Ministry As "Release"

The Congregational Church has a unique teaching on employment (Latin implicare, to enfold). Congregationalists do not use the word -- and at Congregational conferences I have attended, the word "employment" was religiously avoided. Rather, ministry is viewed as liberation from employment, to pursue God's call. The "textbook" on evangelical Congregationalism Evangelical & Congregational makes four plain statements: 1. "A Church does not employ a minister. It releases him from the need for secular employment," 2. "He is not a servant of the Church but of the Lord," 3. "The Lord may give him a vocation wider than the narrow interest of a particular congregation," and 4. These principles depend on "mutual love in Christ, mutual understanding and support". OBSERVATION: When I say that this is a "unique" teaching, I myself have not come across it outside the Congregational Church. I have in fact come across the opposite -- namely that Churches employ ministers.