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Leading from the liturgy
Ordained ministers as facilitators of a communal process of 
interpretation

Rein den Hertog
Rein den Hertog is a minister of the Word in Amsterdam for the Christelijke Gere-
formeerde Kerken in Nederland (CGKN). He is also chair of the commission of 
home missions of the CGKN. Currently he is pursuing a PhD-research at the Vrije 
Universiteit in Amsterdam on Reformed theology of ministry from the perspective of 
the missio Dei.

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the reflection on ecclesial ministry from the 
perspective of the missio Dei. The gateway chosen is the unconventional image 
of ecclesial ministry as depicted in the Polish film Corpus Christi. Jan Komasa, 
the director, paints the protagonist as a facilitator of a communal process of 
interpretation and reconciliation through which the core of the gospel becomes 
concretely visible in social reality. This cinematographic portrayal of ecclesial 
ministry is then used to look at the situation regarding ministry in a small 
Reformed denomination in the Netherlands. The issues highlighted in Corpus 
Christi also play a role in these churches. To see if the imagination of Corpus 
Christi can also be made fruitful for thinking through a Reformed theology 



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of ministry, two steps are then taken. First, it will be shown that within the 
Reformed tradition there are starting points for the view of the ordained min-
ister as a facilitator the process of interpretation. Then, using the thoughts of 
Michael Moynagh, the article explores how this vision of ministry can be made 
fruitful for the current missionary situation in the West. The article concludes 
with three elements needed to implement the image of the ordained minister as 
an interpretive guide.

Keywords: Homelessness; Corpus Christi; Film; Interpretive guide; Michael 
Moynagh; Ordained ministry

 Introduction

In the Polish film Corpus Christi director Jan Komasa tells the story of Daniel, 
a young convict who is paroled and sent to a rural village to work in the local 
lumber mill. Once Daniel arrives in the village, however, he poses as a clergy-
man and is asked to replace the old pastor who is ill and must temporarily 
leave the village for treatment. Although he initially accepts his new “calling” 
hesitantly, Daniel gradually grows into his role and becomes a beloved pastor.

The strength of Daniel’s ministry manifests itself particularly in his unorth-
odox handling of the drama that has recently taken place in the village. About a 
year before his arrival, a terrible car accident occurred in which seven villagers 
were killed. Six young people, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and 
an adult villager with a history of drinking had collided head-on. The tragedy 
created a deep rift between the parents of the adolescents and the widow of the 
solo driver. This rift is reflected in the fact that the driver’s body is not buried in 
the village cemetery and his picture does not hang at a memorial in the middle 
of the village.

Initially, Daniel encounters great resistance when he brings up the acci-
dent and the underlying accusations, but by the end of the film it appears that 
his unconventional approach has resulted in a (beginning of) reconciliation 
between the widow of the solo driver and the parents of the other victims. 
Unfortunately for Daniel, he has already been exposed at that point and must 
return to the detention centre to face his own demons.1

1 The violent ending of the film is puzzling. Once back in the prison, a bloody struggle 
unfolds between Daniel and another prisoner who is targeting him. Daniel gets the upper 



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53

Corpus Christi lends itself to various interpretations and can be understood 
in different ways. For example, the film can be seen in light of the contemporary 
post-modern search for identity, with Daniel struggling to define who he is. For 
the purposes of this article, however, I would like to take a different approach 
and read the film as an entry point for reflection on the Reformed theology of 
ministry from the perspective of the missio Dei. It may not seem very sensible to 
begin an article on the Reformed theology of ministry by discussing a motion 
picture about a Roman Catholic pseudo-priest, but I am convinced that Corpus 
Christi can be helpful in imagining what (Reformed) ordained ministry can 
mean in today’s post-Christian culture.

 Route

The route of this article is as follows: After briefly reflecting on the main issues 
emerging from Corpus Christi, I want to turn my attention to the Reformed 
denomination to which I belong, the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken in 
Nederland (CGKN).2 With the imagination of Corpus Christi in mind, I briefly 
reflect on the main challenges of ordained ministry in these churches. Then, 
with the fruits of this in view, I pause for a moment to consider the historical 
roots of the Reformed theology of ministry, to see if there are historical starting 
points for further reflection. I will then return to the present and give my atten-
tion to what Michael Moynagh writes about missional leadership. I conclude 
by describing some steps that I believe are needed to improve the practice of 
Reformed ordained ministry in a post-Christian context.

hand in this struggle but is pulled away from the fight by one of his fellow inmates before 
fatally injuring his opponent. Daniel later manages to escape from the prison. Opinions differ 
on the interpretation of this final scene. Does Komasa want to show that reality is more unruly 
than the ideal as it took shape in the Polish village? Or is the emphasis on the fact that Daniel 
finally escapes his prison? However, since it is not directly relevant to the subject of this article, 
I will not go into it further.

