Today I receive a public calling to ministry in Manchester to plant and then pastor Manchester Lutheran Church. But, what is “ministry” and what is a “public calling“?

We are the Biblical Lutheran Church of the UK because we believe the Bible, which is clearly explained by the Lutheran Confessions, and as the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe the Bible, he makes us the Church, united by our common confession.

Every week we affirm our belief in the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, the invisible church made up of everyone who has faith in Jesus, including people from other churches, who confess different things about the ministry and the call.

So what do we, as Biblical Lutherans, believe about the ministry and the call?

First, the ministry is the right and responsibility of every single Christian person to declare that Jesus is the Christ, who has taken away the sins of the world. Every single Christian: man or woman, old or young, has this responsibility and right to proclaim God’s Word and administer the Sacraments of Christ.

That this ministry belongs to every Christian is Biblical. In Matthew chapter 16 verse 16, Peter—whose name means rock—said to Jesus:

 “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:16

And Jesus—playing on the meaning of Peter’s name—goes on to say in verses 18-19:

“…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:18-19

The rock is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ. The ministry is the use of these keys—declaring the forgiveness of sins. Everyone who makes this confession has these keys; they have this ministry: the right and responsibility to preach forgiveness of sins.

And that this ministry belongs to every Christian is Lutheran. The Augsburg Confession says:

“That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted.”

Augsburg Confession V

The Smalcald Articles say:

The Keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church…

Smalcald Articles 3.7

And the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope explicitly says:

…the Keys belong not to the person of one particular man, but to the Church. …[Jesus] grants the Keys first and directly to the Church. …just as the promise of the Gospel belongs certainly and immediately to the entire Church, so the Keys belong immediately to the entire Church, because the Keys are nothing else than the office whereby this promise is communicated to every one who desires it,…

The Power and Primacy of the Pope 24

Some churches confess that this ministry is given only to the Pope.

But, that is not Biblical. Jesus says in Luke 22:

“The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you.”

Luke 22:25-26

And it is not Lutheran. The Power and Primacy of the Pope says

“In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul makes ministers equal.”

The Power and Primacy of the Pope (11)

Some churches confess that this ministry is given only to those who have had hands laid on them in Apostolic Succession from the time of Jesus.

That is not Biblical. In Mark 9 the apostles tried to stop a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name

“because he was not following us.”

Mark 9:38

But Jesus told them not to stop him (v. 39).

And it is not Lutheran. In the Smalcald Articles, Luther says

“…we ourselves should ordain suitable persons to this office.”

Smalcald Articles 3.10

Some churches confess that this ministry is given only to those who have been called to exercise it publicly.

That is not Biblical. One Peter chapter 2 says of all Christians

“…you are… a royal priesthood… that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you…”

1 Peter 2:9

And it is not Lutheran. The Power and Primacy of the Pope says

“…the Keys belong immediately to the entire Church…”

The Power and Primacy of the Pope 24

Jesus gave the power to declare forgiveness of sins to everyone who has faith in him. This is the ministry possessed by every Christian: man or woman, elder or infant. This ministry is Biblical. This ministry is Lutheran.

But, that does not mean that everyone should publicly preach, nor should everyone publicly administer the sacraments on behalf of the church. As the Biblical Lutheran Church of the UK, we also believe in the call.

The call is the responsibility the church has to do things in an orderly way when we publicly meet together. Everyone has the right and responsibility to serve in the ministry privately, but for our public meetings, God commands us to call people to exercise this ministry on behalf of us all. He allows us to be flexible in the way we meet together and the roles and offices we call people to, as long as we follow three commands:

1. anyone we call must be godly;
2. anyone we call must be skilled and trained to perform the task they’re commissioned to do; and
3. we should not call women to teach or have authority over men.

These three commands about the public call are Biblical. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Paul commands that in church, in the public assembly:

“…all things should be done decently and in order.”

1 Corinthians 14:40

And so in 1 Timothy chapters 2-3, Paul describes the qualifications for two types of calls we can make to serve the ministry:

“overseers”, episkopi from which we get the word “bishop” and

“servants”, diakonos from which we get the word deacon.

Bishops and Deacons must have a godly character. So, anyone we call must be godly. Paul describes their character with words like:

” above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable,…”

1 Timothy 3:2

And, anyone we call must be skilled and trained to perform the task they’re commissioned to do. “Bishop” is a catch all term for anyone who has a role involving public teaching and authority. So, Paul says a Bishop must:

[be] “able to teach” (3:2) be able to “manage his own household well” as a demonstration that he will be able to exercise public authority in the church (3:4-5).

“Deacon” is a catch all term for anyone who has a role of administration. So, Paul says a Deacon must:

“not [be] greedy for dishonest gain”, “prove themselves blameless”, and “faithful in all things”.

1 Timothy 3:8, 9, 10

Finally Paul says, we should not call women to teach or have authority over men. He explains in chapter 2:

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

1 Timothy 2:12-14

And these three commands about the public call are Lutheran.

The Augsburg Confession says

Our churches teach that no one should publicly teach in the Church, or administer the Sacraments, without a rightly ordered call.

Augsburg Confession 14

Note that it says “publicly”. Because every single individual has this ministry, it is only the public exercise of it that requires a call. Later on the Augsburg Confession says:

This authority is exercised only by teaching or preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments, either to many or to individuals, according to their calling.

Augsburg Confession 28

The Small Catechism summarises 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 in describing the qualifications of a church pastor.

We are the Biblical Lutheran Church of the UK and this is what we confess about the ministry and the call: Jesus gave this ministry—the right and responsibility to declare forgiveness of sins—to everyone who has faith in him. This is the ministry possessed by every Christian. But, to exercise this ministry publicly on behalf of the church someone must be rightly called. And in obedience to God whoever we call:

1. must be godly;
2. must be skilled and trained to perform the task they’re commissioned to do; and
3. we should not call women to teach or have authority over men.

This is Biblical. This is Lutheran. This is the confession of our Church in the UK.