the role of God's people within it are frequently foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Especially relevant for our purposes is Exodus 19:3-6, a part of the narrative describing the great covenant meeting between God and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai:

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

In this short passage the Lord describes his people in three ways: as a "treasured possession," as a "kingdom of priests," and as a "holy nation." These three belong together: the people of Israel belong to God for the purpose of being a holy presence in the world. Even the seemingly parenthetical remark about the whole earth belonging to God is part of this mission. Terence Fretheim translates, "Because all the earth is mine, so you, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (emphasis original). He adds,

one of the keys. . . is the phrase" All the earth is mine." This creational theme is too important in Exodus to be considered a disturbing parenthesis or simply the grounds for God being able to choose Israel rather than some other nation.

This [phrase] suggests that the phrases ["kingdom of priests" and "holy nation"] relate to a mission that encompasses God's purposes for the entire world. Israel is commissioned to be God's people on behalf of the earth which is God's [emphasis original].
(Exodus: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1991, p. 212)

"God's people on behalf of the earth" -- this apt phrase captures the important relationships here: God's people are called out in order to serve God and all God's creation, manifesting and proclaiming the heart of God.

Isaiah 61:6 picks up this theme in a context of messianic promise, in the context, in fact, of the very passage Jesus uses when he announces his own mission (Luke 4:18-19):

And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.

Here, in a passage announcing the restoration of God's people, the Lord promises that they will serve as a priestly presence for the whole world. They will be endowed with the wealth of nations so that they will be free to perform the holy duties to which they have been called.

The language of Exodus 19:6 is applied to the church in the New Testament. The epistle of Peter develops this thought in a passage of central importance for understanding the church: "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:4-5). And, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

These passages emphasize the role of the church as a sign of God's saving presence in the world. The existence of the community of God's people throughout history proclaims, symbolizes, and mediates the presence of God and of God's salvation in the world. The church is the body of Christ. In this role, the priestly calling of the people of God is in the forefront, as it is in the life of Jesus. He comes to us first of all as the one who sacrifices his own life for the sake of his people. But Jesus is also Lord, the one who sits at the right hand of God, and prophet, the one who proclaims the good news of God.

In an elegant chapter of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin meditates on the theme of the threefold office of Christ (II.xv). He notes with regard to the threefold office of Christ that the Lord not only carries out these offices himself but also gives spiritual power to the Christian community so that these offices are continued even though he is not physically present. Calvin says, speaking of prophecy, that the Lord "received anointing, not only for himself. . . but for his whole body that the power of the Spirit might be present in the continuing preaching of the gospel" (II.xv.2). In the same way, speaking of the kingly rule of Christ, Calvin says that the Lord" arms and equips us with his power, adorns us with his beauty and magnificence, enriches us with his wealth" (II.xv.4). And, finally, speaking of us as priests, Calvin says, "we who are defiled in ourselves. . . freely enter the heavenly sanctuary that the sacrifices of prayers and praise that we bring may be acceptable and sweet-smelling before God" (II.xv.6).

We should not understand this simply as a passing on of the offices of the Old Testament to the New Testament people of God. In Christ the offices are fulfilled and transformed. What is given to the new community of Christ is one, new, threefold office --the office of believer -- which has all the aspects of the offices of the Old Testament. The Heidelberg Catechism captures this idea succinctly in Q. and A. 32:

Q. But why are you called a Christian?
A. Because by faith I am a member of Christ
and so I share in his anointing.
I am anointed
to confess his name,
to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks,
to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life,
and afterward to reign with Christ
over all creation
for all eternity.

The book of Revelation develops and portrays these themes in a fresh way. Of particular importance in Revelation is the relationship of glory and triumph to self-sacrifice. The opening doxology captures this plainly: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen" (Rev. 1:5-6).

The idea that sacrifice is the way to glory is forcefully presented in the famous fifth chapter of Revelation. The scene is the throne room of heaven. In the hand of God is a scroll, written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. The scroll contains and proclaims human destiny. The call goes out in heaven for someone worthy to open the sealed scroll, but no one is found worthy. The imagery here is prophetic, alluding to such passages as Deuteronomy 18, Isaiah 6, and Ezekiel 3.

When no one is found worthy, John begins to weep, but one of the elders in heaven assures John that there is one worthy, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." Note how prophet and king have come together. So now we expect a king, a proper messiah, but when John looks, again he is surprised. He sees a lamb looking as if it has been slain (Rev. 5:6). The scroll is given to the wounded lamb, and to the lamb the chorus of heaven sings its encomium: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise" (Rev. 5:12).

Here the priestly office of Christ is joined to the prophetic and kingly offices. Or, rather, the three offices of the Old Testament have been transformed by Christ into one new, threefold office. Call it the office of the Lamb of God. This new office retains all the features of the older offices -- the Lamb proclaims, rules, and sacrifices -- but at the same time it is new. What is new is that the suffering of Jesus on the cross fulfills and transforms each of the ancient offices. The cross is not so much the way to power and authority as it is, in itself, powerful and authoritative. It is not so much a symbol or an instance of the gospel; it is gospel. It is not so much a kind of sacrifice; it is the sacrifice. The triumph of Christ is through the cross. As the apostle Paul put it in Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

This was surely instructive for the martyr church of John's day. The promise is that the church will triumph -- not in spite of its suffering, but through its suffering, in its suffering. The church is welcomed to "the suffering, and the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are ours in Jesus" (Rev. 1:9) and assured that Christ has "made [us] to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and [we] will reign on earth" (Rev. 5:9-10).

If John's words were instructive for the ancient martyr church, they are even more instructive for the triumphalist church of our day. We are invited both into the mission of Christ and into the manner of Christ: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). We are called together to be a sacrificial presence in the world.

To encapsulate this idea, Report 44 of 1973 quotes a prayer of John Calvin found in his commentary on Malachi 2:9:

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou has deigned to take us as a priesthood to thyself; and has chosen us when we were not only in the lowest condition, but even profane and alien to all thy holiness; and has consecrated us to thyself by thy Holy Spirit; that we may offer ourselves as holy victims to thee.

Grant that we may bear in mind our office and our calling and sincerely devote ourselves to thy service. May we so present to thee our efforts and our labors that thy name may be truly glorified in us, that men may know that we have been ingrafted into the body of thine only begotten Son.

As he is the chief and the only true and perpetual priest, may we become partakers of that priesthood with which thou hast been pleased to honor him; so that he may take us as laborers with him. Thus may thy name be perpetually glorified by the whole body as well as by the Head. Amen.

(Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 680-81)

In this eloquent prayer Calvin captures well the themes that we have been considering. First, the church as sacrificial victim, called to the altar of divine love, to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" (Rom. 12:1). This, as the apostle says, is our liturgy -- our public work. Second, the church as the body of Christ, representing Christ to the world (Eph. 4:4-13). Third, the priesthood of the church. "As he is the chief and the only true and perpetual priest, may we become partakers of that priesthood with which thou hast been pleased to honor him; so that he may take us as laborers with him" (Acts of Synod 1973, p. 680).

