No Longer Servants, but Friends: A Theology of Ordained Ministry

Rating:
Summary: What then should I be?
Review: Edward Zaragoza's book, 'No Longer Servants, But Friends: A Theology of Ordained Ministry' is a very important work to me. The idea of servant ministry is as old as the church, but it has an increasingly limited appeal in today's world in many respects, not the least of which that it is a model more honoured in the breach than in the observance. How realistic is it for the man standing at the altar covered in gold and glory to be regarded as a servant? Servant ministry has been a popular concept, as well as has been servant leadership (that a pastor should be a servant with managerial skills, et al.). But this begins to be too limiting on the one hand (reducing the role of who the pastor is or can be) and requiring too much on the other.

Jesus was himself a servant, leader, but also a friend. Indeed, Jesus even says we are no longer servants, but friends (see John 15:12-15). Today's pastors often end up more as social workers or CEO's than as apostles or disciples, to the detriment of the church as a whole. But the ordained ministry is not simply a profession, which one may pick up and put away at will. It is a lifelong calling to a way of being. If there is an ontological shift that takes place during ordination, it is not in the being, but rather in the way of being.

This book, according to Janet Fishburn at Drew University, 'offers a model for caring, empowering, out-reaching ministry, not as a finished product, but as a collaborative invitation to the reader to imagine and practice ministry in terms of some very provocative alternatives.'

Friends have relationship in love, which exalt each other yet leave each other free. Friends do not call each other into obedience, but rather into cooperation. Friendship is rarely hierarchical.

Zaragoza explores the historical context of servant and servant-leadership ministry models, as well as the history of how friendship has been defined in church ministry circles.

Andrew Sung Park of United Theological Seminary says, 'Derived from the image of the Trinity, this new paradigm of friendship stresses caring for others rather than curing them, being fully alive rather than giving up the self, being with others rather than doing for them, and relating to others rather than helping them.'

With a framework of friendship being paramount, the pastor no longer has to see herself/himself as a martyr, a sacrificial person, but rather can be fully engaged with God and others (and oneself!) by befriend the people of God.

'As a friend, the pastor sees people as whole human beings.... As whole human beings, the pastor and the people are both called to be fully alive through relationships with God, one another, and themselves.'

The 'tasks' (under the servant model) or 'goals' (under the servant-leadership model) become 'communal acts' in which there is collegiality and empowerment, and seeing people as beings-in-relationship, rather than seeing people as needs or as functions.

When I wrote this, the day was Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, and in many traditions the night of the Last Supper. It is traditional for priests to renew their vows on this night. Mine still have just a touch of that 'new vow smell' to them, but nonetheless, I reaffirm, particularly in light of the Zaragoza's work, to strive to honour my ordination vows by uplifting all to the highest good, to be mutual friends, friends with me, and friends with God.

Rating:
Summary: What then should I be?
Review: Edward Zaragoza's book, `No Longer Servants, But Friends: A Theology of Ordained Ministry' is a very important work to me. The idea of servant ministry is as old as the church, but it has an increasingly limited appeal in today's world in many respects, not the least of which that it is a model more honoured in the breach than in the observance. How realistic is it for the man standing at the altar covered in gold and glory to be regarded as a servant? Servant ministry has been a popular concept, as well as has been servant leadership (that a pastor should be a servant with managerial skills, et al.). But this begins to be too limiting on the one hand (reducing the role of who the pastor is or can be) and requiring too much on the other.

Jesus was himself a servant, leader, but also a friend. Indeed, Jesus even says we are no longer servants, but friends (see John 15:12-15). Today's pastors often end up more as social workers or CEO's than as apostles or disciples, to the detriment of the church as a whole. But the ordained ministry is not simply a profession, which one may pick up and put away at will. It is a lifelong calling to a way of being. If there is an ontological shift that takes place during ordination, it is not in the being, but rather in the way of being.

This book, according to Janet Fishburn at Drew University, `offers a model for caring, empowering, out-reaching ministry, not as a finished product, but as a collaborative invitation to the reader to imagine and practice ministry in terms of some very provocative alternatives.'

Friends have relationship in love, which exalt each other yet leave each other free. Friends do not call each other into obedience, but rather into cooperation. Friendship is rarely hierarchical.

Zaragoza explores the historical context of servant and servant-leadership ministry models, as well as the history of how friendship has been defined in church ministry circles.

Andrew Sung Park of United Theological Seminary says, `Derived from the image of the Trinity, this new paradigm of friendship stresses caring for others rather than curing them, being fully alive rather than giving up the self, being with others rather than doing for them, and relating to others rather than helping them.'

With a framework of friendship being paramount, the pastor no longer has to see herself/himself as a martyr, a sacrificial person, but rather can be fully engaged with God and others (and oneself!) by befriend the people of God.

`As a friend, the pastor sees people as whole human beings.... As whole human beings, the pastor and the people are both called to be fully alive through relationships with God, one another, and themselves.'

The 'tasks' (under the servant model) or 'goals' (under the servant-leadership model) become 'communal acts' in which there is collegiality and empowerment, and seeing people as beings-in-relationship, rather than seeing people as needs or as functions.

When I wrote this, the day was Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, and in many traditions the night of the Last Supper. It is traditional for priests to renew their vows on this night. Mine still have just a touch of that 'new vow smell' to them, but nonetheless, I reaffirm, particularly in light of the Zaragoza's work, to strive to honour my ordination vows by uplifting all to the highest good, to be mutual friends, friends with me, and friends with God.