2 The CGKN is a relatively small Reformed denomination with approximately 70,000 
members and 181 congregations spread over the Netherlands. Its origins lay in the secession 
movement of 1834 (Dutch: Afscheiding), but it was not until 1892 that the CGKN was formed 
in response to the emergence of the Dutch Reformed Churches (GKN) under the leadership 
of Abraham Kuyper. Confessionally, the CGKN are based upon the so-called Three forms of 
unity: the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dordt). Spiritually 
the CGKN are characterized by a pietistic slant based on historical affiliation with the 
spirituality of the “Further Reformation” that emphasized the personal appropriation of faith.



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 Issues from Corpus Christi

I suggest there are three main areas of concern that emerge from Corpus Christi.

Mechanical vs authentic ministry

First, director Jan Komasa paints a sorry picture of the state of church ministry. 
The pastor who is to be temporarily replaced by Daniel is an unhealthy old man 
who has fallen into the clutches of alcohol and has a cynical view of his own 
parish, which he sees as mostly made up of villagers who do not believe and 
only go to church out of habit. In addition, it is precisely at the instigation of the 
old priest that the village turns a blind eye to the unprocessed trauma and the 
underlying reproaches. It was his idea not to bury the solo driver in the local 
cemetery and not to hang the picture of him with those of the other victims. 
The subtext is clear: the church and the pastor are unwilling and incompetent to 
deal with the real issues of the village and are there merely as irrelevant “givens”. 
Even the rituals in the church are accompanied by computerized electronics 
that leave little room for spontaneity and authenticity. The film presents the 
image of a church and ministers struggling with their relevance.

In the face of this sad state of church ministry, Daniel embodies a very dif-
ferent form of priesthood. For one thing, Daniel cannot be caught performing 
formal rituals in a mechanical manner, but rather his actions are characterized 
by a high degree of spontaneity and impulsiveness. Thus, Komasa creates the 
image of a priest, albeit a pseudo one, who is not caught up in mechanical ritu-
als and procedures but, on the contrary, consciously embodies the message of 
the Bible and church rituals.

(Ir)relevance?

The second, and most pressing, issue runs from this. The old pastor was unable 
or even unwilling to tackle the great unprocessed trauma and the underlying 
mutual accusations of his fellow villagers. The church is located in the middle of 
the village but its minister dodges the problem in the heart of the community. 
In fact, the old pastor’s sigh about the unbelief of the villagers is a self-fulfilling 
prophecy: how can they possibly believe in the power of the gospel of reconcili-
ation when the church itself is giving it a wide berth by neglecting the deep rift 
within the community?



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55

In the person of Daniel, it is evident that things can also be different. In 
many ways he is not an exemplary pastor: he smokes, uses soft drugs, drinks 
and has sexual intercourse; but when it comes to the core of the gospel, he does 
not compromise. Regularly Komasa portrays Daniel as a Christ figure, suggest-
ing that in the young ex-convict, unlike the old pastor, something of the gospel 
does become visible. Daniel addresses the pain and the irreconcilability, even 
if he encounters resistance in doing so. He does not shy away from publicly 
confronting the villagers with their own dirt-spewing letters toward the widow 
of the solo driver. Even when the mayor calls him to order he does not want to 
give in, yet for the sake of a much-needed reconciliation, he is willing to risk his 
own status and person. The result is that Daniel, as a facilitator of the reconcili-
ation process in the village, ensures that the gospel is not only heard, but also 
becomes visible in reconciled relationships. Daniel’s ministry serves a vision of 
the good life where reconciliation in mutual relationships is central and social 
exclusion is combated. Christian faith according to Daniel is not an individual 
matter focused on the inner psychological state but serves the good of the com-
munity (Marsh, 2018: 167, 170).