C. The priesthood of all believers

Here, then, in the priesthood of all believers, we find the first and most important Reformation theme with respect to ordination and office. We are called and anointed by the Spirit to the office of believer. We are called together to be a Christlike presence in a sad and sorry world. It is to this office that we are appointed by Christ and anointed: "He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor. 1:21-22).

All the complexities of the church are mere articulations of this one central relationship -- a relationship that involves not one other party, but two: Christ and the world. If "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. . . " is a central statement of the gospel, it is also true that God gives, in the same sacrificial sense, each Christian as part of his love for the world. Paul says that "the grace God gave [him] to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God. . ." (Rom. 15:16). It is this mission that jointly and severally we are called to engage in.

As Douglas John Hall suggests (Confessing the Faith, pp. 185-86), we participate in this mission in two ways. One way is by imitation of Christ, by following the one who has gone before. This theme is illustrated in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Imitation of Christ is the voluntary part of what we are called to, what we, in obedience to Christ, can do with the help of the Holy Spirit. But in addition to the imitation of Christ, we are by the power of the Spirit being conformed to Christ. This conformation is not something that we do so much as something that happens in us and through us. Paul speaks to this in Ephesians 1:11-12:

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Both in imitation of Christ and in conformation to Christ, we become the instruments of the mission of God.

It must be kept in mind that the mission of God is broader than the church and so are the various missions of God's people. The missions given to Christians include all the ways that creation is redeemed and renewed through the Spirit working within us. But our focus here is on the church and in particular on leadership within the church. The two ways in which ordinary people come to be the body of Jesus Christ are also constitutive of leadership in the church. Leaders, particularly ordained leaders, must also seek to imitate Christ, to represent Christ as well as they can. But beyond any ability a leader may have to imitate Christ, the Spirit of God takes leaders and uses them, conforming them to the will of God and shaping them to serve the purposes of God. In our eagerness to be the church or to be leaders, we should not forget that God is able to take who we are and what we do and use all things for his purposes. It is to the leadership of the church that we now turn.

D. Leadership

For the sake of God's mission, the church needs and Christ provides leadership. The church has always had leaders. Christ himself, our head, the anointed one, trained and authorized a core of leaders -- his disciples. The leadership of the church is given a role with respect to the Christian community that is similar to the role that the church as a body is given with respect to the world: Christian leaders are called to give of themselves sacrificially so that the presence and power of Christ may be brought to the Christian community and the cares, concerns, joys, and ministries -- in short, the entire life of the Christian community -- may be brought to Christ.

Jesus models this role for us in his sacrificial life. He presents the Father to his followers (John 14), and he brings his followers before the Father in prayer (John 17). Paul in several places presents his own ministry along similar lines. He is, the apostle says, "being poured out like a drink offering" (Phil. 2:17) for the sake of the church. His first concern is to present Christ to the church (1 Cor. 2:2). He uses the analogy of being an ambassador: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:20).

This apostolic ministry is now given to the leaders of the church. This is not to say that anyone individually occupies the office of apostle. By tradition, the office of apostle was granted only to those who were directly authorized by Jesus, but leadership of the church is apostolic in at least three senses: it is built on the foundation of the apostles, it should be modeled after the pattern of the apostles, and it is in the line or succession of the apostles.

There are two key elements involved in our understanding of leadership. The first is a specific set of relationships with Christ and the community of Christ, and the second is the fostering of the mission of Christ. What defines leadership is not first of all a set of specific functions (preaching, teaching, counseling, and so forth), but relationships of trust and responsibility among Christ, the community of Christ, and a given leader, as well as the mission to which the church and leader are called.

When a person enters leadership, that person is granted a certain status and assumes a certain role. In this respect the relationship of the leader to the church resembles the relationship of the church to the world. Like God's people as a whole, leaders are called to a position and given a role, not because of who they are, not for their own sake, but for the sake of others. This role entails both trust on the part of the church and responsibility on the part of the leader. Trust is necessary in the granting of authority. The leader is entrusted with acting on behalf of the Lord and the community. Responsibility includes accountability, among other things. The leader is accountable to Christ first of all but also to the church.

The second key element in church leadership is mission. The purpose of leadership is to foster Christ's mission in the world. That mission requires the health of the community that represents Christ in the world. To carry out Christ's mission to the world, therefore, leadership also works for the health of Christ's body, the church.

With respect to these two key elements, our committee believes that the authors of the 1973 report took a slight misstep, one with important consequences. The 1973 report defines office in what it calls "functional" terms: certain functions are recognized by the church as requiring ordination; other functions are not so recognized. The problem with this sort of definition is that the line between functions for which ordination is required and those for which it is not required often seems arbitrarily drawn. Why do some functions require ordination and others not? This defining of office in terms of function leads to a lack of clarity about the meaning of ordination and the appropriateness of ordination in various cases. Do the functions of the education director of a local church require such a person to be ordained? Why or why not?

What we have done in this report is to step away from the functional definition of church leadership (and ordination, as we shall see) to a relational and missional definition. Leadership involves being responsible for the mission and the health of the church. It is a pastoral calling, and, as shepherds, the leadership of the church is held responsible for the church (Ezek. 34; Heb. 13).

E. Ordination: recognition by the church of a pastoral relationship among Christ, the church, and a leader

The pattern for the ordination of church leadership is established for us in Acts 6. In this chapter leadership in the church is differentiated for the first time. The apostles could no longer keep up with the entire ministry, and so a part of the ministry, the pastoral care of the Greek-speaking portion of the congregation, was handed over to seven men. They were chosen by the congregation (we are not told exactly how) because they were seen by the congregation as being filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom. The congregation presented the seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid hands on them.

There are at least three elements in this process that are crucial for our understanding of ordination. We will call these three elements (1) excellencies for ministry, (2) calling, and (3) role.

1. Excellencies for ministry
The first element is contained in the brief description of the qualifications of the candidates for this new and unnamed office: "full of the Spirit and wisdom" (Acts 6:3). Later in Acts, Stephen, one of the seven, is acknowledged as being "full of faith and the Holy Spirit" The passage does not mention but implies at least one more qualification for the seven: facility in the Greek language and familiarity with the customs of Hellenistic Jews. In other words, in the sense of the passage, they needed to be Greek. This combination of specific skills and spiritual maturity is what we will call excellencies for ministry.

2. Calling
The second element is calling, and it has two aspects: the calling of the congregation and the calling of God. The calling of the congregation is explicitly narrated in Acts; the call of God is implied in the approbation of the apostles and perhaps in the act of laying on of hands itself. The apostles are said to have prayed before they laid hands on the seven. Although the content of their prayers is not given, in all likelihood, they prayed for God's will and blessing in this matter.

And then they laid hands on the seven. The laying on of hands, although not recognized among us as one of the sacraments because it is not directly authorized by the Lord, has at least some features of a sacrament: it is a symbolic ceremony with real spiritual power. The hands of the apostles laid on the seven communicate several things: the authority given to them by Christ himself, the Holy Spirit, and even the recognition and prayers of the Christian community. In this ceremony the power of God, the tradition of the church, and the prayers of the Christian community meet on the heads of the new leaders.

