"Our Shared Calling: The Whole Ministry of the Church"
Guest Sermon by Julia Corbett-Hemeyer
Unitarian Universalist Church of Muncie
January 31, 2010

An Introduction and a Brief Reading

When Thomas and I first began discussing this, it was in the context of next Sunday, February 7^th, being designated as Community Ministry Sunday by the UU Society for Community Ministry. And what I'd planned to speak about was the Society and professional community ministry.  As things evolved and changed, we discovered that there would be other things going on February 7^th and also that today is an open book Sunday and that Sunday on which we honor our long-time members as well. In addition, we're starting our annual pledge drive today. So I want to focus this morning on the ministry that all of us share, professionals and lay persons alike, the one shared ministry that is our responsibility and our privilege. [Professional community ministry is another topic, for another day—perhaps Community Ministry Sunday next year!]

This sermon has been a challenging one for me to develop, giving me the opportunity to hone my thinking about what makes something ministry and what makes something Unitarian Universalist ministry. Of course, I'd thought about ministry before, especially during my seminary training, my internship and clinical pastoral education experiences. But that was in a United Methodist seminary and a United Methodist hospital as well. Although at the time there was a lot of freedom to think creatively about what ministry meant in those settings, there were boundaries inherent in the Methodist interpretation of the Christian faith tradition. This sermon has given me a chance to revisit those issues in a new and considerably more open-ended framework. My ordination to ministry is interfaith rather than Unitarian Universalist. However, I carry out that ministry with a keen sense of dual identity: as a UU and an interfaith minister. This morning I want to focus on the UU side of that and ask you to think along with me.

What describes ministry, and what is Unitarian Universalist ministry? In other words, what lets us call an action ministry, and what allows us to describe it as UU ministry? Moreover, what is the shared or collaborative ministry that unites both professional clergy and lay persons in the single ministry of and with the beloved community?

I want to begin with a brief reading from the 1988 Community Ministry Proclamation and Covenant, the charter, as it were, of the Unitarian Universalist Society for Community Ministries (www.uuscm.org). In its own words, the Society is "a Unitarian Universalist movement of lay ministers & ordained clergy committed to promoting a broad spectrum of healing and social justice ministries.  We believe that only through many diverse forms of ministry can we heal the broken, create justice, and live in harmony with the spirit of life.  We hold a vision of a larger ministry that sees the world as its parish." Its founding Proclamation and Covenant reads, in part:

We, as people living in a world that is both dying and seeking to be reborn, who are shaken to our very roots by the massiveness and depth of planetary and human suffering, are empowered by a driving passion to bear witness to that suffering, participate in its transformation and affirm the inherent glory of life. Therefore we do covenant together:

• To respond to these cries of pain, to our own brokenness, and to awaken the healing spirit of hope.
• To engage in a broad spectrum of ministries through and with UU congregations, the larger community, and increasingly, in a global context.
• To celebrate the diversity of life within our elemental interconnectedness.
• To challenge one another as individuals and as members of institutions to identify, analyze, and act upon the basic causes of human hurt and separation.

This charter, for me, sets the context for talking about not only professional community ministry but about lay ministry, and about the collaborative ministry which embraces both.

What Is Ministry?

I'm reminded here of a cautionary tale I once heard. A farmer asked his son, "How many legs does a horse have?" The son gave the obvious answer, "Four." The father then continued, "Suppose we call the horse's tail a leg. How many legs does the horse have then?" The son thought about it for a bit and responded, "five." "No!" the father replied with great conviction. "Four. Just calling the horse's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg!"

If asked who or what a minister is, most of us probably would describe a seminary-trained woman or man who does "ministerial" things such as preaching, visiting the sick, counseling the troubled, marrying and burying, meeting with various boards of the church, and in general taking care of "church stuff." We can easily expand that to include folks like hospital and military chaplains and pastoral counselors without having to scratch our heads too much about definitions. These people clearly take care of "religious stuff" too. And many churches have ordained or at least credentialed ministers of religious education or ministers of music. Describing ministry is fairly easy when it takes place within the church—or is it?

