What Does Ordination Mean about Church Leadership
Bob Cornwall, author of Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening, has published an extract on ordination (The Biblical Call to Ordained Ministry). I think this would be a good launching pad for a discussion of the nature of ordination and what this means about church polity, if anything.
Read Bob’s post first, but then think about this: Are there any functions of the church that should require the participation of an ordained minister? What are these things? Why does ordination only apply to one called to exercise pastoral gifts? (Does it?)
I made some comments on this topic on my blog this morning: http://henryneufeld.com/threads/2014/08/23/the-priestly-trajectory-in-scripture/. Perhaps that will help get the discussion going!