3. Role
The third element is role. The role of these seven was clearly a pastoral one. We would be wrong to limit their role to "waiting on tables." As the next two chapters indicate, the seven took responsibility not only for the care of Greek-speaking widows but also for the Greek-speaking church more broadly. They served as pastors and evangelists for Hellenized Jews not only in Jerusalem but also, as the book of Acts tells us, in Judea and Samaria, bringing the gospel to this important segment of the Jewish people. They were the bridge between the Hebraic ministry of the original apostles and the Gentile mission of Paul.

We believe that ordination must always meet these three requirements: certain qualities or excellencies for ministry, the callings of Christ and congregation, and service in a pastoral or priestly role. What constitutes appropriate qualifications depends in part on the specific tasks to which the potential leader is being called. The balance of wisdom, spiritual strength, and specific training will be determined by many things. For example, for a candidate for minister of the Word, specific training may count for much; wisdom and spiritual maturity will come. For an elder, specific training is less important, but wisdom and spiritual maturity are crucial. But the requirement of certain excellencies for ministry recognizes that some combination of these elements must be present before any congregation considers ordination. Further, this requirement recognizes that one of the roles of the broader assemblies is to establish the appropriate requirements for the offices. Synod 2000 did just that in adopting a set of standards for leaders in the areas of character, knowledge, and skills. Before anyone is considered for ordination, that person should meet these standards in a manner proportional to the role and office to be occupied by the person (see Appendix to this report).

Second, ordination requires calling. In the act of ordination a sacrifice is being made. The person who is ordained is giving up a part of his or her life to the Lord and to the congregation. No such sacrifice should be made lightly. The congregation must be able to say that it will look to the person being ordained as one whom they trust to act in a pastoral role (see below for further definition of this role), presenting and speaking for Christ to them and bringing their own cares and concerns in prayer to Christ. This granting of trust on the part of the congregation is what it means for a congregation to call someone. And the congregation must seek the approbation of the Lord in this process. Will the Lord indeed work in and through this person? Is the Lord calling this person to this role?

Finally, the role to which the congregation calls a person must be of the nature we described earlier. Above and beyond any specific functions or specific office, it must be pastoral in nature. That is as true for elders and deacons as for ministers and evangelists. Those roles for which ordination is appropriate are those that establish a pastoral relationship to a congregation and pastoral responsibility to the Lord.

F. Characteristics of church leadership

Certain characteristics of church leadership are implied by our discussion to this point. Among them are the following:

1. Church leadership must always be properly instituted. The rite of ordination implies as much. Church office is not an ad hoc, catch-as-catch-can affair. From the very beginning the church has considered it important for leaders to be properly recognized and instituted.

2. Church leadership has authority. The second point in the framework adopted by Synod 1973 says, "Nowhere in the New Testament is there a conflict between authority and service, or between ruling and love." The nature of this authority may be discussed; the fact of this authority is clear from the New Testament and the Christian tradition. Leadership requires authority.

3. Church leadership is held responsible by the Lord. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account." Ezekiel 34 is another fundamental passage on the accountability of leadership.

4. Church leadership has a formal character. That is, church leadership is practiced within certain formal structures. This does not mean, of course, that church leadership is stiff or stuffy or joyless; it does mean that church leadership takes place within certain formal arrangements. For our denomination, these are extensively specified in the Church Order. The Church Order makes clear the authority and responsibilities of each office.

G. Function of the" official acts of ministry"

The long list of official responsibilities assigned to the various offices by the Church Order could be called "the official acts of leadership." These duties and responsibilities do not exhaust the meaning of church leadership but instead outline the most important points. Leadership entails pastoral care, stewardship, proclamation, worship leadership, the overall governance and direction of the congregation, and much else. Within this larger set of duties and responsibilities-all the ways that leaders lead in the name of and for the sake of Christ-is a smaller list of formal liturgical acts that are referred to by the Church Order as "the official acts of ministry" (Art. 53). It is important not to take the "official acts of ministry" out of the context of the overall duties and responsibilities of leadership.

The "official acts of ministry" are not defined by the Church Order. By tradition they include some or all of the following:

- Administration of the sacraments
- Blessing of the congregation (greeting and benediction)
- Laying on of hands (installation of leaders)
- Official reception of and dismissal of members (profession of faith and excommunication)

So why have these liturgical elements been singled out for special consideration? In one sense they have not been. The" official acts of ministry" are mentioned in the Church Order in passing only in order to make a distinction between persons licensed to exhort and those ordained as ministers of the Word, but, as mentioned above, they are never defined. However, tradition and custom speak as well, and the strong tradition that certain acts of ministry are reserved for properly ordained and installed people is rooted, in part, in an abiding sense that these acts, especially the sacraments, should be handled only by those set aside to do so.

This abiding sense of the holiness of the sacraments and other" official acts of ministry" conflicts with another impulse in our tradition, the Reformation impulse to avoid any hint of magic with respect to the sacraments. This second impulse is dominant in the discussion of ordination in the 1973 Report 44, as is illustrated by this quotation from the report:

. . . Ordination is essential to good order and the well-being of the church; . . . ordination is useful but not essential, and possibly subject to superstitious abuse. For the Reformers, ordination in the sense of laying on of hands did not create a special priestly order in the church, and did not confer sacramental grace or power ex opere operata.
(Acts of Synod 1973, p. 686)

"Good order," "well-being," "useful but not essential," "subject to superstitious abuse" -- this is the vocabulary of one strand of the Reformation, but it is not the whole picture. The other side, represented in the Belgic Confession, Articles 33-35, suggests that liturgy is a sacred drama in which heaven and earth are being moved. Part of the lingering dissatisfaction with the official understanding of ordination represented by the report and decisions of 1973 is the failure of those discussions to deal adequately with the real power and mystery of liturgy. These mysteries -- so says this deep impulse within us -- should not be entrusted to just anyone.

Here we should mention that the understanding of ordination among Christians with European roots is much influenced by the word itself. The word suggests an ordering of ministry but not the spiritual power of ministry. Contrast this with the Navajo understanding of what people of European background call ordination. The Navajo word is yilziih, a word that denotes anyone or anything that has spiritual power. Thus, within the Navajo community, yilziih points to an understanding of ordination as principally a matter of recognition -- recognition by the community that a certain person has been endowed by God with the Spirit and, therefore, is able to bless, heal, counsel, interpret visions, and so forth. These spiritual gifts are granted to certain persons and enhanced not so much through books or formal education as through a long apprenticeship in the ways of the Spirit. In this respect, yilziih may capture the New Testament understanding of office better than ordination does. The New Testament emphasizes the gifts that Christ grants to the Christian community as a whole by endowing certain persons with spiritual abilities (Eph. 4:7-8). These gifts do not belong to the person; they belong to the community of Christ. These gifts are yilziih, holy and powerful.

These gifts are not natural abilities but special endowments. Among the gifts that Christ gives to the church are the pastoral acts that have come to be known among us as "the official acts of ministry." These sacred gifts are given by the Lord himself to every congregation that meets in the name of Jesus. They are holy. They should be handled carefully. They are given to the church for the sake of making the church a holy and priestly community (Eph. 4:11-13).

