The Idea of Office -

Kornelis Sietsma

Paideia Press

1985

100 páginas

3h 20m

ISBN-10: 0888150652

"There is much confusion in Christian circles about the relationship of talents and gifts on the one hand to office and authority on the other. It has been suggested that talents are given for carrying
out specific tasks. So the existing gifts determine who should do what in the community. On the basis of the universal priesthood of all believers, everyone should either discharge or be
able to discharge tasks in the institutional church according to his
or her abilities. Reflecting this mentality, a pastor of a small Reformed denomination in North America recently said this: 'The office of all believers has been forgotten... we still cling to the structures of the past, still fearful to stand in the freedom of Christ. Elders cannot bless the congregation; believers cannot administer the sacraments, and women cannot pastor.'
"But what is forgotten here is that God has provided an orderly way in which to serve in the world. God has chosen the ways in which He and our neighbor should be served. Far from being a consequence of having gifts, office is that delegated and limited authority God has apportioned to each area of life. Thus, as Rev. Sietsma says: 'The right to office does not inhere in human qualities... (but) rests in the sovereign disposition of the Lord God alone.' Far from being the basis of office and authority, gifts are the necessary but not sufficient qualifications for leadership."