Baptist Ideas: Ministry and the Priesthood of All

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Martin Sutherland

Why do Baptists have a professional ministry? Even ministers themselves ask that question sometimes! As we have seen in this series, Baptists rejoice that the coming of the Holy Spirit has revolutionised the spiritual landscape. The Spirit is within all believers and God has written his laws on our hearts.

As a result we reject any attempt to coerce individuals into a religious belief or practice. We have always argued against state intervention for or against any religious group. There is no place for manipulation or for pushing a person or a congregation in such a way as to rob them of their freedom and responsibility under God. This insight also means that we need not be beholden to a special caste of priests - gatekeepers who ration out and control access to God. It is a glorious, radical element of the Christian message.

It sounds like an argument for doing away with ministers altogether. Yet Baptists at their best have not lapsed into a modernist western cult of the individual – as if we are disconnected, autonomous agents giving significance only to private relationships with God and rejecting the input of others. We have always maintained that the role of pastor/teacher is valid and desirable.

Mediating The Spirit

This is because alongside the conviction that the Spirit is freely available to all believers we have also held the notion of the “priesthood of all believers”. These ideas are often confused, as if they say the same thing. Actually they teach us complementary but different truths.

A priest, by definition, is a mediator: one who stands before God for us and, conversely, brings God to us. In Christian terms, of course, this function is wrapped up in Christ, the “Great High Priest”. But it is not for nothing that the Church is called the “body” of Christ. When we are described, as by Peter, as a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), he is calling us all “priests”. The priesthood of all believers means, literally, that all believers are priests, that we all may (indeed, must) mediate God to one another and to the world.

So, on the one hand we declare that the Spirit is within us as Christians and, on the other, we affirm the responsibility we all have to bring the gift of the Spirit’s presence to those around us. When these ideas are confused or mixed up the results can be destructive. If we just think in terms of the interior presence of the Spirit we can end up thinking that the only thing that matters is my individual, vertical connection with God. This turns the priesthood of all believers on its head. Instead of recognising that all Christians are priests, we in effect declare that no Christians are priests.

Baptists seek to live out the implications of both convictions. Because the Spirit is within all Christians no-one else may impose an artificial spirituality on any believer. We must all be free from human interference or spiritual bullying. Yet, whilst we do not ultimately depend on others, it is nonetheless true that God may and often does come to us through the priestly role of fellow Christians. More than that, there will be times in which our spiritual radar seems off and God appears silent. At such moments we need mediation. We need the faith and ministry of others.

The Right Place For Pastoral Leadership

These twin ideas, if held creatively together, protect us from two dangers. In one direction lies the risk of a too high view of ministry and leadership. Baptists do not hold to an apostolic view of ministry, whereby only a chosen few are the mouthpiece of the Spirit. At its worst such a view can lead to the mute acceptance of an individual’s “vision” merely by virtue of them articulating it. We are protected from this as we hold fast to our confidence in the presence of the Spirit within the believer. Our meetings are forums for the Spirit to be heard, even from the least of us.

The other danger is that we will dismiss the notion of specialised ministry and leadership altogether. Baptists in fact have a healthy acceptance of congregational leadership. Priesthood is a function of the whole body of Christ but the priesthood of all believers does not mean identical gifting. The church is blessed with many gifts – among them those we particularly associate with pastoral leadership. Throughout our history our congregations have identified those who have these gifts and sought to put them in contexts in which the gifts can be useful to the church.

Are our Pastors more important than the rest of us? No. Are they unique possessors of the Spirit? No. Are they final arbiters of truth or congregational life? Certainly not! Nevertheless, the pastoral function is an essential element in congregational health. It is one way in which our commitment to the priesthood of all believers is shown to work.