There is a distinct difference in the Christian understanding of work.

In the Christian understanding of work, labour is offered as a gift of love. It is a worshipful act of representing God to nature. It maximises the dignity of the human person, for in his offering of himself through work, the human person finds his place of significance within the scheme of the created order. Therefore, work increases his sense of personhood.

Work in a capitalistic society, on the other hand, represents an impersonalisation of the human person. Human labour is but a commodity. For the person who provides labour for the sustenance of the production process, the offer of labour is more a contractual process than it is liturgical work offered to God. The end result of his work is so far removed from him that the only visible reward for his work is the financial returns he derives from that wilful exchange.

What about work in the contemporary ministerial context? I’m afraid that even in many vocations we relegate to the “fulltime ministry” today, work is nothing much more than a contractual exchange. For many ministers, "serving the Lord" has never been such an alienating experience before and it is threatening to become increasingly even more alienating than ever before.

The work of the Christian minister might now have become perceived as a demeaning vocation rather than a dignifying one. If the role of the minister in the past was primarily one of building lives, loving people, and in the process being loved himself, the role of the minister now is to run an organisation. And the sooner he turns his organisation into an automated production line, the greater returns he derives.

He is little more than a worker tasked with fulfilling the purpose of the organisational capitalists. His ministerial work is a commodity traded through a contractual exchange with his denominational leaders. The ordination title is a perk - and in some denominations, it indicates a privilege of lifelong employment.

What people?