Baptists look to Christian beginnings for the meaning of
ordination. Early Church Christians gave
us the New Testament, established orthodox doctrines, and regularized
ecclesiastical practices, including ordination.
Baptist views of ordination are linked to this ancient Christianity,
which looked to the New Testament as its standard.
The New Testament witnesses to a variety of gifts bestowed
by the Holy Spirit upon individuals.
Certain gifts are given to equip believers for “the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 3:12). Over time, the Christian church developed the
ordination service to acknowledge the continuation of God’s mission in Christ
to the church and the world through Spirit-called and Spirit-gifted
ministers. Baptists hold these views
about ordination in common with the rest of the Christian tradition.
Baptist ordination, however, is not an exact reproduction of
any New Testament or Early Church practice.
The New Testament gives no comprehensive instructions for
ordination. The doctrine and practice of
ordination has continued to evolve over the centuries, resulting in a variety
of forms with a multiplicity of meanings.
From the New Testament to the end of the Middle Ages, the
meaning of ordination moved toward an ever more exclusive and hierarchical rite
designed to establish the primacy of the clergy over the laity. By the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic
tradition viewed ordination as an indelible mark granted by God and conferred
by ordained clergy upon those whom the clergy approved for entry into elite
ministerial society.
In this system, ordination served as certification for the
clergy, the sole representatives of the body of Christ able to mediate divine
grace to the laity. The belief that
ordination bestows some special and sacred status beyond that of the ordinary
Christian still has currency among many Christians today.
The Protestant Reformation refuted this claim, emphasizing
the doctrine of the priesthood of believers over against the hierarchical
medieval view of ordination. Martin
Luther called all Christians priests, some of whom are ordained to publicly
minister and teach. Comparing ordained
ministers to Christian cobblers, blacksmiths and farmers, Luther wrote in 1520
that priests, bishops or popes “are neither different from other Christians nor
superior to them, except that they are charged with the administration of the
Word of God and the sacraments.” Most
Baptists believe ordination recognizes a particular calling to ministerial
service without indicating a higher spiritual status than that of other
Christians.
The original Baptists in the first decade of the seventeenth
century defended the equality of each member of the body of Christ against the historic
claims of clergy privilege made by the bishop led Anglican Church. These earliest Baptists formed congregations
of baptized believers who covenanted to share equal authority and
responsibility in the body of Christ.
These Baptist churches, governed by congregational polity as
dictated by the equal status of each baptized member, chose and authorized
congregational leaders not as lords over them, but as servant ministers. Divine authority in Baptist beginnings did
not trickle down from ordained clergy to the common Christian, but flowed
upward through the members of the congregation to its chosen leaders. The very term ordination was avoided for
several decades in the two original Baptist groups, Generals and Particulars,
in favor of terms such as ‘set apart,’ ‘called,’ and ‘appointed.’
Eventually, with considerable influence from Calvinist
sources, the majority of Baptist churches standardized and promoted ordination
practices. The institutionalization of
Baptist life intensified the regularization of ordination. The Philadelphia Baptist Association’s 1742
Confession, for example, harking back to the ordination article of
Congregationalist’s 1658 Savoy Declaration, describes Baptist ordination in a
form familiar to us Baptists two and a half centuries later: Christ-called, Spirit-gifted pastors and
deacons chosen by church vote and set apart by prayer and the laying on of
hands.
The similarities within Baptist ordination views should not
be allowed to obscure the great variations played upon the theme. Indeed, some Baptists have refused to play
along at all, referring to ordination as a ritual rendered null and void by the
priesthood of believers. Charles
Spurgeon, the most celebrated Baptist pastor of the nineteenth century, is
popularly believed to have said that ordination consisted of “laying idle hands
on empty heads.”
The diversity of Baptist views on ordination is hinted at by
the many questions answered either yes or no depending upon which group of
Baptists is asked. Who may properly be
ordained: Women? Divorced
persons? Twice married widowed candidates? What is the place of the ordination council;
is it only a formality? What is
symbolized by the laying on of hands, and should only previously ordained
members be invited to do it? What
academic credentials are necessary, if any?
What ministers other than pastors and deacons are eligible? This list can and does go on and on within
the Baptist tradition.
In spite of this diversity, where a Baptist ordination takes
place one can be fairly confident of the following meanings: Ordination is an act of worship by which the
congregation, representative of the people of God, acclaims the one being
ordained as chosen and empowered by the Holy Spirit to exercise gifts for
ministry within the church. Ordination
is not to a holier ministry than those given to other baptized believers. The laying on of hands with prayer invokes
God’s blessing upon the one ordained and signifies that he or she is set apart
as a servant to the servants of God.
Ordination is a gift to the church as well as recognition by the church
of the minister’s inward call. In the
ordination service, the church receives the ministry of Christ in its midst
through the grace of the Holy Spirit in the calling of the ordinand. Ordination for Baptists is a service of
thanksgiving for God’s love revealed in the minister’s calling, a service of
petition for God’s continued blessing upon the one called, and a service of
submission to God’s authority revealed in the gifted one set aside for
ministry.
C. Penrose St. Amant, “Sources of Baptist Views on
Ordination,” Baptist History and Heritage, vol.23,no.3(July1988),12.
Wm. Loyd Allen is professor of church history and spiritual
formation at McAfee School of Theology of Mercer University in Atlanta,
Georgia.
Wm. Loyd Allen
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