Liturgical

A third element offered by Corpus Christi is the fact that Komasa does not dis-
miss church rituals as irrelevant, but rather has the most crucial moments take 
place right around the sacramental acts. Confession, Baptism, Extreme Unc-
tion and the Eucharist all occur as pivotal moments when the villagers come to 
deeper understanding. This eventually culminates in the Mass celebration after 
the funeral of the solo driver during which actual reconciliation within the vil-
lage begins to take shape. In Daniel’s hands, the rituals and sacraments are not 
formal acts, but visible expressions of the gospel. From the liturgical embedding 
of ministry, Daniel allows the gospel to spread far and wide throughout the 
community of the village.

Summing up

Komasa’s Corpus Christi provides a good entry point for thinking about ecclesial 
ministry. Although the protagonist Daniel is not in any way working toward a 
preconceived plan, he is clearly leading the community in an interpretive pro-
cess in which the scope and impact of the gospel of reconciliation becomes 



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56

concretely visible in the restoration of damaged relationships. Daniel, as some-
one who has personally experienced the dark side of life, acts from a vision of 
the good life and tries to bring the community along with him. He does this 
by giving himself to the community of the village and by confronting them 
– through proclamation, sacramental rituals and personal attention (pastoral 
care) – with issues that undermine the good life of the community. Remark-
ably enough, Daniel never makes an explicit call to reconciliation, and nowhere 
does he give an order for rapprochement, but he lets the parishioners take the 
step to reconciliation themselves. He does not force, but invites to participate 
in the process of reconciliation, though sometimes rather clumsily. From the 
liturgy, Daniel is a facilitator of the communal process of interpretation.

 The situation in the CGKN

I now focus on the situation of the denomination to which I myself, as a minis-
ter of the Word, belong: the Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. 
Does the picture of the church painted in Corpus Christi also apply to the 
CGKN? And could Daniel’s unconventional approach also represent a possible 
way forward within the tradition of the CGKN? In doing so, it must of course 
be remembered that this denomination belongs to a different church tradition 
than the Roman Catholic parish of Corpus Christi.

Irrelevance

In 2021 Jan van ’t Spijker published a study of the CGKN in which he specifi-
cally sought an answer to the question of whether and how the structure of the 
denomination served its calling to bear witness to the gospel. Spijker focuses his 
research on the question to what extent the concept of missio Dei is reflected in 
the concrete ecclesiology of the CGKN. It is precisely this emphasis on missio 
Dei that makes his research relevant to this article, since the concept explicitly 
calls attention to what “God is doing in and beyond the church in His rec-
reational renewing works” and therefore “theology must develop an openness 
which reflects on what God is doing in the world, in the existing culture and 
in society, through the Spirit” (Spijker, 2012: 191). In other words: the church 
should not only focus on the individual salvation of believers, but should 
instead focus on concrete realities of culture and society in order to connect 
with the work of God there.



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In his research, however, Spijker clearly shows that the CGKN is charac-
terized precisely by a strong pietistic undertone in which the focus is primarily 
on “individual, spiritual (non-physical), post-mortem categories” and in which 
“physical and communal aspects of salvation that are already taking place in 
today’s world are only secondary” (2012: 190).3

Spijker’s observations align with the belief that the concept of missio Dei 
frees churches from an unhealthy focus on their own survival and, on the 
contrary, directs them towards the concrete well-being of the context in which 
they have been given a place. Where churches are guided by the missio Dei 
perspective, they are also explicitly focused on the flourishing of their context 
(cf. Niemandt, 2020).

However, there seems to be a real danger that the CGKN, through its indi-
vidualistic and spiritual focus – by analogy with the church in Corpus Christi – 
will make itself irrelevant to the surrounding culture by avoiding the questions 
of society and culture. Where in Corpus Christi the problems of the surround-
ing culture and society became very concretely visible in a collective unpro-
cessed trauma resulting in an additional irreconcilable separation between 
fellow villagers, there the questions for the CGKN are perhaps somewhat less 
specific, but certainly no less urgent. I am thinking of the questions in the areas 
of sexuality, gender, economic justice and ecology.4 When the CGKN does not 
address the issues in these (sub)areas, irrelevance is lurking. Only by addressing 
these questions can the CGKN contribute to the good life of the church and its 
context.

