As Baptists we believe in the theology of ‘the priesthood of all believers’. But what exactly does that phrase mean - and where should the minister sit? By Ed Kaneen & Craig Gardiner 

 

I was recently speaking to a friend who recalled his childhood in a Baptist church in a very well-to-do area of town. He remembered asking why some worshippers sat in the balcony while others sat on the ground floor. The answer came back that those in the balcony were in service or domestics in the large houses nearby. Even as a small child, he felt the injustice of this ‘two tier congregation’. 

We might recoil at this today. But is there not something like it in the enduring distance between clergy and congregation? So, does God really intend a two-tier church? Is the ‘call for all’ the same as the ‘call for some’? Baptists have traditionally said ‘no’, and have offered instead a theology of ‘the priesthood of all believers’. But what exactly does that phrase mean? And where, we might ask, should the minister sit? 
 

The Priesthood of All Believers 

The ‘priesthood of all believers’ is one of our most cherished doctrines. One recent writer says that, ‘There is no more basic belief to Baptists than the idea of the priesthood of the believers’.  A dramatic overstatement, or an illustration of how important this doctrine has been to us? 

Reformer Martin Luther was concerned to break down the distinction between a class of clergy (ordained as priests and popes in apostolic succession) and a class of laity (the rest of us). This distinction was anathema to Luther, ‘all Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them except that of office.’ The argument was taken up by others, including the English Separatist and early Baptist leader John Smyth (c.1554–1612), and Baptists have been among its most committed custodians ever since. 
 

The Priesthood of the Whole People of God 

The doctrine emerged chiefly from two New Testament books: 1 Peter (2:5, 9) and Revelation (1:6; 5:10), though we might also draw on Hebrews 10:19-25. Both borrow themes and images from the Old Testament, here alluding to a key text in Exodus 19:6. After the people have been rescued from slavery in Egypt, and as they are receiving the covenant on Mount Sinai, God declares, “you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation”. Notice that God’s word is spoken to a collective group of people. It is together that they bear the testimony of God’s saving acts, and together they will witness to God’s faithful love as they live out the Law. They are distinctive, in the sense that, like priests, they have a particular role of representation — to God and to the nations. 

Yet clearly they are not all priests in the sense of serving in the Tabernacle or Temple. They have not all been anointed, they do not all wear the vestments, and they are not all Aaron’s sons (Exodus 28:1). Therefore, this ‘priesthood of the nation’ is a characteristic of their witness and worship, rather than a particular liturgical role. Joel Green makes the same point about the oft-quoted verses in 1 Peter, ‘[the] emphasis is not on the priestly role of each believer but on the priestly identity of God’s people. … not … within the community of believers, but … in the world-at-large.’  

Therefore, like Old Testament Israel, it is God’s new covenant people — The Church — that performs a priestly function in the world. But the New Testament takes this idea a step further. As Koester says about the texts in Revelation, ‘What changes is that this priesthood is extended to the redeemed from every people and nation.’  There is no longer an ethnic exclusivity to this priesthood, but it is extended to all through the work and gospel of Christ. If we may mix biblical metaphors, the church has a priestly identity precisely because it is the ‘body of Christ’, representing the presence and purpose of our ‘Great High Priest’ (Hebrews 4:14) in God’s world. 

All this may seem to have taken us a long way from what we typically mean by ‘the priesthood of all believers’, but it brings us closer to our Baptist Declaration of Principle (DoP): that Christ is the absolute authority (‘Great High Priest’), and that every disciple is to bear witness (‘a royal priesthood’). Martin Luther, following Augustine, even spoke of the ‘ordination’ to this priesthood as baptism, ‘whoever comes out of the water of baptism can boast that he [sic] is already consecrated priest, bishop, and pope’. This baptismal conviction sits at the heart of the DoP too. 

 

The Ministry of Some Believers 

Embedded in the basis of our Union, then, is the ‘priesthood of all believers’. Which raises the obvious question: what, then, is a ‘minister’? If together we are ‘priests’, with a priestly ‘ministry’, what is the role for the ‘minister’ or ‘pastor’ or ‘elder’ or whatever term we prefer? 

