Priesthood of All Believers

Definition and Meaning

The priesthood of all believers is the teaching that every believer is a priest. In the Old Testament era, a priest offered sacrifices and mediated between God and the people. According to this teaching, every Christian may pray to and approach God directly through Jesus Christ. Christians also share the priestly role of praying for one another and serving their neighbors.

Most Protestant denominations do not take this teaching to mean that church offices such as that of pastor should be abolished. They understand the distinction between pastors and the laity not as one of higher and lower status but as a difference in the roles each is given.

Biblical and Historical Background

Passages frequently cited in support of this teaching include Exodus 19:6, which calls Israel "a kingdom of priests"; 1 Peter 2:9, which calls believers "a royal priesthood"; and Revelation 1:6. The Epistle to the Hebrews presents Jesus as "a great high priest" who offered himself once for all (Hebrews 4:14). On this basis, believers are understood to draw near to God with boldness through him (Hebrews 10:19-22).

During the Reformation, Martin Luther argued in works such as To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) that all baptized Christians share the same spiritual status. On this basis he criticized the church system of his day, which divided clergy and laity into separate estates. At the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church distinguished between the "common priesthood" shared by all the baptized and the "ministerial priesthood" of ordained clergy.

Practice in Korean Churches

In Korean Protestant churches, this teaching is often invoked as the basis for lay participation in church ministry. A representative example is the discipleship training movement begun by John Han-heum Oak at SaRang Community Church in Seoul. The movement aimed to raise up laypeople as ministers, and it later influenced the spread of small group ministry to many churches.

Korean denominations differ in how they express this teaching in their church polity.

• Presbyterian: Members elect elders from among the laity. Together with the pastor, the elders form the session, which governs the church.
• Baptist and other congregational denominations: Major decisions are made by a meeting of the whole congregation, a practice regarded as an expression of this teaching.
• Methodist: Lay representatives take part in decision-making bodies such as the annual conference.
• Anglican Church of Korea: The church maintains the tradition of calling its clergy priests but understands this as an office instituted by the church.

Most Korean denominations reserve the administration of the sacraments and the pronouncing of the benediction for ordained pastors. The extent to which laypeople may take part in preaching and the sacraments varies by denomination. The teaching is also frequently invoked in critiques of authoritarian, clergy-centered church culture.