3 Spijker acknowledges the fact that there is a clear line from the pietistic perspective 
to social and diaconal engagement. However, because it is not linked to a theology of the 
kingdom and is associated with a one-sided perception of the eschatological tension between 
the “already” and the “not yet”, this pietistic slant, according to him, leads to an individual, 
spiritual (non-physical) and post-mortem conception of salvation.

4 The issue of gender is a sensitive one within the CGKN. In the week after Easter 2022, 
the synod of the CGKN met and made the decision not to open ecclesial ministry to women. 
This caused a wave of outrage within a great part of the CGKN. Regarding ecology, I refer 
to Paul Schrader’s 2017 the film First Reformed of Paul Schrader from 2017 which tells the 
story of pastor Ernst Toller who is confronted with a climate activist in his small congregation. 
In addition to the personal struggles this brings, the film also exposes the impotence of the 
church to speak out in this area.



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Wrestling with ministry

The film Corpus Christi can be interpreted as a stimulus to rethink the task and 
form of ordained ministry in the church. The image of the impotent and sick 
pastor is symbolic of a powerless and weak ecclesial ministry. This need for 
reorientation is felt within the CGKN as well. At the synod of 2019 there were 
no less than ten (partial) reports that dealt to a greater or lesser degree with the 
question of the essence and form of ecclesial ministry.5 These reports range 
from fundamental reflection on ecclesial ministry to some practical issues. 
From the reports the picture emerges that within the CGKN about ecclesial 
ministry there is a struggle with concepts like authority, calling, representation, 
collegiality, and the priesthood of all believers. Also, in several reports the call is 
made to think through ecclesial ministry explicitly from the missio Dei.

There is not enough space here to deal with all the reports mentioned sep-
arately, but the picture is clear: within the CGKN there is a great deal of uncer-
tainty regarding ecclesial ministry, and this uncertainty is explicitly related to 
the need to rethink theology of ministry from the perspective of the missio Dei. 
If this uncertainty is not addressed, ecclesial ministry within the CGKN also 
risks a high degree of irrelevance.

Liturgical rooting

In Corpus Christi, church rituals are the key moments when people come to an 
understanding or there is a breakthrough in the process of reconciliation. Eccle-
sial ministry and the (liturgical) rituals of the church are closely connected. The 
uniqueness and the expressive power of ministry is visible in a condensed way 
in the sacraments.6

This can easily be interpreted as an underlining of the current cultural 
need for rituals, but from a theological perspective there is also much to be 
said for it. After all, within most church traditions, ecclesial ministry and the 
ministry of sacraments are closely linked. Recently the synod of the CGKN 
pronounced that the ministry of the offices was fully reserved for the ministers 

5 9.35 p.85-93 cie 7 rapport 13 ambten, retrieved from: https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/ 
(download date: September 26, 2022).

6 Roman Catholic sacramental theology and the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments 
differ widely. However, due to limited space, I will not elaborate on that in this article.

https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/


Rein den Hertog—Leading from the liturgy

59

of the Word.7 In doing so, the synod was loyal to the Reformed tradition in 
which from the beginning the right to minister the sacraments was reserved for 
ordained ministers.

The term liturgical rooting will not be immediately associated with a 
Reformed theology of the offices, yet there is ample reason to maintain this 
wording. However, it must be kept in mind that, from an ecumenical point of 
view, liturgy does not only refer to the ministry of the sacraments, but to the 
whole of the proclamation of the Word and the administration of sacraments 
(Baptism, Euchairst, and Ministry E §27; Borght, 2007: 230; Koffeman, 2014: 
85-6).

Summing up

Looking through the spectacles of Corpus Christi at the CGKN, it is striking that 
many of the struggles are shared. The looming irrelevance of the church that 
fails to address the questions at hand stands out most, but so do the uncertain-
ties around the essence and form of ecclesial ministry. Komasa’s film is helpful 
in visualizing challenges that lie behind the formal language of church reports. 
Also, his emphasis on the ritual concentration of ecclesial ministry aligns with 
the Reformed belief that ordained ministry and administration of the sacra-
ments belong together.

The question that remains open is whether Komasa’s portrayal of ministry 
can be made fruitful for the CGKN. Of course, I do not mean to suggest that 
ministers within the church should engage in drinking, drugs, tobacco and 
extramarital sex. Instead, I am referring to the way Daniel, in his capacity as a 
priest, leads the community in a process of awareness and reconciliation.