For Baptists there is no functional difference between a ‘minister’ and any other church member. In principle, any Christian could preach, preside at communion, baptise, visit the sick, or share their faith. Nor is there a status difference. A ‘minister’ is no more important among God’s people than others, nor has a privileged access to God. 

And yet the churches of the New Testament and the Baptist tradition have always set apart or appointed ‘leaders’ to provide oversight to a congregation and particular ‘ministries’. Ephesians 4:11 is just one example. Early Baptists disagreed about whether such ‘oversight’ belonged to one church or extended across multiple churches — much as we distinguish Recognised Local Ministers and Accredited Ministers today. 

But that we need such leadership is not in doubt. The word ‘leader’ is another matter. 
 

The Service of All Ministers 

For some Baptists ‘leader’ can be a loaded term, and one that is generally avoided in the New Testament. Left unexamined it too readily conjures the authoritative man (often) who leads from the front. There is wisdom to be gained from modern thinking about leadership, but we are ill-advised to ‘baptise’ uncritically ideas that operate by a very different grammar than the way of Christ. Tellingly, the first Christians reached for a word drawn from Jesus’ own teaching: diakonia, service rendered on behalf of another. ‘Minister’ is simply a translation of diakonos, a servant or go-between. 

The question then, is not so much whether we have leaders, rather how they lead. In Mark 10:35–45 (and Luke 22) and John 13:2–17, Jesus turns leadership upside down compared to the existing ‘models’: it is to be marked by service, self-giving and sacrifice, on behalf of God. That does not mean ministers will never guide, teach or give focus to a church’s life — but that they will do so in the likeness of the church’s true leader, Christ the Lord. 
 

The Ministry of Some for the Ministry of all 

It would be arrogant to think the church today no longer needs leaders, and ungrateful to reject the gift of ministers Christ gives to his church (see Ephesians 4:8, 11). We badly need those whom Christ calls to serve as ‘ministers’, to train them in skills and form them in character, equip them, respect them, and enable them to serve to the fullness of their calling. But this ministry is derived from the ministry of Christ and the ministry of his Church. The ‘priestly’ witness of Christ’s body is to be lived-out in schools, garages, care homes, shops, families, delivery vans, hairdressers, day centres, pubs, choirs and football clubs as well as in churches. Those called as ‘ministers’ enable this wider ministry of the church — teaching, encouraging, caring, praying and inspiring God’s people who together share in Christ’s gospel ministry of love to the world. 

An imperfect parallel may help. I can apply a plaster to a graze. But I would be ill-advised to attempt open heart surgery. Someone trained for years in such operations is a different matter — and it’s not just about technical skill. When a student becomes a doctor, they change identity. They don’t become a different person, nor can they do anything with a greater ability than on the day before. But they are now authorised and recognised as a doctor — by others, and by themselves — and that, in time, will change who they are. The concerns of doctors become their concerns; the commitments of doctors, their commitments. Anyone can attend to a medical need, but not everyone is a doctor. 

So it is with ministers. Those who are called, formed, trained and appointed (whether we name it ‘ordination’ or something else), grow into an identity as bearers of Christ’s word and example. This takes nothing away from the ministry of the whole body; it simply gives particular attention to ministry within the body. 
 

The Witness of All Believers 

In our present age of deepening division, the priesthood of all believers offers a powerful witness to a different way of being. In a two-tiered world, the church can offer a coming together of diversity: diverse classes, ethnicities, genders, nationalities, languages and whatever else divides – for we are all one in Christ Jesus. But this shared priesthood also needs the living testimony of those called to lead by Christ’s example and teaching.  

Jesus, it seems, would have been sitting in the balcony, and invites others to join him. Do you hear Christ’s voice calling you? How will you respond? 

 

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Craig Gardiner is a Tutor in Christian Doctrine and College Chaplain at Cardiff Baptist College; and Ed Kaneen is the Principal of Cardiff Baptist College

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