Yoder, John Howard | The Fullness of Christ

The Fullness of Christ: Paul’s Vision of Universal Ministry
John Howard Yoder *

Paperback: Wipf and Stock, 2019, 116pp.

Introduction

This brief book offers a radical vision of life in church. Drawing upon the scriptural witness and his experience in the Anabaptist tradition, John Howard Yoder makes a compelling case that the ministry of the church is intended to be carried out, not by a small set of ordained clergy, but rather by all members of the congregation. In the book’s first chapter, Yoder asks the question: “Is there one particular office in which there should be only one or a few individuals, for whom it provides a livelihood unique in character due to a ritual of ordination, central to the definition of the church and the key to her functioning?” He then answers this question: “Then the answer from the biblical material is a resounding negation” (6).

This thesis reflects the sort of universal ministry that the Apostle Paul envisioned, and that Yoder references in the book’s subtitle. Despite its brevity, The Fullness of Christ is not a simple read; to make his case for universal ministry, Yoder draws upon somewhat technical examinations of the biblical texts, church history, and the history of biblical interpretation. There is a bit of irony in that much of the background needed to read this book on universal ministry is typically only provided in a seminary education that credentials clergy and that is a vital part of the clergy system. Setting that irony aside, it is well worth the effort for non-clergy to read and understand this book. 

The trajectory of Yoder’s argument for universal ministry is: 1) to examine the widespread nature of the role of the religious specialist across the spectrum of religious traditions; 2) to explore the biblical witness (especially in Paul’s epistles) on this question; 3) to look at early church history and ask how the church deviated from Paul’s vision; 4) to identify positive aspects in the Protestant tradition that begin to mark a shift away from rigid adherence to ordained clergy; 5) to understand how the nature of the church was redefined by the centralization of ministry in the ordained clergy; 6) to address the present challenge of professionalism; and 7) to warn against the dangers both of merely trying to recover the pattern of New Testament Christianity and of being guided by progress in a manner that disregards the witness of church history.

Participatory Worship

Yoder’s thesis, as described above, is primarily a case for participatory worship in the local church. The life and worship of the church is not intended, Yoder argues, to be led by a single pastor, or a small pastoral subset of the church. Rather, every church member is gifted in a particular way to participate in the life and worship of the church body. Yoder draws deeply upon the frequently-used metaphor of the human body in the Pauline epistles (cf. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4) to highlight his point. Ephesians 4, from which the book’s title was drawn, plays an especially important role. He writes:  “The “fullness of Christ” in Ephesians 4:13, or the “whole body working properly” of 4:16, is precisely the correct interrelation of the ministries of 4:11, 12 in line with the divine unity of 4:3-6. It is illegitimate modernizing, individualizing, out of harmony with the whole chapter, to apply the image of growth in 4:13 to the maturation of the Christian individual. The phrases “unity of the faith,” “mature humanity,” and “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” are not descriptions of a well-rounded Christian personality. They designate the divinely coordinated multiple ministry” (15-16).

If the apostle Paul argued for universal ministry, and if it was practiced in the early Christian communities, how did the church lose this practice and come to rely on ordained clergy? Yoder suggests, “The post-Constantinian shift may be the one most linked with the loss of universality [of ministry]: (a) by bringing into the Church multitudes whose religious worldview called for the priest; (b) in that we should not be surprised when churches rebel at the notion that every member is a minister if they have not yet accepted that every member must be a believer” (20).

Radical Kinship

In seeking to tear down the wall between clergy and laity, Yoder’s argument in The Fullness of Christ, promotes a radical kinship in ministry. He takes the apostle Paul’s words seriously: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12: 21). Like all the parts of the human body, every member of the local church community has a vital role to play in life and witness of that congregation. Yoder notes that this radical kinship is rooted in Jesus’s example of servanthood. Jesus did not come to rule, but to serve. Yoder writes: “[It is] Jesus’ role as serving not only God but his disciples, whom he now calls ‘friends’ and ‘brothers,’ which Jesus gives the disciples as model for their own roles, when they are still thinking about ‘which of them would be the greatest’ (according to Luke and John) in a eucharistic setting. … The notion that God himself has renounced rule for servanthood and calls us to do the same (Philippians 2:5-11) is paradoxically a powerful thought. It explodes the categories with which we think about social processes. That is why one of Satan’s most ordinary tricks is to let us continue to use the language of serving as a euphemism for ruling” (67). Yoder reminds us that radical kinship is not just about tearing down walls between those that are deeply divided in the world (Jew and Gentile, male and female, etc.), but also about how we relate to one another in a Christ-like manner. In Christ, there can be no hierarchy, where one person rules over another.

Although it can, at times, be a challenging read, John Howard Yoder’s The Fullness of Christ, is a crucial book for helping us reimagine what it might mean to live the Word. Living and embodying the Word (i.e., Jesus) is a calling for all members of the church – not just ordained clergy – and all have been gifted by God to participate in this work together.

* John Howard Yoder (1927–97) was perhaps the most well-known Mennonite theologian in the 20th century. While his work on Christian ethics helped define Anabaptism to an audience far outside the Mennonite church, he is also remembered for his long-term sexual harassment and abuse of women. This book is recommended with the hope that those studying Yoder’s writings will not dismiss the complexity of these issues and will instead wrestle with, evaluate and learn from Yoder’s work in the full context of his personal, scholarly and churchly legacy. (Adapted from a disclaimer by Herald Press, the primary publisher of Yoder’s books.)

Book summary by C. Christopher Smith