The image of the minister as a facilitator of the communal interpretation 
process is far removed from the role currently assigned to ministers within the 
CGKN. With some exaggeration it can be said that ministers within the CGKN 
are trained to shape the interpretation- and embodiment-process on their own. 
The interpretation of the gospel and its relevance to the community is a matter 
for the pastors who, as ministers of the Word, expound the Word from the pul-
pit. The community’s role in listening to Scripture is generally limited to atten-
tive listening during worship services. Of course, there are occasional sermon 

7 https://www.rd.nl/artikel/971399-mogen-cgk-ouderlingen-straks-sacramenten-
bedienen.

https://www.rd.nl/artikel/971399-mogen-cgk-ouderlingen-straks-sacramenten-bedienen
https://www.rd.nl/artikel/971399-mogen-cgk-ouderlingen-straks-sacramenten-bedienen


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discussions and various topics are addressed at various Bible study groups, but 
by and large the interpretation is on the preacher’s desk. It is not without reason 
that people often speak of a solo-pastor and a pastor’s church (Dutch: domi-
neeskerk). Is it any wonder that when the community has hardly any role in the 
interpretation process, the church members feel little involved and can get the 
feeling that the church is a pastor’s hobby? Is it any wonder that the minister has 
a somewhat cynical view of the congregation when the congregation is merely 
a passive listener?

 Historical starting points

There are, as is my suggestion, sufficient starting points within the Reformed 
tradition to think about a different interpretation of ordained ministry. I will 
mention two examples from the early days of the Reformed tradition.

Martin Bucer’s Strasbourg ideal

The first example is the Christian communities in Strasbourg that existed under 
the leadership of Martin Bucer from 1547. Bucer and his colleagues had until 
then always moved within the line of what was expected of the church within 
the sacral community of the pre-modern city state. This loyalty meant a break 
with Roman Catholic hierarchical ecclesiology on the one hand. On the other 
hand, however, the magistracy was afraid of too many anabaptist influences, 
leaving Bucer and his fellow church men little room to shape to the church 
as a community in which the priesthood of all believers was given concrete 
form. From 1547, Bucer therefore decided to form small-scale communities 
of dedicated believers within the existing church structure (see Bellardi, 1934; 
Spijker, 1996: 309ff.).

These small communities embodied the ecclesiastical ideal of Bucer. In a 
letter from 1547 in which he countered some objections against the Christian 
communities in Strasbourg, Bucer laid out what he had in mind. Based upon 
Ephesians 4 he emphasized that the building of the community is not only a 
prerogative of ordained ministry, but of the entire congregation. Therefore, 
there should not only be public meetings in which the gospel is preached by 
the ministers of the Word, but also specific gatherings of the community in 
which every member can share the spiritual gifts they received according to 
1 Corinthians 14 (Spijker, 1996: 331).



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The picture that emerges is that of small communities of dedicated mem-
bers who were united in a communal process of spiritual discernment. Inter-
pretation of scripture was not confined to ordained ministry but a feature of the 
entire congregation as a community of interpretation.

Łaski’s Strangers’ church

A second example concerns the so-called Strangers’ church in London under 
the leadership of John Łaski. This Strangers’ church formed a remarkable phe-
nomenon on the Reformed landscape of Europe in the 16th century. Whereas 
other Reformed churches (such as Strasbourg and Geneva) were largely depen-
dent on the whims of the city councils, the Strangers’ church enjoyed a large 
degree of independence. This fact, combined with the fact that the members of 
the congregation joined voluntarily, gives the Stranger’s church a unique posi-
tion, which moreover has more in common with the current church situation 
in Western Europe, than the people’s churches in Strasbourg and Geneva (see 
Becker, 2007; Muylaert, 2021; Pettegree, 1986; Springer, 2007).

