October 19, 2025
“Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant.” —Mark 10:43, CEB
Laity Sunday celebrates the ministry of all Christians as they love God and neighbor. On Laity Sunday, we continue to lift up the vocation of all to follow the way of Jesus and lead others to him.
In the Fall of 1762 John Wesley wrote a short letter to a layperson and dear friend, Dorothy Furly. She had questions about something perplexing to both laity and clergy alike in the early Methodist movement: “Christian perfection” (aka sanctification or scriptural holiness). Was this some kind of rarefied state of flawless fidelity only attainable at death? Wesley’s response was simple: “I want you to be all love. This is the perfection I believe and teach.”
All love means “love all until all love God.” And all means all. Laity Sunday helps us remember that our purpose is a call to be love—with and for the world God so loves. And Wesley believed we could be all love in this life.
On Laity Sunday we remember and celebrate the mission behind the 24/7 efforts of the “all-called”:
“Beyond the diverse forms of ministry is this ultimate concern: that all persons will be brought into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ and be renewed after the image of their creator (Colossians 3:10).” —2016 Book of Discipline, ¶ 128, The Ministry of the Community (p. 97)