Further, not only are the gifts holy and powerful; the ordained service of those who administer the gifts is also holy and powerful. These pastoral acts symbolize in a powerful way the relationships between leader and Christ and leader and the church. They are entrusted to the leadership of the church as those who especially re-present Christ to the community and who are called to present the community to Christ. Therefore, this ordained service is fraught with responsibility to Christ and to the congregation; it is a service for which each leader must give account to the Lord of the church.

Finally, it bears emphasizing that these gifts are given for the sake of the church. They do not belong to a single office. For the sake of the congregation, this ordained service and these pastoral acts are entrusted by Christ and by the community itself to the leaders of the congregation. The lack of a person with the "right" ordination should not deprive a congregation of these gifts. In this respect, the 1973 Report 44 is right: there is no office of priesthood to which these ceremonies are clearly and always granted. The assignment of primary responsibility for certain ceremonies to one office rather than another is a matter of tradition and good order.

The preceding discussion suggests a fundamental principle about who should be entrusted to perform these" official acts of ministry." As far as possible the "official acts of ministry" should be entrusted to those who are in fact ordained as leaders in the congregation (or at least in the broader church). This is why the Church Order is right to proscribe licensed exhorters from exercising the "official acts of ministry" (Art. 53). The licensed exhorters envisioned by the Church Order have not yet been recognized by the denomination or the congregation as those to whom the gifts associated with the "official acts of ministry" have been granted. For them to bless the congregation, break the bread, sprinkle the water, and so forth lacks the authority that is inherent in ordination. In the same way, the exception to this rule granted to Classis Red Mesa honors the same principle (see the supplement to Church Order Art. 53). In this case, licensed exhorters are permitted to perform the "official acts of ministry" because these persons do have primary pastoral relationships with the congregations they serve. They are, in the New Testament sense, elders of the congregation.

This principle of indigenous leadership should not be pressed too far. Not all ordained persons serve a specific congregation. Some leaders are involved in classical or denominational roles. These roles also involve a relationship of trust and responsibility among Christ, themselves, and the church, a pastoral relationship. When such persons perform" official acts of ministry" in a congregation, their presence helps to symbolize the relationship of the congregation to the larger church. The situation becomes anomalous when clergy are imported to a congregation to perform certain" official acts of ministry" and indigenous leadership is bypassed. It is partly the recognition of this anomaly that led to the development of the office of evangelist.

The "official acts of ministry," then, are those rites that in an especially powerful way symbolize and enact the relationship between Christ and the congregation (or, in the case of classical and denominational leadership, the larger church). Precisely because these acts are powerful and richly constitutive of the relationship between the Lord and the church, they should be handled with proper care by those officially recognized by the congregation as its leaders.

H. Who should be ordained: a matter of the nature of the relationship among Christ, the congregation, and the candidate for ordination

We have already discussed the principal requirements for ordination. The first two-the required excellencies for ministry and the calling-are intimately interrelated. Training and certain personal qualities, such as spiritual depth and spiritual passion, are important elements in a congregation's recognition of the hand of the Lord on a person. If a person lacks these excellencies, questions may be raised about whether that person is in fact called. Still, a person may possess all the excellencies for ministry and not be called to ordained ministry. The recognition of a call and the presence of the required excellencies for ministry must come together for a person to be a candidate for ordination. But it is not here, with the requirements of certain excellencies and calling, that the questions about ordination have arisen. The questions that we face in this report have arisen with reference to the third of the general requirements for ordination: the role to which a person is being called.

The role for which the church properly ordains leaders is, as we have insisted, defined by relationship. The defining relationship is that mediatorial, pastoral role that re-presents Christ to the people and presents the people to Christ. This role is symbolized and enacted in the" official acts of ministry." As a matter of definition, whenever a person is called into a primary pastoral role with a congregation, ordination is proper. This definition will become clearer if we unpack the terms a bit.

A primary pastoral role is one that places a person in a position of pastoral leadership in which the exercise of the gifts associated with the "official acts of ministry" is an integral part of the role. The expectation is that he or she will bless, rebuke, exhort, administer the sacraments, and perform other central pastoral acts on behalf of the Lord and for the sake of the congregation.

The qualifications of persons who occupy central pastoral roles may be and have been regulated by the broader church. In our Reformed system these pastoral responsibilities are largely but not exclusively put into the hands of persons occupying the offices of minister and evangelist. Nevertheless, it is important that the offices of elder and deacon not be disassociated from the "official acts of ministry," for elders and deacons also have pastoral roles, and by their participation and support of these and other official ceremonies, their leadership is manifested to the congregation. All the offices share together in the responsibility of leadership, and therefore all the offices should be visible to the congregation in those acts which centrally represent and enact leadership.

With respect to the question of who should be ordained, consider two directors of education in congregations. The one is centrally an administrative person, bringing order and excellence to the education ministries of the church. This is a valuable ministry, but it is not the sort of ministry that calls for ordination. The "official acts of ministry" described above are not part of this person's relationship to the congregation. The second person is also a director of education, but the congregation looks to this person for the "official acts of ministry." Her or his calling includes the kinds of acts described. In this case, provided that this person meets the appropriate standards, ordination is appropriate. The difference is the kind of leadership. The second person is called to a pastoral role and should therefore be ordained.

Of course, "congregation" in our definition need not mean an organized congregation or the whole congregation. A person might have a primary pastoral role with part of a congregation -- college students, for example, or singles -- and still be part of a larger congregation in which the primary pastoral role is played by another person or persons. Or, in the case of classical and denominational personnel, the congregation may be a congregation of congregations.

Ordination, then, is the church's way of recognizing and of solemnizing a pastoral relationship. Certainly this relationship requires excellencies for ministry, as established by the assemblies, and the call of Christ and congregation, but it is defined by the relationship of congregation, leader, and Lord. When a church calls a person to function in a pastoral role where all the powers of pastoral ministry are required, ordination should be considered. Ordination is not a way of recognizing a person's academic credentials. It is not a way of elevating the prestige of certain people. It is not, certainly, something like tenure in the academic world. It is a recognition and enactment of a sacrificial, priestly relationship between Christ and congregation mediated in a certain leader. As such it should not be entered into lightly.

It should be noted once again that our focus in this report is on ordained leadership, but we recognize that churches have other leaders who do not fit the criteria for ordination. Nevertheless, recognizing such leaders is often important. Congregations may wish to publicly commission them. Commissioning ceremonies are a local matter, under the jurisdiction of the council, not the broader assemblies. Commissioning confers the blessing of the congregation on a person's ministry. While it does not have the weight of ordination, commissioning is an important way for congregations to honor a variety of ministries.

In our discussion to this point, we have not yet come to the concept of office, but clearly this is the next question. How shall we understand office? And to which office should a given candidate be ordained? It is to these questions that we turn next.

I. Freedom in the naming and defining of offices

Up to this point we have been talking about church leadership in an undifferentiated way. One of the frustrations of those looking for an authoritative list of church offices is that office in the New Testament is very fluid. For the post-Pentecost church, the first and fundamental office is apostle. The apostles were in charge of the Jerusalem church. But even here there was idity. Was James an apostle? Was Paul? What about Andronicus and Junias (Rom. 16:7)? And so forth. The formal idea of office had not yet clearly emerged.