Also, in the Strangers’ church the community was fully involved in the 
interpretation process. Here I am thinking mainly of the so-called Prophetia. 
For example, the French-speaking part of the congregation met every Tuesday 
for faith instruction in their own language. At the beginning of the meeting, a 
pastor, an elder, or another designated member of the congregation explained a 
text from the Bible. After this person finished his explanation, another member 
would follow, also explaining the portion, who in turn would be followed by 
the next. This went on until there was no one left to give explanations. The 
meeting was then closed by the one who had opened it. According to Łaski, the 
abundance of spiritual gifts was evident in the many Scripture explanations and 
the resulting warnings and consolations.8

The purpose of listening to the various explanations was to instruct the 
community in the interpretation of Scripture. It is noteworthy that during these 
Thursday meetings not only the pastors were allowed to give explanations of the 
Bible, but also the elders and deacons and even some other designated mem-
bers of the congregation.

8 ‘Manifeste enim conspicitur opulentia donorum Spiritus sancti in Ecclesia in concordi 
multarum interpretationum circa unum quemlibet scripture locus varietate et exhortationum 
simul ac consolationum multarum inde petitarum accomodatione’, Kuyper, 1866: II.104.



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Łaski’s Strangers’ church embodied the ideal of Bucer’s Christian Commu-
nities: small interpretive communities of dedicated members who were united 
in a communal process of spiritual discernment (Spijker, 1996: 471).9

Michael Moynagh’s conversational ecclesiology

The two examples above make it clear that the Reformed tradition contains suf-
ficient starting points for thinking about the church as an interpretive commu-
nity, with the ordained minister leading from the liturgy. Yet, of course, there is 
a big difference between the situation in the sixteenth century and the current 
situation of the churches in Western Europe. Whereas churches were more or 
less at the heart of society in the sixteenth century, this is far from the case 
today. The church has been pushed back to the margin and is forced to think 
deeply about its place in society. This implies that the church as a community of 
interpretation is not only faced with the task of interpreting Scripture together, 
but also the local context.

In this respect, the thoughts of Michael Moynagh are helpful. Moynagh 
is a minister within the fresh expressions stream of Anglicanism and serves as 
director of Network Development and Consultant on Theology and Practice. 
He is sometimes referred to as the “theologian of fresh expressions of church”.10

Moynagh (2017) develops a framework of innovation for churches. This 
framework is based on two pillars. The first pillar concerns innovation as a theo-
logically based phenomenon that propels the church through change towards 
God’s coming kingdom. The second pillar concerns the conversational nature 
of organizations.

This second pillar in particular is important in the context of this article. 
Moynagh emphasizes time and again the conversational nature of the church. 
Following the Mission Shaped Church report, he defines the church in terms of 

9 I could also point to other examples from the Protestant tradition, for instance those 
parts within the Protestant tradition that, inspired in part by Philip Jacob Spener’s Pia 
Desiderata, have emphasized the communal interpretation of Scripture, the priesthood of all 
believers and the reform of theological education. However, I limit myself to these two early 
examples because they make clear that from the very beginning, the concept of the church as a 
community of interpretation has been present within the Reformed tradition.

10 https://freshexpressions.org.uk/theology/.



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four interlocking relationships: with God, with the community, with the world 
and with the wider church.11

Church leadership

The conversational nature of the church emerges not only in the essence of 
the church, but also when it comes to its leadership. Leadership according to 
Moynagh is not a static given, but a dynamic group process. Church leaders 
should learn how to draw on the gifts of others in areas where they are less 
qualified themselves.

Leadership as a dynamic process casts the role of the leader in new 
ecclesial communities in a different light. Instead of developing a vision and 
imposing it on a community, the leader helps the organization to make sense of 
what it is experiencing. This does not mean that the organization has no focus, 
but rather that developing a vision is a conversational group process, with the 
leader helping the team to make sense of what is happening. Thus, the leader’s 
role is primarily in the area of sense-making.

Church leaders have an essential role in safeguarding the quality of the 
conversations in the process of sense-making. Although they are not respon-
sible for everything that is said, they do have a great influence. The leader’s 
task is to encourage the participants and improve their conversations. Thus, the 
most crucial function of leaders is to safeguard the sense-making conversations 
(Moynagh, 2017: 353).

The most important part of sense-making is “to craft a narrative that con-
nects what is emerging from the kingdom to the team’s God-given values and 
history, however short that history is.” Here, the language used is very impor-
tant because it forms and expresses the underlying mindset of the organization 
(2017: 32-3). Thus, the leader must be able to help the team connect the nar-
rative of the church to the kingdom of God and find the appropriate language 
to do so.

