THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGE

Why is it that sharing ministry is so difficult? In my view, the greatest challenge to overcome is the basic set of assumptions that have served as the common paradigm for understanding the nature of the concept of ministry itself.

For too long we have believed that ministry is something reserved for a small group of people who have been trained and ordained for a specific office in the church. They are the professionals and everyone else is a recipient of that ministry. 

It wasn't always that way. In fact, that is a more-or-less "recent" development in the life of the Christian community. Ministry is the work of all the baptized, not just a chosen few. Our challenge is to figure out how we can get clergy and laity to recapture the vision of how all the baptized people of God can help one another to identify and then use their God-given gifts in the service of the Gospel. That is what I will be focusing on in the months ahead.