What about the Pastoral Associates in our own congregation? The Worship Associates? The faithful dozens of people who serve in the RE program? The Caring Committee? Those who staff our many other committees? They aren't ministers in the sense of being ordained and having ministerial standing with the Unitarian Universalist Association. But are they ministers? Do they minister? Many, and probably most of us, would say "yes."

The question becomes more complex once we move outside the walls of the church, into the larger, secular community. How about those who work daily in the "helping professions"? The nurses, doctors, the social workers, the psychologists? The teachers of young and old? The nursing home activities director?

And what about the various ways people expand their service beyond the walls of this church by participating in the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, by helping staff the Christian Ministries Sleeping Room, driving for Meals on Wheels, those who tutor for MOMs? We have people active in EPIC, helping others get out of poverty, working for Rebuilding Together and Habitat for Humanity. . . This list could go on all morning, becoming a stirring litany of caring and helping. If I've not mentioned your particular ministry, please forgive me. One thing I realized as I began thinking about this is that I don't have a good idea of all the things we are doing. I wonder how many of us know the range of ministries our congregation engages in?

For me these questions suggest several things we might want to include in a description of what makes something ministry. We'll take up what makes it UU ministry in a few minutes.

• At its most basic, ministry is about presence—being present for, to and with one another and what is holy, if you will. We are present as ourselves, our very human selves, but also as the representative of the holy or the sacred, the bearer of that which gives life meaning, to bear witness to the sacred. Jewish theologian Martin Buber said that the sacred lies in the relationship between people, the I/Thou. When we see the other as fully human, not as a means to an end, but as fully human and like ourselves, then we have that I-Thou relationship which holds within it in the sacred.
• We bring the elusive, mysterious presence of ultimacy into something real and tangible through the compassion and care we have for each other and the work of caring we do in the various communities of which we're a part.
• We consciously and intentionally function in the context of and in relationship with that which we perceive as holy, ultimate, or sacred, however we experience/name that. We may call it "God," or we may refer to a belief in the community of all humankind, perhaps the Earth, Gaia.  It takes more than our own internal sense of ourselves as being in ministry, but it does require that. Ministry is conscious, intentional.
• The ordinary fabric of life offers countless opportunity to live our faith outside the framework of a faith community. Ministry means either assuming personal responsibility to transform the non-spiritual setting or discovering how to live spiritually in a non-spiritual setting. In other words, ministry provides spiritual comfort or inspiration in addition to any other assistance provided to those served, or it helps the participants to find and express significant meaning.
• "What makes . . . ministry different from simply living life as a good person? In one aspect, not much, as the observable activity will look the same. What does matter, however, is the mindset. The person intentionally affirms that life is grounded in the Divine, and that each person has a unique call to interpret and express that divine through his or her life—at home, at work, and at play." (Congregational Resource Guide, CongregationalResources.org)

I've certainly not defined ministry here, nor did I set out to do so. Nor have I worked out a coherent and comprehensive theology of ministry, which I think is where our concepts of ministry must finally be grounded. Those are far larger projects than ought to be undertaken on a Sunday morning. What I hope I have done is to stimulate your own questioning: What is ministry? Is what you do ministry? Can it be? Should it be? What is your ministry?

What Identifies Unitarian Universalist Lay Ministry?

Perhaps a trifle oddly, this is an easier question for me than the previous one. That may be only because I have made it too simple! But I think the terms of the question are clearer, as well.