11 According to Moynagh (2017: 241), using the four words up, in, out and of, as the 
Mission Shaped Church report does, is unfortunate, because they presume a rather one-
directional view of these relationships. Moynagh prefers to speak of relationships, since they 
flow in two directions.



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The interpretive community and the role of the minister

The image of the church as a community of interpretation, as developed by 
Bucer and Łaski, surfaces again in Moynagh’s thoughts on ecclesiology. How-
ever, in his case not only the Bible and the Christian tradition are objects of 
interpretation, but also the context in which the congregation finds itself.

In Moynagh’s model, the minister of the Word is an interpretive guide 
who helps the congregation as an interpretive community to understand the 
narrative of the kingdom in its context and find its place in it. This means that 
the minister, based on his knowledge of and feeling for the Bible and tradition, 
should facilitate the interpretive dialogue within the community. This is funda-
mentally a two-way street. Participating in public life as Christian communities 
and individuals automatically brings with it implicit and explicit interpretive 
activities to which the minister should attend carefully, since they may unveil 
previously unexplored meanings of the gospel. This listening attitude is also 
necessary to then relate the normative Christian sources to the concrete lives 
of the community and its members so that the gospel can land in their reality.12

The minister of the Word, from the liturgy, plays a leading role in the 
process of interpretation, but it is fundamentally the congregation itself that 
must listen to what the Spirit says to the congregation (Roest, 2018: 21). In line 
with Augustine, it is the task of ordained ministry to keep the (newly formed) 
community focused on the common objects of love in a communal process of 
discernment.13

Moynagh’s thoughts on leadership seem to fit well with Komasa’s portrayal 
of Daniel as is a facilitator of the communal interpretation process from the 
liturgy. Moreover, they fit well with the two examples from the beginning of the 
Reformed tradition. Moynagh’s proposal therefore deserves to be taken seri-
ously by churches struggling with the essence and practice of ordained ministry.

12 The concept of the interpretive guide comes from Gerkin, 1986: 98 ff. and is further 
developed in Osmer, 2008.

13 Augustine, 1972: 19.24: “a people is the association of a multitude of rational beings 
united by a common agreement on the objects of their love”. Besides theological arguments, 
contextual arguments can also play a role here. In the present post-Christian era, in which 
churches are increasingly small communities that are moreover made up of dedicated members 
who are used to being heard and who are more aware of their context than in the past, the time 
is passes that the ministers of the Word were solely responsible for the interpretation of the 
gospel. Also, from a cultural point of view, it is recommended to take seriously the image of 
the interpretive guide.



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65

 Towards a new practice

The image of the congregation as a community of interpretation seems to be 
a promising starting point for a renewed reflection on Reformed theology of 
ministry in a post-Christian context. On the one hand, the concept is rooted 
in the Reformed tradition; on the other, it is tailored to the current missionary 
situation in which congregations are challenged to interpret their own context 
as well. The question that remains is what is needed to stimulate development 
in this direction. And are there any concrete starting points for this in the prac-
tice of the CGKN?

In my opinion, three elements are decisive when it comes to answering 
this question. In random order, they are the following. First, there will have to 
be an in-depth reflection on the position of the minister. Next, the results of 
this will also have to be taken into account in the design of ministerial training. 
Finally, congregations themselves will also have to be supported in the search 
for a new practice. This has three implications.

First, there is a need for churches and denominations to profoundly reflect 
on their perception of the ministry of the Word. The days when the ordained 
minister as a solo pastor was alone responsible for the exegesis of Scripture 
are over. Reformed denominations should learn again to take the charismatic 
character of the church seriously. Moreover, the missionary dimension of the 
ministry of the Word will also have to be further elaborated and substanti-
ated, especially in view of the contextualization of the congregation in its own 
surroundings.

Within the denomination of the CGKN, the first beginnings of such 
reflection are already visible. I already noted that several reports on the synod’s 
table speak of a need for reflection on the pastorate. Several reports argue for 
a renewed reflection on the doctrine of ministry from the missio Dei. In addi-
tion, one report examines the social trends that influence the pastoral office 
and concludes that more teamwork is clearly needed. This is not yet the step 
towards the minister of the Word as an interpretive guide, but it is clear that a 
change is underway in the perception of the ministry of the Word. This reflec-
tion should, however, not only – and probably not even primarily – be limited 
to voluminous synod reports or in-depth theological literature.

