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Handout #155 |
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The four ministries of the church (Calvin) |
| Calvin, who had been banished from Geneva in
1538 A.D., returned there in 1541 A.D. at the urgent request of the people
of Geneva. His condition was that the church should be organized strictly,
and this organization was codified in the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of
1541 A.D.
There are four orders of ministry which our Lord instituted for the ministry of his church: first the pastors, then the doctors, then the elders and finally the deacons. As for the pastors whom scripture sometimes also calls elders and ministers, their office is to proclaim the word of God, to teach, admonish, exhort and rebuke, both in public and in private, to administer the sacrament and to administer brotherly correction with the elders and stewards. Now so that there should be no confusion in the church, no one may enter this office without vocation. Here three things must be considered, namely the examination, which is the most important; after that it is appropriate to institute the ministries, and thirdly it is good to observe that ceremony or mode of procedure for introducing them into office. The proper office of doctors is to instruct the faithful in sound doctrine, so that the purity of the gospel is not corrupted either by ignorance or by bad opinions. However, as things are at present arranged by this we understand help and instruction to preserve the doctrine of God and concern that the Church is not ravaged by the fault of pastors and ministers - to use a more intelligible word, we call it the order of schools. The office of elders is to take charge of the life of the individual, to admonish in love those whom they see failing or leading a disordered life, and where it is their role, to report to the community, which will be deputized to make fraternal corrections along with others. There were always two kinds of deacons in the early church, one deputized to receive, dispense and conserve goods of the poor, both daily alms and possessions, rents and pensions, and the others to care for and tend the sick, and to administer the allowance of the poor, a custom which we still observe. For we have bursars and hospitallers. Ecclesiastical Ordinances of Geneva (1541). |