The idea of office began first to appear in a formal way when the first differentiation in the leadership of the church occurred: the appointment of the seven to minister to the Hellenistic community. It is interesting that the name for the office to which the seven were ordained in Acts 6 is never given. Traditionally they have been called deacons, although that name is not given in the text. There was still no definite idea of office, but once the seven were distinguished from the twelve disciples, the germ of office was there.

Gradually a set of structures emerged that reflected, in the first place, the governing structures of contemporary synagogues and, a bit later, some of the governing structures of the empire. The shape of church leadership in every age has tended to resemble the structures of the surrounding society. All the arrangements of office that have been found useful in the history of the church come with strengths and liabilities. They are, to some extent, pragmatic arrangements. Christ mandated no detailed system of church government. In the matter of office the New Testament has given the church some freedom.

We in the Christian Reformed Church have inherited a system with its own strengths and probably its own liabilities. In our Reformed system we have differentiated between two kinds of offices: the offices of elder and deacon, to which persons are elected for short terms and which require no professional training, and the offices of minister and evangelist, which are generally fulltime callings and do require training. Part of the wisdom of these two kinds of offices is to balance the immediacy of the connection between elders and deacons and the congregation with the need for the training and long-term commitment of ministers and evangelists.

The offices of elder and deacon are given the tasks of bringing to Christ the cares, responsibilities, and gifts of the congregation. These offices represent and are closely identified with the congregation. The offices of minister and evangelist, on the other hand, seem more closely identified with gifts that Christ brings to people -- gifts of Word and sacrament. This distinction should not be pressed. Ministers and evangelists have responsibilities in pastoral care and stewardship; the elders and deacons have responsibilities for proclamation and the sacraments. The leadership task is shared among the offices. It is here that the word functional is appropriate. The differentiation of the tasks of leadership is functional in nature.

We should note in this regard that the offices of minister and evangelist are the same with respect to the" official acts of ministry." They are distinguished by their intrinsic relationships. Evangelists are always extensions of the ministry. They extend ministry by beginning new congregations; they extend the ministry of an established congregation by reaching out into the community. In the latter role the evangelist extends the ministry of the resident minister of the Word. This is the first articulation in our Church Order of true staff ministry, where the pastoral office is distributed among several people rather than being invested in a single person.

The office of evangelist has already been used in the staff ministries of several congregations to extend the pastoral office. Having full access to the "official acts of ministry" but with different educational requirements, this office provides a model for dealing with staff ministries generally. The idea that the office of evangelist is broadly applicable to a variety of ministries is anticipated in Church Order Article 24. The article lists as duties of evangelists "the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, evangelism, church education for youth and adults, and pastoral care." As noted above, the broader church has often found a need for an office with somewhat more flexible education and other requirements to assist and extend but not to replace the office of pastor (our minister of the Word).

As we observed above, this office of pastoral extension has sometimes been called the office of deacon in the broader church. For us, because of the origins of the office in the discussion about persons who were called lay evangelists, the name given to the office has been evangelist. The name may mislead some into thinking that the office is narrowly focused on what has often been called evangelism, the calling of those who do not believe to faith in Jesus Christ. But evangelism is broader than the initial call; evangelism is the sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ. A youth pastor engages in evangelism in this broader sense as well as in the narrower sense of calling people to first faith. So, too, a director of adult ministries, a director of children's ministries, and so forth. In all these cases, provided that their responsibilities require and are enhanced by ordination and that the persons chosen meet the requirements for the office, the office of evangelist is appropriate.

Should the name of the office be changed to reflect this broader use of the office? We do not think so. First, no alternative name has suggested itself to us. Second, the name of an office and the name given for the specific duties to which a person is called are not always the same thing. The title "minister of the Word" does not reflect the full range of ministerial responsibilities and functions. Neither does it entail a single job description. Ministers of the Word serve as pastors, youth directors, professors, and administrators, as well as in many other roles, provided that the particular role meets the Church Order requirement that it be "consistent with the calling of a minister of the Word" (Art. 12). In the same way, if our proposals are adopted, classes would certify that the role to which a particular evangelist is called is consistent with the office of evangelist as understood in Article 24.

We are now in a position to answer the question we raised earlier: which office is required for which duties? By including a broader understanding of the office of evangelist, we arrive at a clear set of differentiations:

- For the leadership of organized congregations, the office of minister of the Word is mandated by the Church Order. According to our thinking, this requirement would not change, nor would the office of minister of the Word change.
- For the leadership of emerging congregations and for specific ministries within organized congregations that call for ordination, the office of evangelist is appropriate. Ministers of the Word may also serve in these positions.
- In cases where congregations lack the resources for the support of any clerical office, the" official acts of ministry" are properly assigned to the elders of the congregation so that no congregation lacks the gifts of the sacraments and the other gifts of the pastoral office.

J. Supervisory arrangements for those to whom the gifts of pastoral leadership are granted

In the case of ministers of the Word, spiritual supervision occurs immediately through the consistories of the churches that hold their credentials. Secondarily, supervision is exercised through the broader assemblies. Ministers of the Word are required to be certified for call by synod and examined by a classis before being ordained. The requirements for candidacy are set by the Church Order and regulated by synod. Appeal from the board of elders and other protections for the office are guaranteed by the Church Order and by the broader assemblies. The broader assemblies also regulate any exceptions in the requirements for candidacy and certify whether or not a call to a particular position fits the definition of the office, especially if that position is outside of congregational ministry.

The Church Order declares evangelists to be elders of their calling churches (Church Order Art. 23-a). It declares that they are under the supervision of the council (Church Order Art. 24-b). The Church Order implies but does not actually say that an evangelist serving in an organized congregation is also in some sense under the supervision of the minister of the Word, since an evangelist may not serve in an organized congregation without the presence of a minister of the Word. As we have already noted, this arrangement protects the long-standing denominational commitment to a seminary-trained clergy and at the same time allows for the extension of the pastoral office.

Evangelists, like ministers, are examined by classis for the purpose of ordination. The examinations are similar in content to minister-of-the-Word examinations, but there are no set time requirements for evangelist examinations, and the synodical deputies are not required to be present. In most respects the supervision of the office of evangelist parallels that of the minister.

Where supervision of the pastoral offices may break down in our current system is in the case of evangelists serving unorganized congregations. It may also break down in cases where the elders assume the responsibilities of the pastoral office, as proposed below. In the first case, the classis should see that proper supervision is being exercised by the calling council. The assistance and support of the classis are especially important and valuable for evangelists in places where direct supervision by a council is difficult. In the case of elders exercising the pastoral offices, no system of supervision presently exists. We believe that any arrangements of this type require at least the following:

- Official recognition by the governing classis before the elders assume the duties of the pastoral office
- A system of ongoing training, instituted by the governing classis, to enable elders to perform in the proper manner the duties assigned to them
- A system of supervision established by the classis and involving on-site visits by a minister of the Word on a regular basis

IV. Two specific applications

In order to test the theological perspectives outlined above, we turn now to two specific ministry situations that were part of the original mandate of this committee: Classis Red Mesa and the professionalization of youth ministry.