Second, transformed perception of the ministry of the Word naturally has 
implications for the way future ministers are trained. Within the education of 
ministers more attention will have to be paid to the missionary dimension of 
all church practices, to working within teams and to guiding communities in 
developing and implementing a missionary vision and strategy. In their training 



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future pastors should be given concrete tools to lead the congregation as inter-
pretive guides. This means that they will not only learn to interpret the Bible 
with a view to the weekly sermon, but also with a view to fostering the com-
munal interpretation process. In addition, future pastors will need to be trained 
in reading the social and cultural context in order to lead the congregation in 
the search for a credible embodiment of the gospel in its own environment. In 
doing so, it seems to me of eminent importance that this training should not 
only take place in the ivory tower of the academy but be intertwined with the 
concrete ecclesial practice of local congregations from the very beginning.

Signs of change are also observable in this area in the CGKN. The then 
rector of the theological university of Apeldoorn, the educational institute of 
the CGKN, H.J. Selderhuis delivered the opening speech for the academic year 
dated Sept. 3, 2018. In it, Selderhuis mentioned that there are questions about 
the theological and practical baggage that prospective ministers of the Word 
are given. Are they adequately prepared for missionary tasks, for the practice 
of ministry every day? The missionary character of congregations will play an 
increasingly important role. Evidently, then, the training of pastors must take 
this into account. This also applies to the cooperation that will become more 
important in the future. Training for teamwork, peer-to-peer coaching and 
professionalism is a must, according to Selderhuis.14

Last, but certainly not least, a changing perception of the church and the 
ministry of the Word will need to be developed within local congregations. To 
some extent, this development has already begun because increasing empower-
ment of ‘ordinary’ church members, especially in urban areas, makes it progres-
sively more difficult in practice to sustain the role of solo pastor. However, this 
change will have to be encouraged not only because of cultural influences, but 
also from the theological belief that the interpretation of Scripture belongs to 
the entire community, and that the community as a whole should seek a con-
crete embodiment of the gospel in its own environment.

14 9.30 p.1-77 rapport commissie kleine kerken, retrieved from: https://cgk.nl/project/
rapporten/ (Download date January 5, 2022), 46-48.

https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/
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On this point, too, there are promising developments within the CGKN.15 
For instance, from the national commission for missions, so-called missionary 
learning paths have been offered in which congregations were guided in the 
search for a credible embodiment of the gospel in their own context. At the 
moment, it is not yet clear what the fruit of these trajectories has been, but that 
there is an increasing demand for guidance at the grassroots level indicates a 
turnaround.

References

Augustine. 1972. The City of God, Knowles, D. (ed.), Bettenson, H. (transl.). 
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry. 1982 (Faith and Order Paper No. 111). Geneva: World 
Council of Churches.

Becker, J. 2007. Gemeindeordnung und Kirchenzucht: Johannes a Lascos Kirchenordnung für 
London (1555) und die reformierte Konfessionsbildung. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

Bellardi, W. 1934. Die Geschichte der “Christliche Gemeinschaften” in Strasbourg 
(1546/1550): Der Versuch einer “ Zweiten Reformation”. Leipzig: Heinsius.

Borght, E. A. J. G. van der. 2007. Theology of Ministry: A Reformed Contribution to an 
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Gerkin, C. V. 1986. Widening the Horizons: Pastoral Responses to a Fragmented Society. 
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Marsh, C. 2018. A Cultural Theology of Salvation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

15 A clear example of a congregation in the CGKN that sees itself as a community of 
interpretation is the young Amsterdam congregation Via Nova (https://vianova-amsterdam.nl). 
This community started in the first decade of the 21st century as a church plant aimed at young 
professionals in the urban environment of the Dutch capital but has recently gone through a 
profound process of reflection. In the middle of the corona period – and partly due to it – Via 
Nova started a communal interpretive process using Michael Moynagh’s concept of 360-degree 
listening. I was involved in this process as theologian-trainer. Whereas Via Nova initially 
started from the attractional church model, after the listening process it opted for a cell-church 
model, in which the focus on the young professionals shifted to focus on concrete presence in 
the neighborhood of the various house churches.

https://vianova-amsterdam.nl


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Moynagh, M. 2017. Church in Life: Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology. London: SCM 
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https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/
https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/
https://cgk.nl/project/rapporten/



