by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Yes! They are not the only ministers in the church, but they minister in a certain way; they serve in teaching and edifying the church’s role. They minister the gospel to the lost and the saved. That is a certain way <\/b>of ministering, but the average church member is a minister in other ways. So, while preachers are ministers, they are not the only ministers in the church. All minister or serve the Lord and His church in various ways. So, don’t think of preachers as the only ministers, but think of them as ministers in a certain capacity. They feed the souls they teach, and that serves or ministers to people in a certain way, but there are other ways to minister (Romans12:6-7). You can cut an elderly member’s grass, and that makes you a minister in that way. You can serve others, wash feet, or help others in various ways, and that means you are a minister. So, don’t think of preachers as the only ministers, but don’t overstate the case that preachers are not ministers.<\/p>\n
Paul was a minister inasmuch as he served the souls of people by his preaching and teaching of the gospel. He has an apostle\/preacher “ministry”.<\/p>\n
“For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry<\/em>” (Romans 11:13).<\/p>\n
“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart<\/em>” (II Corinthians 4:1).<\/p>\n
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation<\/em>” (II Corinthians 5:18-19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, if you labor to get souls reconciled<\/em> back to God, you are a minister serving in the effort. All teachers and preachers of the gospel are serving souls by trying to get people reconciled to God. Thus, all teachers and preachers of the gospel have a “ministry of reconciliation<\/em>.”<\/p>\n
“We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God<\/em>” (II Corinthians 6:3-4).<\/p>\n
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry<\/em>” (I Timothy 1:12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul told Timothy that his service was his ministry as an evangelist. So, evangelism is ministry,\u00a0and an evangelist is a minister.<\/p>\n
“But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:5-6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Every member serves and ministers in some capacity. Some have a more specialized area of ministry, and so we need to remember that and think of our various assortment of ministers in various ways.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton Yes! They are not the only ministers in the church, but they minister in a certain way; they serve in teaching and edifying the church’s role. They minister the gospel to the lost and the saved. That is a certain way of ministering, but the average church member is a minister…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[72,1511],"class_list":["post-68235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-ministers","tag-preachers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-a-congregation-go-about-selecting-another-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":0},"title":"How should a congregation go about selecting another preacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering if I could get your advice on selecting a pulpit minister. Our minister stepped down due to fleshly and worldly desires, like Demas \"having loved this present world.\" We have an interim minister at this time. We have other ministers who sent resumes but didn't have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54626,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-appoints-men-to-be-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":1},"title":"Who appoints men to be preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for helping not just me but also the churches where there is a slight misunderstanding on this Evangelist subject. Please bear with me in coming to you again, for I want to understand clearly. You said in\u00a0Preachers: Ordination The idea of ordination is to choose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41662,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-some-use-titles\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":2},"title":"Why do some use titles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother Hamilton. Hope you're doing well. I have a question that pertains to \"titles\" given to those in position in the church and mainly I'm speaking on preachers and the title that some give themselves such as reverend, pastor, evangelist, etc. Now, I read some of your articles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-the-reason-denominations-want-married-preachers-is-because-they-confuse-the-office-of-an-elder-with-that-of-the-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":3},"title":"Isn’t the reason denominations want married preachers is because they confuse the office of an elder with that of the preacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to make a comment about\u00a0requiring preachers to be married. I have taken note that the denominations do not generally adhere to scriptural church leadership, and instead of a plurality of elders, they have a board of deacons and one 'elder' or 'pastor,' who also serves as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-elders-responsible-for-the-employment-of-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":4},"title":"Are elders responsible for the employment of preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoyed and appreciated your article on\u00a0the work of the evangelist.\u00a0 I find it quite different from many by what you might consider institutional churches of Christ. I am concerned about the final paragraph on the selection of the minister.\u00a0 As I understand first-century history,\u00a0 many preachers were involved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28918,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-in-charge-the-preacher-or-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":68235,"position":5},"title":"Who is in charge, the preacher or the elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I'm forced to ask this question: between the ministers and the elders, who is in charge of a local congregation? Where that I am, there is a serious power tussle between the two. The ministers say, since they teach the men to become elders and also ordain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}