A. Classis Red Mesa

Classis Red Mesa is a classic example of the rules and forms of one culture, European culture, being imposed on another culture, in this case, Native American. The intentions of those who brought their culture and customs to the people of Red Mesa were honorable. They assumed that their ways of doing things were universal, but one result of their ways of doing things was to hinder the development of truly indigenous leadership in the churches of Classis Red Mesa.

After many decades of operating in this way, the churches and people of Red Mesa are now beginning to address the ownership of their ministries. The pattern set out in the Church Order, which assumes that every congregation will have a full-time, seminary-trained pastor, does not work in many of the Red Mesa churches. They lack the funds to pay full-time staff. The unemployment rate on the Navajo reservation is over 50 percent. Currently there are three Navajo ordained ministers of the Word and two ordained evangelists. In addition, there are six persons licensed to exhort, of whom one is Anglo. One ordained minister is serving two organized churches as an area pastor. His responsibilities include developing local leaders and training them to become licensed exhorters. These local leaders have little education but a thorough knowledge of the local cultures. Of twenty churches, sixteen are organized. Of these, one is served by a Navajo minister of the Word, one by an ordained evangelist, and one by a licensed exhorter. Three of the churches are now served by persons involved in bivocational ministries.

The current emphasis in Red Mesa is on the development of leadership at the grassroots level. This means that individuals who serve the churches are being trained in their local settings. One such person has recently been ordained as an evangelist; another has been given a license to exhort; still another is about to begin the process.

Classis Red Mesa presents us with the clear need for the denomination to take account of local conditions in the development and deployment of leadership. One size does not fit all. Two principles developed in our analysis above should guide us here. The first is that the gifts of the pastoral acts included in what have been traditionally called the" official acts of ministry" are gifts of Christ to the people. They are not owned by a clerical caste. To deprive the congregations of Red Mesa of these gifts because the churches cannot provide a minister of the Word is wrong. Second, these gifts are properly entrusted to those who are recognized as the leaders of the congregation, those who are, in the New Testament sense, elders. This principle of indigenous leadership means that bringing in persons from the outside to perform the sacraments or other pastoral acts is not a satisfactory long-term solution.

Therefore, the churches, the classis, and the denomination must commit themselves to recognizing and training local leaders. The goal of these training efforts would be ordination into the office of evangelist. Two things should be taken into account in these training programs. The first is setting standards for the office of evangelist. The details of these standards are part of the mandate of the new Committee to Provide Guidelines for Alternate Routes to Ministry, but the general standards adopted by Synod 2000 (see the Appendix) are a start. The proposals of this report assume that the standards for local training will be high. The second matter to be taken into account is that high standards are compatible with a variety of training approaches. Having high standards does not assume that students must leave their homes to go away to school. Mentoring, on-the-job training, and other ways of teaching can also serve. The focus must be on developing well-trained leaders in a manner that fits the local culture.

In addition, the churches, classis, and denomination should, by the principles outlined above (see Section III, E), develop systems of mentoring and accountability. The office of evangelist is properly an office of pastoral extension. Evangelists should be connected in relationships of support and accountability to councils and persons trained as ministers of the Word. In our tradition there has been a wariness about any sort of hierarchy among the offices or among officeholders, but this wariness sometimes has resulted in a lack of accountability. Leaders have been left alone to prosper or fail. In cases like the small churches of Classis Red Mesa (and many other places), new and creative ways of providing for training and accountability must be developed if these congregations are to grow and thrive.

Finally, in those churches where there is neither a minister of the Word nor an ordained evangelist, the congregations should be provided the sacraments and other pastoral acts. In this case, the acts of ministry should be carried out by elders. The use of licensed exhorters in Classis Red Mesa is a creative response to just this situation. These persons, elders in their congregations, are trained to preach and administer the sacraments. While the goal for the classis should still be to be able to provide persons with higher levels of training to serve these churches, this is a first step. Here, too, the classis should provide for mentoring and accountability for those to whom the right to administer the sacraments and perform other acts of ministry has been granted.

B. Youth ministry

A second test case is the widespread development of professional youth ministry in the churches of our denomination. Academic training for youth ministry is offered by many institutions, including Calvin Seminary. The master of arts in educational ministry degree (MA:EM) offered by Calvin Seminary allows students to prepare for a ministry focused either on a general educational ministry in the church or on specialized youth ministry.

In 1995, when the Youth-Ministry Committee recommended that synod appoint a study committee to consider how the 1973 guidelines pertaining to ecclesiastical office apply to persons engaged in ministry to youth and in other specialized ministries, it noted that

many other full-time and part-time professional mmistry positions are emerging within our denomination. Some of these focus in whole or in part on youth ministry. The 1994 Yearbook indicates that at least 472 persons are in ministry positions other than that of minister of the Word. The Yearbook also lists forty eight ordained evangelists.
(Agenda for Synod 1995, p. 206)

In preparing this report, the study committee received from the general secretary a printout of all those listed in the database for the Yearbook who were serving in a ministry role other than that of minister of the Word. Of these, 228 had a reference to youth in their title. One hundred of these persons were randomly selected for a phone interview. One of the questions put to them was "Do you consider your involvement in youth ministry as your primary vocation -- as a sense of calling?" Seventy percent answered that question affirmatively. This would suggest that approximately 160 of the 228 persons serving as youth ministers in our churches consider this position as their primary vocation / calling. The majority of the respondents also indicated that they were full-time in youth ministry. The same database indicated that seventy-eight persons are currently serving as ordained evangelists in either emerging or organized churches.

The emphasis on youth and educational ministries in our churches finds its basis in part in Church Order Articles 63 and 64.

Article 63: Nurture of Youth

A. Each church shall minister to its youth -- and the youth of the community who participate -- by nurturing their personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, by preparing them to profess their faith publicly, and by equipping them to assume their Christian responsibilities in the church and in the world. This nurturing ministry shall include receiving them in love, praying for them, instructing them in the faith, and encouraging and sustaining them in the fellowship of believers.

B. Each church shall instruct the youth in the Scriptures and in the creeds and confessions of the church, especially the Heidelberg Catechism. This instruction shall be supervised by the consistory.

Article 64: Nurture of Adults

A. Each church shall minister to its adult members so as to increase their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to nurture a mature faith in him, and to encourage and sustain them in the fellowship of believers.

B. Each church shall provide opportunities for continued instruction of adult members. This instruction shall be supervised by the consistory.

Given the agreed-upon importance of these ministries, should youth pastors (or other ministry directors) be ordained? What principles apply to this situation?

In answering this question, we turn to the three qualifications for ordination: excellencies for ministry, calling, and role. What excellencies are required for youth ministry? It is not the role of this committee to set such standards. We would refer back to the general standards adopted by Synod 2000 (Acts of Synod 1973, pp. 702-04) and to the supplement to Article 23 of the Church Order, which lists a set of qualifications for the office of evangelist. Further, we would observe that a candidate for ordination needs to have a proven ability to do the ministry to which she or he is called.

