Wes Frensdorf, who served as Bishop of Nevada, Interim Bishop of Navajoland, and Assistant Bishop of Arizona, initially described and implemented key concepts of Total Ministry during his service to the Diocese of Nevada. His seminary education included a summer at the National Town-Country Church Institute program to study non-urban ministry. In 1951 he began his ordained ministry in a remote corner of Nevada with three mission congregations, one of which was a church of Paiute people near the Oregon border.

    As a result of his work and interest in small churches, Frensdorf joined with the Rev. William Spofford to prepare and train seminarians for small-town church work through the Western Extension Center of the National Town-Country Church Institute. As Dean of St. Mark's Cathedral in Salt Lake City, Frensdorf began developing models to promote the ministry of all the baptized. While on sabbatical in Nicaragua in 1968-69, he was inspired by examples of scripture study in eucharistically-centered communities, led by lay ministers. The theology developed in these communities became known as Liberation Theology and the communities as Base Communities.

    Meanwhile, William Gordon, Bishop of the Alaska Missionary District, traveled the area in a Cessna nicknamed the "Blue Box", because of the UTO offerings which had purchased the plane. In the 1960s and 1970s he used sacramentalists (priests ordained for service only in a local community) to respond to the remote and isolated villages that were only accessible by airplane. These ministers traveled from village to village to bring the sacraments – primarily communion, but also baptism and marriage when needed.

    Frensdorf was influenced in the development of Total Ministry by William Gordon, and by the writings of Roland Allen, noted missionary to China. Frensdorf was consecrated Bishop of Nevada in 1972 and began to implement his ideas about the formation and deployment of all orders of ministers. He brought Deacon Phina Borgeson to Nevada to develop and lead a ministry education program beginning in 1976. Today the Diocese of Nevada has had more than 20 years of experience with Total Ministry, many local priests and deacons have been ordained, preachers have been schooled in scripture and prepared to practice the craft of preaching, small isolated churches have clearly articulated ministries in their communities, and the education of all baptized ministers continues through regionally offered classes.

    The Diocese of Northern Michigan named their version of total ministry Mutual Ministry. Twice a year they sponsor retreats to proclaim the good news of their experience in rethinking ministry. Bishop Tom Ray says they embraced Mutual Ministry for all the wrong reasons, primarily economic, but now they would never go back to any other way of ministry. Northern Michigan is noted for significant canonical changes based on their experience as a Mutual Ministry diocese. After 10 years of living with Mutual Ministry, the diocese changed their canons to reflect their shared understanding of their life as a community of ministers. The diocese votes as one order and all churches are equal – there is no distinction between parish and mission churches.

    Concurrent with these experiments in total ministry, the 1928 prayer book was revised. In the process, the initiatory rites of Baptism and Confirmation were modified. Baptisms changed from being private family celebrations to being significant public celebrations on major feast days. The theological focus shifted from understanding that the Holy Spirit was conferred at Confirmation to a recognition that the gifts of the Spirit were received at Baptism in the midst of the community. New members were fully admitted to the Christian community at their baptism, and were now welcome at Communion. The theology and teaching about ministry and baptism shifted and preachers began to describe the ministry of all baptized persons. The baptismal promises were expanded to describe the ministry of the newly baptized.

    In 1982 the World Council of Churches published the results of its study of the unifying principles among Christian churches and stated in their document, later known as Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM), that "All members are called to discover, with the help of the community, the gifts they have received and to use them for the building up of the church and for the service of the world to which the church is sent."

    Today in the Diocese of Oregon, the task force dubbed the Ministry of All the Baptized (MOAB) has drawn upon the principles described and implemented in Nevada and Northern Michigan. The principles are responses to geographic, cultural, and economic issues as well as careful reconsideration of the theology of baptism and ministry to the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

Sources: Reshaping Ministry: Essays in Memory of Wesley Frensdorff, by Josephine Borgeson & Lynne Wilson, Editors; Total Ministry, by Stewart C. Zabriskie (esp. Ch 1,2); coversations with The Rt. Rev. Tom Ray, the Rev. Jack Hilyard, Cliff Goldman (formerly of the Alaska Missionary District 1971-1978, and currently a member of St. Christopher's Port Orford).