• Unitarian Universalist ministry, both ordained and lay, means consciously and intentionally embodying our Principles, grounding what we do in those principles and in our fidelity to them. They provide a yardstick, as it were, by which we can gauge what we are doing, looking to them and to our congregation for guidance in our diverse ministries:
  • Does what we do promote the inherent dignity and worth of every person?
  • Do we uphold and encourage justice, equity and compassion in relationships between persons? Do we model these values?
  • Do we promote acceptance of one another and encourage spiritual growth?
  • Are we engaged in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and do we encourage others to do so too?
  • Do we uphold the right of conscience and the use of democratic process, extending that to all situations and persons?
  • Do we affirm a worldwide community characterized by peace, liberty and justice for all? Are we striving to make that happen in our corner of the world?
• Do we embody respect for the whole interdependent web of existence? Does how we go about our work reflect this concern?
• We claim our identity as UUs, being in the larger, secular community explicitly as UUs. We're not "stealth religionists." We act as representatives of our congregation in doing what we do. We're the arms and legs and voices of this congregation, reaching out into the community.
• Ministry happens wherever individuals embrace the belief that their good works, their volunteerism, their acts, can help serve the mission and vision of their congregation.
• We UUs spring from the larger Protestant Christian tradition, however much some of us may have departed from it. That means our roots go deep into the teaching of the priesthood and prophethood (James Luther Adams' addition, I believe) of all believers. We are all called to minister.  Each one of us has a vocation; that place where, as Fredrick Buechner has said, our heart's deep gladness meets the world's deep need.
• The matter of the priesthood/prophethood of all believers is central to Unitarian Universalism itself. A 1992 study, "Our Professional Ministry: Structure, Support and Renewal," includes the following statement:

One key aspect of Unitarian Universalism is our belief that ministry of the congregation does not belong exclusively to ordained clergy, but to everyone. . . Ministry is the vocation of every person of faith, [and] Unitarian Universalism, as a democratic faith, affirms the "priesthood of all believers"; we are all lay ministers, whether or not we choose to be professional religious leaders. This belief in the "priesthood of all believers" is central to who we are as a religious movement.  ("Religious Leadership," UUA web site)

• This understanding is deeply rooted in UU theology. Also from the Religious Leadership web page: "The church is in essence the gathered community. . . . As we come together, we also profess the belief that the 'ministry' of the church is not just that performed by our called professional religious leaders, but belongs to the gathered community. Ministry is the work of everyone within the congregation and everyone is accountable to the whole for the ministry they undertake."
• Finally, it seems to me that, like ordained ministers, lay ministers, no matter what their particular ministry is, are of necessity both located in and accountable to a congregation. Even those whose primary ministry is outside the congregation still need the congregation as a "home base." Lay ministers, thought not ordained by a congregation, must be acknowledged by a congregation and accountable to a congregation.

Collaborative Ministry—Clergy and Laity Together in Ministry

As I've read about professional ministry and lay ministry and how the two might work together, the concept that recurs most often is that of shared or collaborative ministry. The move toward collaborative or shared ministry seems to me to quite naturally go along with the situation in which this congregation finds itself, moving from being a pastoral style church to being a program-centered church.

One study concluded that the programs already in place "signal significant change in how the denomination conceives of and practices ministry." I quote at length from this study, reported by the Reverend Barbara Child, who is currently Interim Minister at UU Indianapolis. Although her report dates back to 1993, much of it still applies:

Thinking about shared ministry means thinking about who does what in a congregation. It also means thinking about what activities are regarded as ministry and about how ministry and leadership differ, if they do. Is social justice work a form of ministry? Is directing the choir a form of ministry? What about serving as an officer, a member of the board of trustees, a committee chair, or a consultant on conflict management? In other words, where is the line between ministry and leadership? Where is the line between ministry and service?

Shared ministry in practice in our congregations ranges from the minimal participation of lay persons as "helpers" or substitutes when the minister is away to formal programs involving titled lay positions, training, and accreditation. Those who favor shared ministry maintain that we are all called to share our gifts and serve one another. They speak of broad participation as healthy, and of hierarchical structure as unhealthy. They believe that a major role of the clergy is to teach lay people how to minister. They recognize both (1) that the congregation members have a myriad of skills that no one person could embody alone, and (2) that no one else has the professional skill of the clergyperson.

