A minister in the Church has the stewardship of safeguarding the faith and practices of the Church. He follows the constitution of the Church in all matters of administration. As a good steward and Ambassador, he will represent the Metropolitan, Episcopal Synod and Sabha Prathinidhi Mandalam. He participates in the decision making bodies of the parish, diocese and the church. His talents are used for the common good. He will not have goals that are not the goals of the body of Christ.

The ministry of stewardship can be carried out only by the grace of God. The abundant grace with which a minster is blessed is treasured in an earthen vessel (II Cor. 4: 7).  It has its risks and struggles to hold it without losing.  The Church entrusts with each ordained minister to administer sacraments with utmost reverence and care.  He has representative priesthood when he leads the members to receive the grace of God through the sacraments.  It is to be understood that the efficacy of the sacraments depends much on the grace of God and the commitment of the minster expressed through his preparation and involvement.  It carries with it the embodiment process of receiving the grace of God as well as disembodiment of sharing the blessings with others by reaching out to the people.  The human made boundaries are crossed through the ministry of love, forgiveness and reconciliation.  It accepts the diversities and crosses the boundaries seen in the ethnic, cultural, economic, social, and religious realms. In this ministry, he will discover that the people given to him in the Church & Society is a source of spiritual nourishment, excitement, pleasure, growth and challenge.

The turn of the 20th century witnessed the dawn of an intense multiculturalism in the life of the faith community of the Mar Thoma Church.  Multiculturalism is about cultural diversity and culturally embedded differences.  It is not a new order for conformity and homogeneity, but an opportunity to acknowledge differences and co-exist with a spirit of cooperation.  It helps diversity discourses and to understand life in its relations. Therefore reimagining life has become a ministerial challenge in the context of the diversified diaspora situations of the Mar Thoma community. The pastoral ministry will include counseling, admonishing, disciplining, and welcoming people. Aquila and Priscilla are models here for the minister and his family (Acts 18).

An ordained minister is a minister to the whole world; yet he has the specific task of shepherding the given flock.  He is the door of the sheep who is near as well as the good shepherd who goes before (John 10: 7, 11). He finds pastures and wards off sheep from all imminent dangers.  This is sacrificeally hard work. The minister will become a thief (Jn. 10: 10), if he turns out to be greedy, caught by fear of strangers and keeps a distance from the wounded, unsuccessful and marginal. Instead, he encourages fellowship (koinonia) through all the gatherings and motivates the people for service (diakonia) by leading and guiding them for the sharing and caring ministry of the parish. He will discover that there is always an ever-widening set of relations in the world.

An ordained minister has the responsibility to equip the members, the whole people of God who gather around the Word & the sacraments, for a meaningful ministry in the world. In a multicultural context this can cause pain and unexpected struggles on the part of the minister.  St. Paul had to confront such a situation in his ministry to the church in Corinth.  He understood the discord and divisions of rival group, wrong teaching, and immoral conducts of the people.  At times his leadership and apostleship were also questioned; yet he ministered to them in Love, corrected them and defended his identity and integrity by using the imageries of ‘aroma & fragrance’ (II Corinthians 2: 15) by saying that his ministry is well pleasing to God and a fragrant sacrifice of thanksgiving. ” Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice” (Phil. 4: 4). It is here that the family members can be very supportive to the ministers to pray together and be very encouraging to carry out a redemptive ministry. It is a call to spend and be spent (II Cor. 12: 15). The ordained ministry is a ministry that participates in the cross & resurrection of Jesus Christ and a continuation of the reconciling ministry of God revealed in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5). St. Paul says in II Cor. 3.7 – 4.6 that all ministers are ministers of the new covenant. This ministry of the new covenant is a ministry of stewardship, a ministry of justice, righteousness and life, and a ministry grounded in the Spirit and guided by Him. This is a ministry of life-long dedication, a ministry where a minister rejoices with God and with the people. Jesus himself said: ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (Jn. 4: 34).

Mission belongs to God.  The created world is the arena of God’s mission; Jesus Christ came in to the world as a missionary.  The Church, the redeemed community, is called out for the mission in the world.  Ordained ministers are set apart to lead the faith community to be a missionary to the world.  The Church carries out this mandate by being ‘the salt of the earth’ & ‘the light of the world.’

The resurrected Lord said ‘you are to be my witnesses’ (Acts 1.8).  He showed them the scars on his hands and on his side.  The early apostles rejoiced in seeing the resurrected Lord.  The joy of the ministers is to see the Lord & Master in the ministerial situations.  The presence of the risen Lord is an indication of renewed strength and regained power.  This empowerment of the early apostles was a call to participate in the transforming mission of God. This was done by both men and women (Acts 1:14). Pastoral ministry will be more fruitful when house-visits are regularly made by the joint effort of pastor and his wife. When Jesus sent seventy (Lk. 10: 1-12), he sent them two by two and directed them to enter into houses with the message of Peace. Here house is the location of the Gospel’s proclamation and church’s growth. Neighbourhood is the immediate mission field where the mission can be effective and fruitful in the form of ‘Neighbourhood Ministry’. The ministry of an ordained minister is a public ministry. It is carried out with much devotion and commitment. Each minister through his faithful and generous ministry is telling each generation that the ministry, though much demanding, is worthy and joyful.

The Mission of the church has a long history of re-imagination. The nature and agenda of the mission has been decisively determined and set by the contextual differences the people of God faced in the challenging cultural contexts of each land and community and involves both men and women in each age.  Mission today is therefore understood as a mission from everywhere to everywhere and involves both men and women.  It is quite necessary to have a contemporaneous and sensible awareness of the mission of the Church.  The global context of the Church with its multicultural, multi-social and multi-religious living opens before us enormous opportunities for meaningful mission. Wider ecumenism and dialogue are different modes of mission. The local parish led by the clergy has to recognize the interrelatedness and sharing of functions of the various religious groups in the plural context.

Living the baptismal experience, participating in the communion, sharing in the pathos of dying on the cross, and witnessing the Risen Christ, all make the ministry of the clergy family and mission of the church more challenging.