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The Ministry of All Believers

May 19, 2025

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"Not everyone is called to be a clergy person but we believe everyone has a role in building a better world." —The Book of Discipline ¶127

When Christians speak about "calling," many people immediately think of ordained ministry: pastor, priest, deacon, elder, bishop. Words differ across denominations for the people whose vocation is ordination. But, as the Book of Discipline says, "The ministry of clergy and laity is complementary. No minister is subordinate to another." All Christians, lay and ordained, are called to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).

For more than 200 years, Methodists have enthusiastically celebrated and encouraged laypeople's ministries. Today, this tradition continues through church structures which are carefully balanced between the clergy and the laity. Laypeople lead many ministries, great and small, within local church contexts, and many options for formal training in lay service are available. For a Christian called to serving the church outside an ordained context, few Christian traditions offer more opportunities to live out your vocation. 

Have you felt a tug on your heart toward serving the church? Are you unsure of where to start? You are warmly invited to the Lay Servant Ministries Day of Discovery coming up on Saturday, May 31. Until then, explore the resources below, and join us in this prayer.

Holy Spirit, we pray for the vocations of all laypeople. Thank you for generously granting spiritual gifts to each one of your children. Please speak to each person, including myself, with clarity and power. Call each of us to love and service in ways that nourish our souls. And by your work, done through our hands, build your holy kingdom here on earth. Amen.

GENERAL INFORMATION
  • Certified Lay Minister
    • Certified lay ministers (CLMs) are laity who have answered God’s call on their life through a concrete and long-term commitment to the local church. Some CLMs serve as lay pastors of congregations. Others engage in specific ministry projects in their own local church. All CLMs work as part of a ministry team and under the direct supervision of a licensed or ordained pastor. (source)
  • Certified Lay Speaker
    • "The certified lay speaker program exists to train, equip, and support laity who are responding to God’s call through the specialized ministry of preaching." (source)
  • Deaconess / Home Missioner
    • "Deaconesses and Home Missioners are laywomen and laymen who are called by God to be in a lifetime relationship in The United Methodist Church for engagement with a full-time vocation in ministries of love, justice, and service." (source)
  • Global Missionaries
    • "United Methodist missionaries serve in about 60 different countries in many types of professional careers, including as pastors, evangelists and church coordinators; teachers and educators; doctors, nurses and other health workers; agriculturists; development specialists; community organizers and peacebuilders." (source)

“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.”

John Wesley (1703-1791)


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