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| Lovely |
This week I spent some time reading The Institutes of the Christian Religion. By God's grace I made it to the fourth book. According to the author it's about,
"the church and the communion of saints, or of the external means or helps by which God invites us to fellowship with Christ, and keeps us in it."
A few chapters deep in the book, he begins an examination of the government of the Christian church. He duly notes that Scripture makes mention of five offices; Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. (He also mentions a few other offices that scripture reveals.)
However, at some point not long after scripture was written it seems the church decided to create some new offices, and break those which were already instituted by God into smaller increments. After a few pages of reading about them, I really started to think for the first time about just how many offices have been created. It's simply staggering...
After taking some serious thought, I came up with a list of offices.
[Note: Sometimes there are several names for a single position. The offices in this list could be classified as biblical, essential, heretical, comical or even historical. But all have been used at one point or another. Oh, and I readily admit that I probably missed a lot of obvious ones, this is anything but exhaustive, which is more proof of the point.]
Here goes... enjoy!
Group 1
Archbishops
Archpresbyters
Presbyters
Bishops
Priests
Ministers
Prelates
Curates
Clerics
Elders
Rectors
Pastors
Padres
Reverends
Teachers
Schoolmen
Beneficiaries
Parsons
Canons
Chaplains
Abbots
Priors
Mercenaries (The ultra-spiritual who so utterly renounce the world that they have to steal food to live)
Group 2
Archdeacons (if your church doesn't have at least ten arch deacons, you've got problems)
Deacons (divided into those who care for the poor and those who disperse alms)
Subdeacons
Readers (they can read, use them)
Monks
Friars
Group 3
Acolytes (assist bishops)
Clerici (doorkeepers, I am partial to the name Clerici)
Tyros (assist bishops?)
Assortment of Contemporary Positions
Missionaries ( these are now available in short-term, long-term, and life-term options)
Husband and Wife Ministry Teams (Gotta love these, just add a bible, a guitar, and a tambourine...)
Single missionaries (These characters are twice as extreme as Delta force. They don't go on expeditions, they live them)
Assistant Pastors
Youth Pastors
Worship Leaders
Lay pastors and teachers
Itinerant pastors and teachers (Not sure if it's possible to be a faithful pastor if one's an itinerant)
Revivalist
Children ministry leader
...also Christian thinkers, writers, and musicians (These folks might just have the most influence)
Other Archaic/Roman Offices
Collators (sounds like an option on a Xerox photocopier/printer)
Pontiff (aka, The Pope)
Vicars
Deans (Deaneries?) (It's so much more than a university position)
Provosts
Cardinals
Inquisitors (If you're a time traveler, don't mess with these dudes; trust me, it's not a survey. Avoid Spain, Goa, etc.)
Future Offices
Someday when the church becomes even more democratic we will probably create some new offices. In reality there won't be anything 'new' about them, but they will have new names.
President/Prime minister/Secretary General of the universal church (It's the old Pontiff in a new way!)
Note: The former title is already claimed by private ministry leaders
Sheriff (Executes and enforces church justice over a certain district)
Member of Parliament/
Senator/
Congressman (These fellows interpret scripture, and make or repeal church laws, for the universal church)
Can you think of some more?
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