Those who are skeptical about shared ministry stress that even though all may have the capacity to minister, only ordained ministers have the training and developed talents to do so effectively. Some worry about the "quality control" of lay ministry, mentioning "amateurish" Sunday services and incompetent handling of other ministerial functions. They wonder whether lay people understand the boundaries that differentiate ministering from other relationships. Some who otherwise compliment shared ministry nonetheless worry about skilled and committed volunteers burning out or spreading themselves too thin.[1]

As I've read, several points have come up repeatedly as people attempt to delineate what the requirements for lay ministry in such an environment might look like.

• There needs to be clarity and definition of roles and responsibilities of lay ministers and how these relate to ordained clergy: Channels of authority and responsibility between lay and clergy leaders can be blurred in this understanding of lay ministry. If not carefully managed, implementation can be complicated and messy. Even when well-managed, it can probably be counted on to be a bit messy!
• Collaborative ministry calls for trust and commitment among all those involved, clergy and laity alike: Collaborative ministry draws on the best skills of clergy and congregations. Developing relationships and discovering ministry together can be time consuming. Collaborative ministry moves away from an authoritative hierarchical model to a partnership.
• All are held to accountability: clergy and laity are accountable to each other, and both are accountable to the congregation as a whole and to the values of Unitarian Universalism. No matter how good our intentions, we all need an institutional context in which to  be re-called again and again to the principles of our tradition and our responsibilities to one another.
• There are robust, structured programs for education and training, not only in the "how to" of whatever is being undertaken but in its theological underpinnings as well. Such training has a worship or reflection component that links it directly with the spiritual. Ongoing support and "in service" training is built into the program.
• The congregation recognizes the people involved and their contributions. The lay ministerial role is validated within the congregation.

A Few Examples

We have the Pastoral Associates program as well as the Worship Associates program within our own congregation. These two programs embrace and encourage a collaborative style of ministry. I've come across a couple of parallel examples elsewhere.  First Unitarian Church of Oakland, California, has Pastoral and Worship Associates in a program that sounds similar to ours. They were investigating the possibility of two additional programs structured along the same lines. Teaching Associates are those who work in the Religious Education Program. Social Justice Associates would work in groups of at least four on projects of their own choosing. Those two programs are currently on hold in that congregation, but both are intriguing possibilities for our own congregation.

We already have some of the elements in place for a Teaching Associates program, and we have a Social Justice Committee that might be the starting point for a Social Justice Associates program. The Caring Committee would appear to be a logical place to begin with what we have and create something that is more explicit in its ministry component.

The Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland (UULM-MD, uulmmd.org) is a statewide advocacy network that is composed of individual UUs. The primary focus of UULM-MD is on the Maryland General Assembly and the executive branch. Federal issues that coincide with major state issues may be addressed. Partnered with national UU organizations and other like-minded coalitions, UULM-MD provides a voice for UU principles and traditions in the discussions of environmental responsibility and human rights issues. Similar organizations exist in other states as well. Could something like this work in Indiana?

On a national, and when called upon, global, level, The Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry (UUTRM) provides multi-faith and culturally sensitive spiritual care to survivors of mass disasters and other significant trauma. UU Trauma Response Ministry is composed of Unitarian Universalist ministers, lay members of UU congregations and others who respect the vision and beliefs of Unitarian Universalism.  Trained in trauma response, these people desire to assist those involved in traumatic situations. Could a version of this enhance our embodiment of our Principles in Muncie, Delaware County, and Indiana?

And a Conclusion

From "A Vision for Shared Ministry at Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalists" (link to the full text):

Where formerly people may have thought of themselves as "just a volunteer" or one of a nameless group of people performing a task, now, more and more, members of Unitarian Universalist congregations understand that ministry is something shared by all who are part of a spiritual community; a way to put faith into action for the benefit of the church and the wider community.

A Note: Part of what collaborative ministry entails, in my mind, is that the understandings of ministry, UU ministry and collaborative ministry are themselves arrived at collaboratively. I'd welcome any responses you would like to make to what I've outlined here.

[1] Barbara Child, "Lay Leaders and Ministers as Partners: New Ways of Doing Ministry," UU Women's Federation Newsletter, Sept/Oct 1993