Second, ordination requires calling. Has the person being considered for ordination received the call of God for this work? Has that calling been confirmed by the call of the church? Ordination is an act of sacrifice. The person being ordained offers himself or herself to the Lord for the sake of the work to which the person is called. It should not be entered into lightly.

Finally, ordination requires a certain role. We have spent considerable space above defining that role. Essentially the role for which ordination is proper is pastoral and representative. It involves responsibility for the care of souls, for the shepherding of a flock. It involves re-presenting Christ to the people. As such, it involves those pastoral actions traditionally called the" official acts of ministry." One can be a youth director without being a youth pastor. We are not elevating the one above the other, but the two are distinguishable. Ordination sets a person aside for a certain kind of service. It should be reserved for that kind of service.

If a person meets these criteria, then ordination is proper. In most cases, ordination will be to the office of evangelist. The classis should certify that the person being considered for ordination meets the requirements for ordination and that the role to which the person is being called is consistent with the office before examining the candidate according to the existing rules for classical examinations of evangelists. The newly ordained youth pastor will serve in relationships of support and accountability with a minister of the Word and a local council.

This scenario is only one example. There are many other ways that the office of evangelist can serve the church. The vision statements from ethnic minority communities attached to the report of the Committee to Examine Alternate Routes Being Used to Enter the Ordained Ministry give ample evidence of the need for a variety of leaders and leadership training (Agenda for Synod 2000, pp. 314-17). Many churches are developing a variety of staff ministries. This report and the recommendations that follow are intended to clarify and encourage the development of leaders for the church of the future.

V. Recommendations

A. That synod grant the privilege of the floor to Robert C. DeVries (chair), David Holwerda, Stanley Jim, and Clayton Libolt (reporter) as representatives of the study committee when this report is considered.

B. That synod adopt the following conclusions and guidelines for understanding the nature of and relationships among the concepts and practices of ordination, the" official acts of ministry," and church office.

Conclusions and Guidelines

1. Re mission

a. As the church of Jesus Christ, we have been called together to serve the mission of the Lord. We believe with the apostle Paul that this mission is above all

. . . from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Cor. 3:18-20)

b. The role of the church in this mission is to be the body of Jesus Christ, manifesting his presence as we together and separately offer "our bodies [our whole lives] as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" (Rom. 12:1). This is our public work, our liturgy, our great calling.

c. We are called to be a sacrificial presence in the world, giving of ourselves as Christ gave himself for the sake of others. We are" a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

d. For our role in the mission of Jesus Christ, every Christian has been anointed (2 Cor. 1:21; Heidelberg Catechism Q. and A. 32) and called to serve the Lord. This is the office of believer.

2. Re leadership

a. For the purposes of this redemptive mission, the Lord also calls some to serve as leaders. Leadership is centrally a relationship of trust and responsibility. Leaders are entrusted by Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, to take pastoral responsibility for a part of his flock. With this responsibility comes the authority of Christ for the purposes to which the leader has been called.

b. Leaders must at the same time be recognized and trusted by the people of God as those who come with authority and blessings from the Lord. This dual relationship of leader to Christ and leader to the people is what above all defines leadership in the church. Leaders are those who have both the call of Christ and the call of the people.

3. Re the" official acts of ministry"

a. Certain acts of ministry -- among them the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, the pronouncement of blessings for the people, the laying of hands on new leaders, and the reception and formal dismissal of members -- in an especially powerful way represent the authority of Christ and therefore ought to be exercised only by those properly called and recognized as leaders. These acts of ministry symbolize and strengthen the relationships among the Lord, leaders, and the people of God. Their use is a sacred trust given to leaders by the Lord for the purpose of strengthening the flock. Therefore these acts should be handled with the care appropriate to their power and should continue to be regulated by the church.

b. For the same reason, no long-standing, organized congregation of Christians should be deprived of these liturgical acts simply because it cannot provide the presence of an ordained minister or evangelist. These acts are part of the ministry of Christ to his followers. They are entrusted to the congregation and, within the congregation, to its ordained leaders, not to a specific office.

4. Re ordination

a. Ordination is the church's way to recognize and enact the relationships of leadership. In ordination the church recognizes that a person has
- The appropriate excellencies for ministry
- The callings of Christ and the people of God
- A call to a role of pastoral responsibility

b. The laying on of hands is the ceremony by which the church symbolizes and enacts the relationships of ordination. By this ceremony the leader on whose head hands are laid is symbolically offered to Christ, included in the succession of leaders of the church stretching back to the apostles, and given the power of the Spirit. Since by the laying on of hands the church recognizes pastoral leadership as such and not a specific office or role, this ceremony is appropriate for all church offices.

c. Ordination is appropriate when, and only when, a person is called to a pastoral role within the church. Leaders fill this role when they are called by the church to perform the pastoral acts of blessing, rebuking, exhorting, administration of the sacraments, and the ordination of new leaders-in short, the" official acts of ministry." Ordination is the church's way of recognizing and solemnizing this relationship. Ordination is not a way of recognizing a person's academic credentials, elevating the prestige of religious professionals, or granting of tenure in the church. It is a recognition and enactment of a pastoral relationship between Christ and the church, mediated in a certain leader. As such it should not be entered into lightly.

5. Re office

a. The church has chosen on the basis of biblical example and for the purposes of good order to recognize certain offices. These offices or ministries vary with the needs of the church at different times and places.

b. For the present purposes of the Christian Reformed Church, the four offices already recognized by the denomination are sufficient for good order, provided that the office of evangelist be recognized as having the breadth of application outlined by the revised supplement to Church Order Article 23.

c. The office of evangelist may be understood to have the character of pastoral extension. Evangelists extend the work of pastoral leadership by founding and working in new congregations and by extending the ministry of organized congregations into specialized areas, including, but not limited to, youth ministry, education, pastoral care, worship, and evangelism. Within organized congregations, evangelists serve with and under the authority of an ordained minister.

d. By the broader application of the office of evangelist, with its existing regulations, to a variety of staff-ministry positions, the church avoids the multiplication of offices and provides a way of recognizing and regulating a variety of pastoral positions in our churches.

e. In congregations that cannot provide an ordained minister or evangelist, the right to exercise the "official acts of ministry" may be granted by the classis to the elders, who should be specifically trained for this purpose.

C. That, in order to enact these conclusions and guidelines, synod adopt the following:

1. That the supplement to Article 23 of the Church Order be modified to read as follows (replacing those sections of the supplement adopted by Synods 1979 and 1994):

The office of evangelist is applicable to a variety of ministries, provided that these ministries fit the definitions for ordination adopted by Synod 2001 and that the other Church Order and synodical regulations for the office of evangelist are observed. These include the ministries of education, evangelism, and music and ministries to children, youth, adults, and others within or outside of the congregation. Before examining a person for the office of evangelist or granting permission to install a previously ordained evangelist in a new position, the classis will determine whether or not the position to which the person is being called fits the definitions of ordination adopted by Synod 2001. In addition, the candidate for the office of evangelist must have proven ability to function in the ministry to which he or she is being called.

