I home roasted the beans in my garage two days ago. I started home roasting ten years ago. Because I home roast, I do not get chicory or other fillers. I also enjoy reading about the regions of the world where my beans grow, such as Ethiopia, Guatemala or Sumatra.
Roasting coffee is a science and an art. One must have certain ingredients, equipment and knowledge (beans, roaster and the ability to follow directions). After burning a few batches and finally perfecting the roast, one can adapt a roast to suit – light roast, full-bodied or dark.
Exercising ministry, like home roasting, is also a science and an art. One attains knowledge by studying biblical, sacramental, moral theology and so on. After a few years at a seminary or university, one is prepared to work in a local congregation, hospital, school or elsewhere. Like other professionals, that is the science.
Art is producing or expressing something beautiful or appealing, according to aesthetic principles. In ministry, what one attempts to accomplish is art. When one proclaims the Word of God, chants a psalm or delivers a sermon, one expresses these words with greater appeal than reciting names from a phone book. When one visits infirmed members in the hospital, grieving families at the funeral home or despondent individuals in prison, one reminds the visited that God is present through his loving words and gestures, thus stirring the embers of hope. When one explains Luther’s Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed or the Book of Concord, one does it with a spiritual conviction that deepens another’s relationship with Christ and the Church. Even when one bakes a meal, sets up chairs or assembles worship aids, one is exercising ministry.
St. Paul reminds us that each one who ministers has different gifts but all from the same God (1 Cor 12:4-6). All – whether or not trained as professional ministers – are needed in the faith community. For, together, we are more than a collection of individuals. We are a “chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people purchased to be God's possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). In his essay The Priesthood of Believers and the Divine Service, Dr. George Wollenburg writes, “Individual members of the priesthood receive their identity when the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is put upon them. The nature and character of the royal priesthood is that of a community or society. The identity of each member of the priesthood is determined by his or her relationship to the community in which God lives with his Spirit (Eph. 2:22).”
How do you exercise ministry? Are you expressing something beautiful for others from the gifts God gave you? Ponder that over a cup of coffee.
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