Theories Of A Servant Church

There are six models that are used by Catholics to describe the Church. Each model is unique with its contribution and complexity. The six models are: institution, community, sacrament, herald, servant and school of discipleship.

Institution

The institution model has dominated church life from sixteenth century to the middle of the twenty century. According to (Dulles 1974) the scriptural foundation for this model is Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.” This passage tells Peter, it doesn’t ask to build a church on rock which is solid. This message is the foundation for an institution model dictated from the leaders to the officers. The church views itself essentially in institutional terms

This method may be called “secular-dialogic”: secular, because the Church takes the world as a properly theological locus, and seeks to discern the signs of the times; dialogic, because it seeks to operate on the frontier between the contemporary world and the Christian tradition (including the Bible), rather than simply apply the latter as a measure of the former (McBrien 1970). A servant Church is designed to help all people wherever they are, it doesn’t hold importance on recruiting people. The term “servant,” indeed, contains certain ambiguities. It connotes three things: work done not freely but under orders; work directed to the good of others rather than to the worker’s own advantage; and work that is humble and demeaning (“servile”) (Dulles 1974). The first point isn’t the image the church is looking for. Jesus wasn’t a servant of the world, but a servant of God, obedient to the Father. Second point is more relevant to Christ, his work was out of love and for the true good of other. Thirdly the work that is humble and demeaning, like Jesus we are called to wash another’s feet. We are called to help one another, to suffer for one another, and to be available for one another. The Church does not exist for itself only this model shows that it exists for others. It places people of the church on the same level, were they are working with each other and for each other toward the same goal. It gives us the opportunity to reconcile with God and humanity. This model gives the church a strong identity of mission. The servant ecclesiology reflects a consciousness of these needs of both the Church and the world. It seeks to give the Church a new relevance, a new vitality, a new modernity, and a new sense of mission. The effort on the Church’s part to overcome its pride, its corporate egoism, and its callousness toward human misery