An essential resource for Catholic clergy and laity alike, this highly praised handbook on ministry is written by Richard P. McBrien, author of the 100,000-copy Catholicism.
Chapter OneWHAT IS MINISTRY?Before reading this chapter, scribble a definition of ministry on a piece of paper. The exercise will show that it's not so easy as it appears on the surface. Ministry encompasses a myriad of functions, but its whole is more than the sum of these functions. (If you write your definition now, you'll be able to check after finishing the chapter to see if it took everything important into account.)Clear-cut definitions of ministry are indeed hard to find. In Bernard Cooke's major work, "Ministry to Word and Sacraments" (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1976), which is more than six hundred double-columned pages, there is no definition of ministry. Instead there's a complete and detailed description of some of its functions: formation of community, proclamation of God's word, service to God's people, service to God's judgment, and celebration of the sacraments.Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., in his first book on the subject, "Ministry: Leadership in the Community of Jesus Christ" (New York: Crossroad/ Continuum, 1981), also provided no explicit definition as such, although he occasionally came close. "Ministry in the church is not a status or state but a service, a function within the 'community of God' and therefore a 'gift of the Holy Spirit"' (p. 37). In a sequel, "The Church With a Human Face: A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry" (New York: Crossroad/ Continuum, 1985), ministry comes to mean for Schillebeeckx both "the specific crystallization of a universal charisma of the spirit" and "a gift of the Spirit reserved for certain Christians with a function in the church" (p. 81).Although Father Schillebeeckx has not given us a usefuldefinition, he has made two important points: (1) ministry is both universal and particular, and (2) ministry is a function, not a state. Both distinctions are crucial--the second even more so than the first. One doesn't become a minister to "become" a minister, that is, to enter the ministerial state. One becomes a minister to "do" ministry, that is, to fulfill the function of a minister.This is not to say that external activity is more important than internal, or spiritual, dispositions. Of course, one must be an authentic Christian before one can effectively do Christian ministry. The more authentically Chr