(Re)Claim It: Justice and the Meaning of Ministry

by Clare Brauer-Rieke, Ubuntu House

I know it’s a loaded term – ministry. Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize the subtle ways people react to the word when I say, “My father is a minister,” or “I work at Earth Ministry,” or “I’m applying to Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry for my graduate education.” The connotations – the images, memories, and associations that fill our heads when we hear it spoken or read it written – can be pretty bad. Rarely do we positively connect ministry with justice.

But the truth of it is that my work through Lutheran Volunteer Corps is about ministry. Earth Ministry is an organization that inspires and mobilizes the Christian community to care for the earth, to act responsibly as environmentally-aware citizens, and to advocate on behalf of the life that sustains us but has no voice in legislature. This ministry is not about saving souls for Jesus, neither is it about creating an “us and them,” the ministers and those need them. Who are we letting tell us that’s what ministry is? Ministry has never really been about that.

Ministry is about justice. Though I work for justice within the framework of Lutheran values and history, my ministry isn’t significantly different than that of my housemates or my Puget Sound community. Whether our ministry is about feeding the hungry, building homes for the homeless, challenging racism, heterosexism, or classism, or advocating for environmental accountability, I can see that negative space around the word “ministry” begins to fill with positive action and shared hope. We work individually within our shared context to redefine that which has been maligned. It’s the work of our generation – we shape what comes next.

Ministry may be traced more overtly over my life that others’, but it folds into every action we together take for justice. Reclaim it.