BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides
Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays
Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers
Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans
My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help

Search "Ministry"

Contents Navigation
 
Not What You Meant?  There are 12 definitions for Ministry.

Ministry

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
About 7 pages (2,002 words)
Ministry Summary

Bookmark and Share Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

Ministry

MINISTRY. The term ministry traditionally refers to offices of leadership in the Christian church, but there has been a growing recognition that it also describes the way the mission of the whole church is conducted. Both in terms of specific offices (ministers) and in terms of the work of the church in general, ministry has biblical roots. In Hebrew, sheret ("to serve") applies to temple officers and was normally translated leitourgein in the Septuagint. This use was carried over into the New Testament, where the various linguistic forms of leitourgein are used not only for general acts of service to others (Rom. 15:27, 2 Cor. 9:12, Phil. 2:30) but also for worship (Acts 13:3) and particularly for priestly and Levitical functions under the Old Covenant (Lk. 1:23; Heb. 8:2, 8:6, 9:21, 10:11). But the New Testament introduced the words diakonia ("service") and diakonein ("to serve"), referring to the menial work done by a diakonos ("servant") or doulos ("slave") to indicate the quality of ministry in the church. These words represent not status but the serving relationship of the minister to the one served: following the example of Christ (and, subsequently, the example of the apostle Paul) is at the heart of the Christian understanding of ministry (Jn.

This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This article contains 2,002 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page).

Read the rest of this Article with our Ministry Access Pass.

Ask any question on Ministry and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
Ministry from Encyclopedia of Religion. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.

Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags




About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy