Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son that we will be mature in the Lord. Measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. One of the things we talk about regularly here is, at least to me, one of the signs of a healthy congregation and a healthy church. Where people who come, see themselves as priests and pastors to one another. So this idea of people up front do the stuff and people in the chairs consume the stuff is not at all what I think the Bible emphasizes. When it comes to the church or to what ministry actually is, but rather that we are priests and pastors to each other, so in that sense all of us are ordained if you will. All of us are set apart. All of us are called. All of us have gifts and all of us are to pour those things out for the sake of God. “It is within the church, within the Ecclesia, that Jesus Christ is affecting what he wants to do in the world and that's not a small statement. You guys all know that statement, but it is only really through the church that we're going to have the Holy Spirit as one body communicating out into the world and so Ecclesia became very important. Why I decided to be ordained after that was because it is through the Gathering of the believing people that one can be raised up into service for God. It is the collective people, especially in the Baptist tradition, which you all are. It is you all who I would serve, not literally here, but serve by the consent of the believing people. So it became so apparently clear to me at that point that ordination was absolutely going to be part of who I am and you were going to be the people who I was going to approach to do that. Because no matter where else I go as a servant of God it is you people who have confirmed me and there's very good reason for that and it is because you're my people.” ~ Allison Carlos