Eph 4:11-16 (see below) teaches that Jesus has specifically given the Church the five-fold ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher to build up and equip the body to work as it should, with each person fulfilling their God-given role and linked to the rest of the body (4:11-12).
This will result powerfully in unity, purity, maturity and the fullness of Christ in the Church as they work together(4:13,15-16).
So the raising up and release of these five-fold ministries are essential to the Church today and to prepare the body for the Return of Christ.
“It was he (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph 4:11-16)
There are a number of important things we learn from these verses:
1. The Five-fold Ministries are to lead the way in Equipping
The five-fold ministries are to equip the Church. So evangelists need to train up the Church to evangelise, pastors need to trainup the Church to do pastoral work and to disciple, apostles need to raise up other apostles who will pioneer expansion ofthe kingdom and so on.
So evangelist and missionary Daniel BERG trained up many Brazilians to preach the Gospel and pray for the sick. So in his first 20 years in Brazil, these Brazilian disciples planted 50 churches of Assemblies of God all over Brazil.
All the five ministries are needed to build up the Church and make Christ known. There must be balance. If there are some missing the body cannot truly attain to the unity, maturity and the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (4:13b) that is God’s desire before His Son returns. This also applies to the local church. Where such gifts are lacking in the local church, it is possible that this gifting can be invited from other churches to help input in this way.
2. The Five-fold Ministries are called to lead the way in Unity
The five-fold ministry must work together to equip the Church and as a model of the working together of the whole body. This is why we cannot talk about any if the ministry gifts in isolation. The Church is a body and all parts are to work together for the glory of God. At the moment many of these ministries work separately. Therefore, how can they encourage others to work together in unity, when they don’t model it themselves.
They are to lead in promoting local, national and global unity. If they do not get a vision for this or simply focus on their own ministries, then the body of Christ will not follow in this way and the Church will remain disconnected.
Today, there are some many challenges in society that we urgently need to work together to solve these problems.
Good, confident leadership is vital from the five-fold ministries to solve issues and to build a strong Church.
3. Five-fold gifts raise up the same gifts
Another reason all the five-fold ministries need to be involved in preparing God’s people for ministry is that if say the prophet is not doing this in the local church, how can other prophets be raised up and multiplied and discipled into their gifting? The local church established will then lack those that exercise this vital ministry and be the poorer for it.
4. A further role of the Five-fold Ministries
The five-fold ministries’ main role is to serve the rest of the body of Christ, not to build their own ministries that surround them and honour them. They are there to equip and build up the rest of the Church. This is especially difficult in the West, where we are used to a culture of promoting ones own ministry.
The famous evangelist of the 18th century, George Whitefield, left being the leader of the Church that he had founded to serve all the other evangelical churches, as well as his own church but not as its leader.
5. The Ultimate ROLE of the Five-fold Ministries
Ultimately, these ministries are to point to Jesus who is the Head of the body, so that the body can grow to maturity in their knowledge of Jesus. This is vital to its proper functioning because each person can only operate in the bodyand do their part well if they have access to the Head that guides everything (4:16).
Hence, to achieve all this God is raising up all the five-fold ministries afresh in this generation. What an amazing blessing to the Church they will be, if we succeed in raising them upand teaching them to work together!
The vision of the Antioch Church
A taste of this is found in the church at Antioch, the first gentile church, where we can see all five ministries in action. Evangelists birthed the church (Acts 11:20-21), Paul was an Apostle and it seems that Barnabas fulfilled an APOSTOLIC role in the church, although he was not among the twelve (Acts 11:25-26). The church had many prophets and teachers (Acts13:1) and presumably had pastors since these were raised up in every church (eg Titus 1:5).
It was a worship meeting between the prophets, teachers and apostles that led to the sending out of Paul and Barnabas for the first missionary journey and then becoming a missionary base that impacted both Asia Minor and Europe. Did this not have something to do with the impact of the five-fold ministries working together?
What can I do?
Therefore the raising up and release of these five-fold ministries are essential to the Church today and to prepare the body for the Return of Christ. So let’s work together in five-fold teams to prepare God’s people for works of service and to build up the Body in unity,, purity, and maturity , so that it shines with the fullness of Christ.
To learn how to raise up apostles read RAISING UP APOSTLES: 4 WAYS TO IDENTIFY AND RELEASE
Do you want a heart with apostolic passion? My book GRACE OUTPOURINGS: 21 DAYS REVIVAL DEVOTIONAL is designed especially to help stir us up to have an apostolic heart, with stories that include many apostles. Do read for a great devotional experience.
