Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 1987

Abstract

Any discussion of the ministry of the baptized eventually reaches a point where someone asks, “If all the baptized are ministers, then why and how do we distinguish between the ministry of clergy and laity?” One promising answer begins, “The clergy have a public ministry....” The unspoken half of that answer, seldom said, but powerfully lived out in contemporary capitalistic cultures is, “The laity’s ministry is private.” This response constricts the scope of the gospel and plays into the contemporary gulf between the public and private dimensions of our lives.

Publication Title

Word & World

ISSN

0275-5270

Publisher

Luther Seminary

Volume

7

Issue

4

First Page

353

Last Page

360

Published Citation

Keifert, Patrick R. “A Public Ministry by All the Baptized.” Word & World 7, no. 4 (September 1987): 353–60.

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