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understandings nd deeper nd er


Luther and ministry “in crisis” By Michael Cooper-White


Series editor’s note: As a fl ight instructor, I ride along with others at the controls. Once in a while I plead, “Can I make this landing?” In my fi nal “Deeper understandings” column, I get to make the landing! I thank all the authors who have contributed, the staff and Living Lutheran readers for the privilege of coordinating this series sponsored by the ELCA’s seminary presidents and deans. The beat goes on in the capable hands of David Ratke, dean of Lenoir-Rhyne University’s College of Theology and head of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. –Michael Cooper-White


Our church has a current and growing crisis in terms of what is often called our “public ministry.” Following Martin Luther’s great insight on Christian vocation, we believe every one of us is a minister of the gospel. Nevertheless, the church needs those with special preparation who dedicate themselves full time to ecclesial service. Since we have more than one kind of public minister on the rosters, we refer to them collectively as “rostered ministers.” And therein lies the crisis.


In Luther’s time, the nature of the crisis was one of competence and commitment. Frustrated at what he observed in his parish visits, he wrote: “Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture” (Luther the Preacher by Fred W. Meuser). Among other reasons, he wrote the Small Catechism to aid preachers in their teaching. In the preface, he again deplored “miserable conditions which I recently observed when visiting the parishes.”


44 JUNE 2017


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