Lay Ministers

In the LDS faith, the lay ministry refers to the fact that we are all volunteers who can be "called" to different positions of responsibility within the church and we will receive no compensation for our efforts.

 

Er, since this is in CR, I'll pipe in and mention that Baha'is have no ministers or other clergy, which I guess makes us all lay ministers.

We all have different things we're good at and love to do, and there are plenty of places to plug in with the talents you have.

I've worked with children (though I do better with youth), given talks on various subjects, worked with a local interfaith program to on an effort to bring public health assistance to our local immigrant population, spoke at churches who asked us to come in an present something (though really it was more a very brief presentation with lots more dialogue). Oh, and I'll feed anyone anytime. :eat:

Other members of my community are very good at with "pastoral" work like dealing with problems in marriages and families that are struggling, visiting and helping the infirm, and just keeping in contact with everyone.

And there are some that are really top drawer when in comes to building bridges between faith groups. They're perpetually on the scene in interfaith organizations.

There are some that are very active in promoting efforts related to our principles. One principle is the importance of the elimination of prejudice, and so for the years we had the march on Martin Luther King Holiday, the Baha'is were the cosponsor of that march and worked hard to organize and participate in it. MLK Day was always a blast here when they had the march, because Baha'is would fly in from all over to participate, and it was like a huge global reunion party.

There's been an ongoing educational project for some years that assists "at risk" kids in the community by giving them a safe place to stay after school, help with the homework, and if they finish that, they can shoot hoops in the gym, chitchat, read, play games, or whatever else they'd find fun. It's open to anyone, and proselytizing is forbiden anyway, so we get kids from all over.

The African-American youth have a program they designed and run themselves that does great work with helping other youth of African-American descent find their way though the problems they have in this culture. They were inspired by the examples their fathers set for them in their involvement in a group that meets annually called the "Black Men's Gathering." It's definitely a Baha'i group, but is open those of any or no faith. The problems young black men have in this culture run right across any lines of faith. I suppose you might call the young men (now in their mid-20s) who run this program lay ministers.

 

That's a big part of it. I think that, for us, it also means that LDS Bishops and other leaders (even the President of the Church, actually) are not graduates of a divinity school or theological seminary. A lot of people find that very odd, but hey! None of Christ's Apostles were rabbis or or professional students of religion.

 

It's often said that the LDS church has no professional ministry - but the most important part of that is that there is no laity in the LDS church - everyone's a minister

 

I think it's interesting the LDS posters are all over this one. Must mean something to us.

 

We like to attack in packs.

 

We do don't we. I was going to say something, but I guess it's all been covered, so I'll just add my own little bit.

Like most of the others have said, we don't get paid. I worked with children -- I didn't get paid, I now teach sunday school with my husband to other adults -- I don't get paid, I used to play piano for the whole congregation - I didn't get paid for that either.

I'm not sure why other 'mainstream' Christian churches pay their pastors and preachers -- to me, it's a rather odd idea.

 

In the Anglican Communion the laity are all considered ministers of the Church.

From the Book of Common Prayer, the Catechism:

Q: Who are the ministers of the Church?
A: The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.

(Note, the lay persons are everyone besides the other three; thus, everyone is a minister)

Q: What is the ministry of the laity?
A: The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given to them, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.

A couple of points of interest: there are also some specialized services lay persons can perform with training, such as taking the Eucharist to people who are sick, the Stephen Ministry, which is a kind of one-on-one pastoral care ministry, and of course things like children's classes, youth groups, etc., all the usual.

Also, while baptisms are typically and preferably performed by a priest, any baptized lay person can perform a 'legitimate' baptism if the situation warrants.

lunamoth