Through the breathing forth of His Word, wherein the Word is mediated by the power of the Spirit, God creates Church of Jesus Christ as a visible expression of restored fellowship between Himself and humankind. The ministry of the Word is thus creating the Church. But the ministry of the Word cannot be narrowly defined as the verbal exposition of Scripture alone. This was the error of Protestant Scholasticism, which was imprisoned within the paradigm of European modernity. The ministry of the Word involves both audio as well as visual communicative and instructive processes. This is why the Old Testament prophets communicated the “word of the Lord” through the dramatic methods of proverb, drama, and song. The ministry of the Word is therefore a “storying event,” wherein believers are being drawn into- literally baptised into, the biblical story itself. The purpose of the Ministry of the Word must be the personal placement of reader and hearer into the stories of Scripture, for the Spirit seeks to baptise us into and with the biblical story, both literally and existentially.
Monte Lee Rice (© February 2007)
