For All Who Serve God in God's Church

The prayer at the end of our Nouwen reading for the day resonates with something I've been thinking about this Lent as we've used Form VI of the Prayers of the People during worship.  Each version of the Prayers of the People include petitions for the universal Church, the nation and those in government, the local community, those who suffer, and the departed.  Form VI draws particular attention to the ministers of the church by praying "for all who serve God in his Church."

Each time we pray this on Sunday mornings, it reminds me that in the Catechism at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, it lists the laity as the primary ministers of the Gospel.  It is the laity who are listed first, followed by bishops, then priests, then deacons.  In some ways, I think our Nouwen prayer names the same themes.

But as Henri says, being ministers of Christ is not the same thing as being publicists for God.  Our job is not to give the very best spin to the actions of God; it's not even our job to presume that we know which are the actions of God and which are not in some kind of finite way.  Rather, I think as ministers of Christ, all of us are called to live authentic lives that reflect the ways in which we are transformed because of our faith.  That's not a spin job, that's a testimonial.  That is a form of ministry.