4.10 World.

There were conflicting statements in the literature on whether the church wanted Readers to prioritise their ministry inside the church as preachers and teachers or to act as missionaries, evangelists or theologians in the world. Whilst some of the references to preaching and teaching suggest a ministry to the church community other texts provide a different picture. This is illustrated by a comment by Bishop Mayfield that Readers can be "builders of bridges between the believing church and the unbelieving world" and the ACCM view that Readers should move out of the church into the world because they had "the opportunity to bring a theological resource to people whom the clergy never meet". There is however a difficulty with the presupposition that the laity have extensive non-church based contacts because church growth studies have shown that members of the laity who have been active church members for some time are just as likely as the clergy to have limited non-church relationships .

A Church For The World states that "Readers have been treated more and more as substitute clergy" rather than "the representatives in worship of the engagement of Christians-in-the-world". The report particularly stresses the desire that Readers would become preachers and teachers who stop being focused on the pastoral activities of other members of the laity, and become people who can interpret the gospel in the light of their experiences in the world.