Bonhoeffer opens his chapter on ministry by suggesting that “a Christian community should know that somewhere in it there will certainly be ‘a reasoning among them, which of them should be the greatest.’”  In other words, every Christian community will be faced with those in the community who want to lord over others in the group.  The way of Christ, however, is different.  Bonhoeffer lays out two preparatory ministries that are to be found in Christians individually as they enter communtiy:

1. The Ministry of Holding One’s Tongue – Bonhoeffer argues that “it must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him.”  In this way backbiting and speaking foolishly is held in check.
2. The Ministry of Meekness – In order to truly love those in the community, we must be willing to humble ourselves.  “He who would serve his brother in the fellowship must sink all the way down to the depths of humility.”

Bonhoeffer moves from preparatory ministries to the ministries that take place within the community for the community:

1. The Ministry of Listening – Bonhoeffer says that “it is God’s love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear.”  He goes on to argue that when the Christian is not able to listen but only wants to offer advice and share his ‘wisdom’ this is “the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.”
2. The Ministry of Helpfulness – Here Bonhoeffer argues for what we might today call acts of mercy.  He says that “it is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them.”  He connects this idea with the Good Smaritan in Luke 10, arguing that it is easy to bury ourselves in a Bible and walk past people in need.  He concludes: “Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God’s love and mercy.”
3. The Ministry of Bearing – Bonhoeffer highlights the beauty and joy that comes with bearing one another’s burdens.  “As Christ bore and received us as sinners so we in his fellowship may bear and receive sinners into the fellowship of Jesus Christ through the forgiving of sins.”
4. The Ministry of Proclaiming – The ministry here is not the formal act of preaching before a congregation, but of speaking truth to one another in smaller groups, which Bonhoeffer calls “the ultimate and highest service.”  This ministry, argues Bonhoeffer, is “beset with infinite perils.”  We fear our responsibility to speak as well as the person we must speak truth to.  But the reason we can speak truth to one another is “that each knows the other as a sinner, who, with all his human dignity, is lonely and lost if he his not given help.”  This ministry is integral to the Christian community.  “Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin.  Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin.”
5. The Ministry of Authority – This ministry is dependent upon brotherly service.  Bonhoeffer says that “genuine authority realizes that it can exist only in the service of Him who alone has authority…The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren.”

In this chapter, Bonhoeffer challenges the Christian community to truly minister to one another and shows us the way that this ministering takes place.  He ends the chapter by arguing that “pastoral authority can be attained only by the servant of Jesus who seeks no power of his own, who himself is a brother among brothers submitted to the authority of the Word.”

So where does our hope lay?  In personalities who are visible in the Church?  In the ministries of the Church?  Or is it found in ministering to one another and pointing one another to the cross?