The church as the basic ecclesial community, a servant and a prophetic community
From a public theology (Caribbean Theology) perspective, the mission of the church is shaped by the understanding of the mission of the disciples as Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount…Choosing the metaphors of salt and light from ordinary life in reference to the believer cements the focus on what concerns the ordinary member and what shapes the overall impact of the witness of the church in its context. This is of profound relevance to the church in general, but particularly so to the Caribbean church for there is a sense in which we have inherited a system of church that elevated ministry to the ranks of the clergy alone. The idea of every member as a minister has been slow to catch on, but it holds the key to greater impact on the society because the ordinary member is everywhere in the society. If and when the ordinary member becomes as pervasive as light and as penetrative as salt then much more will be achieved. Could it be that this is part of unra...