Collins, John N. Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990) BT738.4 .C65 1990.
Collins, John N. Are All Christians Ministers? (Collegeville, MN: 1992) BX2347.0655 1992. This is a condensation of the former.
A minister is one appointed to a task, and in this instance the task is that of providing the believers with the teaching which sustains them in faith and knowledge (115).
In particular, within the Lutheran tradition of ministry, the question of ministry was never satisfactorily resolved. A tension has remained from the beginning, and has expressed itself within different churches at different periods and continues to do so today, as to whether ministry is an office as such or whether it is a function confided to some in the church for the purposes of good order. If it is the latter, all in the church can conceivable possess a ministerial capacity, although only a few are called upon to use it. Of itself—and apart from the fact that the scheme is not compatible with how the early Christians thought of ministry—one might think the scheme could work. In fact, however, it leaves the function of ministry open to a powerful influence (118).
On the contrary, says the author of the Ephesians, ministry is by definition an office, and those called to it are the gift of Christ to the church. The fact that they possess gifts apt for ministry does not make them ministers; they become ministers when they are installed in the office of ministry (119).
Luther’s commentary on Ps. 110, especially v.4 and pp. 317f, 324f, and 329ff (LW vol. 13).
Quid est Ministerium Evangelii?
Ministerium Evangelii est officium a Deo institutum, praedicandi in publico Ecclesiae coetu verbum Dei, Legem, et Evangelion de Christo, et legitime administrandi Sacramenta, annunciandi remissionem peccatorum, seu absolvendi agentes poenitentiam, et excommunicandi contumaces, et ordinandi Ecclesiae ministros, per quod ministerium Deus vere efficax est, ad salutem omni credenti
(Davidis Chytraei, Catechesis, pars IX, (Jenae: 1607), pp. 139-140).