Four office apprenticeship
The doctrine of four offices is a theological doctrine that says that four offices are necessary for the correct order of the church . It goes back to the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer and was first brought into an organizational form by the Geneva reformer Johannes Calvin in the Geneva church order of 1541 (revised 1561). With reference to the New Testament, Calvin names four offices that must exist in every church community:
- Pastors or shepherds ( pasteurs )
- Teachers ( docteurs )
- Elders ( anciens ) and
- Deacons ( diacres ).
The various services that are to be performed in and by the community are differentiated in these offices. They are not assigned to one another hierarchically, but functionally defined.
The task of the pastors is the preaching of God's word and the administration of the sacraments as well as admonition and comfort. The teachers ensure that the congregation is instructed in the Christian faith and that theological offspring are trained. The elders (in Geneva also elected members of the city's secular council) lead the congregation together with pastors and teachers; in particular, they participate in church discipline . Calvin presented a reinterpretation of the New Testament presbytery . Finally, the task of the deacons is to organize welfare for the poor.
In his Institutio Christianae Religionis (4th edition 1559: IV, 3) Calvin gave further theological justifications for his new order. The first reference is ( Eph 4.11 NGÜ ). Actually, the offices of pastors and teachers are not differentiated according to the institute, so that in numerous church ordinances (already in the Confessio Gallicana written by Calvin , Art. 29, and the Discipline ecclésiastique of the French Huguenots based on it ) a doctrine of three offices is in fact implemented. Calvin saw the tasks of elders and deacons described above all in ( Rom 12.8 NGÜ ).
Calvin's doctrine of four offices was formative for the church orders of the Reformed churches. Among the Huguenots, who as a persecuted minority church could not rely on any state institutions, the elders were elected by the adult male members of the community. The members of the National Synod and the Regional Synods were also elected. This has greatly strengthened the position of the laity in the Church and its leadership. However, through the mediation of Dutch Reformed Christians, this was partially received beyond the borders of Reformed church domains (cf. Weseler Konvent ). It became a prerequisite for the constitutional principles of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism .
literature
- The Ordonnances Ecclésiastiques (1541) 1561. In: Eberhard Busch (Hrsg.): Calvin study edition . Vol. 2: Shape and order of the church ; Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997; ISBN 3-7887-1554-5 , pp. 227-279.
- Holsten Fagerberg: Office / Offices / Understanding of Office VI . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 2 (1978), pages 552-574.
- Georg Plasger : The services in the community. Impulses from Calvin's apprenticeship teaching for the current discussion about ministry and ordination. In: Evangelische Theologie 69 (2009), pp. 133–141.