Once, in my earnest young seminary student days, I asked the pastor supervising my congregational internship if I could lead communion. He hesitated. Do you need a credential for that? 

The pastor decided to check up the line, and eventually, though I was not ordained for ministry, I got the green light to break the bread and bless the cup at the Lord’s table. 

Why does the church grant credentials for ministry? What does ordination mean? 

In my experience, we Mennonites often don’t have much in the way of a working theology of ordination. I sat on a conference’s credentialing body for a number of years, and nearly to a person, the men and women who came before us struggled to articulate the significance of ordination. They wanted it, but they didn’t know what for. 

Most of the people identified -ordination in functional terms, -something akin to obtaining a pro-fessional license — like what you need to become a nurse or a lawyer or a barber. 

Some of their puzzlement could probably be chalked up to a wayward understanding of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9). If everybody’s a priest, so the thinking goes, then what would ordination offer that any God-fearing nurse, lawyer or barber couldn’t do already?

The Apostle Paul spoke to the unique called-out character of ministry when he told Timothy not to -“neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders” (1 Timothy 4:14). 

Just as the Levites were selected to serve from among the whole priestly people of Israel (Exodus 19:6), ministers are called out to the work of tending the Lord’s flock. They ought to serve “not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it — not for sordid gain but eagerly” (1 Peter 5:1-2). 

That priestly work flows from Christ’s own self-gift of love (Ephesians 4:7-12). 

Jesus gave himself “for the life of the world” (John 6:51). 

Christ the High Priest “did not glorify himself” (Hebrew 5:5) but “offered himself” to the Father as a sacrifice for sin “once for all” (Hebrews 7:27). 

Ordination is Christ giving the gift of ministry to an individual through the church.

According to Paul, Timothy received the gift through the laying on of hands and prophecy. That means there’s a supernatural dimension to Timothy’s calling to ministry, but it’s channeled through the earthly structures of the church. 

I sometimes wonder if we place undue weight on an individual’s internal sense of calling. “Call” risks becoming overly subjective. God’s voice can be counterfeited by wish or ego or hurt. 

Paul grounds Timothy’s ministry less in feeling and more in the church’s gift. By saying yes to the church, Timothy was saying yes to Jesus.

Of course, the church had no doubt already discerned Timothy’s intelligence and wisdom before they laid hands on him. Surely the elders had witnessed his developing skills and earnestness. They had seen the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit all over the clay of his life. But Timothy received the gift of ministry when the church ordained him.

This matters, because ministry belongs to the church. When we set someone apart for the pastorate, what we’re really saying is that this person is working on behalf of the church. We’re saying Christ is continuing his ministry through this man or woman. 

I’m older these days. My earnestness comes in fits. But I still catch myself feeling a little awe at the work I get to share as an ordained minister: the preaching, the teaching, the baptizing. Especially the breaking of bread. 

What a gift!