Church membership - have we misunderstood what it should mean?

Jonathan Bayes  |  Features
Date posted:  1 Oct 1999
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Apparently 'Goethe once said that he had little time for church history, since it dealt only with the clergy and he could find in it little about ordinary Christians . . . He did not think he could see how faith was lived out concretely'.1

I want to air some thoughts on the role of those whom Goethe describes as 'ordinary Christians'.

I am not suggesting that those who are called to full-time ministry are extraordinary Christians. Nevertheless, Goethe does hint at a difference of function which I believe is of crucial importance. My question is this: what is the function to which those church members are called who are not ordained into the ministry? This will also lead on to another question: what is the function of those who are ordained into the ministry towards those who are not?

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