The candidate shall also sustain a classical examination. The classical examination shall include the following elements:

a. Presentation of the following documents
1) A conciliar recommendation from the church in which the appointee holds membership
2) Evidence (diplomas, transcripts, etc.) of formal general education and of specialized training in the ministry area to which the candidate is being called
3) A copy of the letter of appointment from the church which is requesting ordination of the candidate as evangelist
4) A copy of the candidate's letter of acceptance

b. Presentation of a sermon
1) In an official worship service, preferably on the Sunday preceding the meeting of classis and in the church to which the candidate for ordination has been called, the evangelist shall preach a sermon on a text assigned by classis. Two members of classis shall be present to serve as sermon critics.
2) A copy of the sermon shall be provided to the classical delegates. In the presence of the evangelist, the sermon critics shall evaluate the sermon and the evangelist's manner of conducting the entire worship service.

c. Examination in the following areas
1) Knowledge of Scripture
2) Knowledge of Reformed doctrine
3) Knowledge of the standards of the church and Church Order
4) Practical matters regarding Christian testimony, walk of life, relationships with others, love for the church, approach to ministry, and promotion of Christ's kingdom

The classis shall ensure that the candidate meets the standards of character, knowledge, and skill adopted by Synod 2000 (Acts of Synod 2000, pp. 702-04).

The classis shall also ensure that evangelists, especially those working at some distance from their calling congregations, will have proper supervision and support for the ministry.

Grounds:
a. These changes recognize the broadening of the office of evangelist to include ministry-staff positions which fit the definition for ordination given in the guidelines above.
b. Classical approval of the position for which a person will be ordained as an evangelist is consistent with the long-standing practice of classical approval for ministerial positions outside of traditional congregational roles and will promote consistency and good order.
c. Proper supervision and support of evangelists promote consistency and good order.

2. That synod propose to Synod 2002 the following changes in Article 55 of the Church Order (additions underlined; subtractions struck through):

The sacraments shall be administered upon the authority of the consistory in the public worship service by a ~~the~~ minister of the Word or an ordained evangelist with the use of the prescribed forms or adaptations of them which conform to synodical guidelines. If a congregation is financially unable to support a minister of the Word or an evangelist the elders may request authority from classis to administer the sacraments and perform the other" official acts of ministry."

Grounds:
a. The gifts of leadership and, particularly, the gifts of the" official acts of ministry" are an integral part of the relationship between Christ and the church and should not be denied to a congregation because it is unable to support clergy.
b. Approval and supervision of the exercise of these gifts by the classis will promote consistency of practice and good order in our churches.

3. That synod dismiss the committee.

Committee to Study Ordination and "Official Acts of Ministry"
Herb de Ruyter
Robert C. DeVries, chairperson
David Engelhard, ex officio
Ruth Hofman
David Holwerda
Stanley Jim
Clayton Libolt, reporter
Ricardo Orellana
Jack Vos
Karen Wilk

Appendix

Decisions of Synod 2000 Concerning Standards for Ministry Staff (Acts of Synod 2000, pp. 702-4)

2. That synod express its gratitude to God for the diverse ways in which the Holy Spirit has called and equipped people for ministry through alternative as well as traditional routes (see Part II, Supplement B).

-Adopted

3. That, in response to the committee's mandate to clarify "standards for effective ministry in the CRC," synod adopt and refer to the churches the following guiding principles:

a. The Reformed confessional heritage is the basic foundation for all ministry-staff job descriptions. A principle of proportionality should be thoughtfully applied to all persons who fill staff positions in any Christian Reformed church. The degree of understanding and skill required to apply the confessional tradition is proportional to the level of ministry responsibility assigned. As one's sphere of authorized service extends, so should one's capability for understanding, articulating, and discipling others in the Christian faith and Reformed confessional tradition.
b. The CRC is committed to a theologically well-trained clergy and to maintaining the expectation that "the completion of a satisfactory theological training shall be required for admission to the ministry of the Word" (Church Order Art. 6-a).

-Adopted

4. That synod remind the churches that are seeking guidance in setting standards for effective ministry of the general scriptural teaching concerning personal qualifications for ministry as found in passages such as Matthew 18; 20:20-28; 28:18-20; Acts 6; II Corinthians 4; 5; Ephesians 4; 1 and II Timothy.

-Adopted

5. That synod affirm and refer to the churches the following basic character standards for all ministry positions and personnel, recognizing that they must be adapted to specific circumstances and situations:

Any person called to serve Christ in a Christian Reformed church ministry position should be

a. Publicly committed to Christ and his church, submitting to its discipline.
b. Exemplary in piety and holy conduct of life, a humble person of prayer who trusts in God's providence.
c. Of good reputation, emotionally mature, honest, trustworthy, reliable.
d. Caring and compassionate for the lost and the weak.
e. Eager to learn and grow in faith, knowledge, and love.
f. Joyful in affirming the goodness of God's creation and communicating to others a delight in its beauty.
g. Sensitive to others in all their personal and cultural variety.
(See also Calvin Theological Seminary's Personal Qualifications for Ministry-Agenda for Synod 2000, pp. 345-50.)

-Adopted

6. That synod affirm and refer to the churches the following as the basic standards of biblical-theological knowledge expected of all persons hired in ministry positions in a Christian Reformed church:

a. Biblical foundations

Any person called to serve Christ in a CRC ministry position should
1) Know the content of the Old and New Testaments.
2) Know and be able to explain the basic structure and flow of biblical redemptive covenantal history centered in Christ (promise and fulfillment).
3) Be able to identify main themes (covenant, kingdom of God, holiness) of Scripture as well as the large divisions (law, prophets, writings) and specific types of biblical literature.
4) Be able to articulate the significance of the various sections, books, or types of biblical literature to contemporary issues and questions.

b. Theological foundations

Any person called to serve Christ in a CRC ministry position should
1) Know and be able to explain the basic teachings of the universal Christian tradition concerning God, humanity, the person and work of Christ, salvation, the church, the last things.
2) Know, be able to explain, be ready and willing to defend the three forms of unity and a Reformed confessional stance on key doctrines such as predestination, unity of the covenant, infant baptism, millennialism, the cosmic scope of the Reformed worldview.
3). Have a rudimentary knowledge of and ability to respond to the key challenges posed to the Christian and Reformed faith in North America by the major world religions, the major cults, and the various forms of New Age spirituality.
4) Know the key concepts of CRC church polity.

-Adopted

7. That synod affirm and refer to the churches the following as the basic standards of the skills expected of all persons hired in ministry positions in a Christian Reformed church:

Any person called to serve Christ in a CRC ministry position should

a. Be prepared "to give an answer to everyone who asks [you] to give the reason for the hope that [you] have" (1 Pet. 3:15).
b. Be able and willing to make a clear presentation of the gospel to an unbeliever.
c. Be able to teach and disciple persons to deeper faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ.
d. Be able to prepare and deliver short biblically based messages for public occasions (nursing homes, prisons, civic occasions).
e. Be capable of effectively leading a group in various tasks, including Bible studies, task completion, resolving conflict.

-Adopted

8. That synod urge the churches hiring full-time nonordained ministry personnel to seek persons who are educated in their respective fields. A four year college degree and additional theological training are recommended. Churches should consider assisting personnel to receive concurrent education when there is a need for additional training.

-Adopted