WHO NEEDS AN APOSTLE?

Someone once told me that their friends were discouraging them from starting a house church in their community. The reason? Because this person didn’t have an Apostle to help them oversee the church.

The other day I received a Tweet from someone who said, “You don’t have to be a pastor or an elder to plant a church in your community.”

I’d like to weigh in on these two statements if you’ll indulge me.

When my wife and I stepped down from our on-staff church positions to plant a church in our own home, we heard similar things from well-meaning people who said:

“You don’t have any spiritual covering.”

“You can’t support the Five Fold Ministry”

And my absolute favorite, “You’re not following a Biblical model.”

Here’s the deal. If God is legitimately calling you to plant a church in your community, then you are the apostle He is sending. The word “apostle” means “sent ones”. Therefore, if God has spoken to you about leaving to plant a church, you are a “sent one.” End of story.

 To the person who said that “you don’t have to be a pastor or an elder to plant a church” I’d offer the same response – “If you are the one being sent to plant the church, then you already are the pastor/elder you need to be.”

Now, first of all, the statement makes no real sense because, according to the New Testament, an elder doesn’t plant a church. Nor does a pastor. Elders are the ones who do the work of a pastor (“shepherd”) in the Body of Christ, and by definition an elder/pastor doesn’t plant churches. However, since we have a very Americanized view of Christianity today, we wrongly assume that pastors (and only pastors) start and lead churches.

 

So, when most people use the term “Pastor” what they really mean is, “Leader” and usually that spills over into the function of an Apostle, an Elder, an Evangelist, and a Prophet, even though that’s not what the Bible teaches us.

 

So, when I say “you already are the pastor/elder” what I mean is, “You’re the one God is calling so don’t worry about the labels.”

At the end of the day, the only person you need to please, or to answer to, is God. Is He calling you to step out and start a church in your community? Then do it. Don’t listen to what anyone else tells you. Don’t get bogged down in what this author or that blogger tells you to do, or how to do it (even if it’s me), because if God is calling you then He will lead you every step of the way. Whatever you do, don’t settle for what someone else’s vision looks like, only do exactly what God calls you to do and keep your eyes on Him.

He will build His church. Not you. Not me. Jesus will build the Church (people of God) who are submitted to Him and committed to His Kingdom.

 

As you step out in faith, God will draw into your fellowship the missing people you need, with the necessary gifts, to build up the Body as He wants it to be. It's not your job to make anything happen, only to be obedient and to step out in faith.

 

-kg

58 FOLD MINISTRY?

“Do you believe in the Five Fold Ministry?”


Someone asked me this very question the other day, and after a lot of thought and research I’ve finally got my answer – “No. I don’t.”

Perhaps it would help if I were to clarify what I mean? First of all, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, the Five Fold Ministry is a concept taken from one single passage in the New Testament (Ephesians 4:11-13) which says:

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.”

Notice that there are five gifts mentioned here. They are Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers, and for those who swear by the Five Fold Ministry model, this list represents both a hierarchy of giftings, and an essential list of gifts that must be present in every church for health and growth.

First, let me explain why I reject the Five Fold concept. It’s because Paul himself gives us other lists of giftings elsewhere in his epistles and those other lists are slightly longer, and in a different order, than the one he gives here in Ephesians.

Before we look at those other two, let’s go ahead and say that this fact alone should tell us that Paul didn’t intend for his list in Ephesians to be taken as the only model for church dynamics. If he gave other church members in other cities a different list, then that means he wasn’t trying to be dogmatic about this, and that he was speaking loosely about the various gifts that God releases into the Body of Christ for growth, strength, and life.

Got it? Ok, now let’s look at those other two lists, starting with the one in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28 where Paul says:

“And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.”

So, even though Paul starts out the same in Corinthians as he does in Ephesians – with Apostles and Prophets – he strangely promotes Teachers to third place (up from last place in our Ephesian list. Way to go Teachers!), and then introduces Miracle Workers, Healers, Helpers, Guidance (or Wisdom) and Tongues. This might be called the Eight Fold Ministry since here Paul expands the length of his list by three.

Notice that, if we were ignorant of the other lists, the one in Ephesians and the one in Romans (which we’ll look at in a second), we could easily conclude that God’s plan is all about this (and only this) order of gifts to lead the church. We might conclude from this list that Pastors and Evangelists are lower class citizens in the church since they’re not mentioned at all. We could also easily make a case that Paul’s list is hierarchical since he enumerates these by saying, “First of all…second….third…” and so on. This clearly indicates that the first ones are more important and the last ones are less important.

Right?

Wrong. Why? Because Paul said something different to the church in Ephesus and in Rome. And, since his order in those other cases was different, we can safely assume that when Paul says “First of all apostles…” he’s talking chronologically and not hierarchically. The Apostles were the first ones to be “sent out” by Jesus and once the Gospel was preached and people responded, they needed to have others who could prophesy and teach, and serve, etc.

But wait, we’re not done. Let’s look now at Paul’s essential list of gifts in Romans 12. It goes like this:

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully."

(v. 4-8)

Personally, I like this list a lot more than the other two. This Seven Fold Ministry of God drops leadership to the very bottom, just ahead of showing mercy, and it moves service, teaching and encouragement to the top. That’s my kind of list.

But, again, the Christians in Rome could easily have taken this list and deduced from it that Apostles, Evangelists and Pastors are unnecessary in the Church, and that what really counts is Prophecy, Service, Teaching, Encouragement, Giving, Leadership and Mercy. But, again, they would be wrong about that.

What’s fascinating to me is that, while we have all three of these epistles in front of us and they didn’t, our tendency is to take one of those lists as authoritative while ignoring the other two. There is no evidence that the churches in Ephesus, Rome or Corinth took Paul’s instructions in this manner to be exhaustive and exclusive of the others.

The main thing I believe we can learn from all of this is that Jesus was serious when he said that we are all brothers and sisters and that none of us was meant to play the Father, or the Ruler over anyone else. (See Matthew 23:9) The goal in the Body of Christ is that we are all members of one another, and that no one person is given the preeminence over the rest of us.

Having said all of this, let me clarify that yes, I do believe that there are those today who are “sent ones” (or “Apostles”) in the church today. Their function is to go out and preach the Gospel, plant churches, recognize gifts in the Body, and move on when needed to plant more churches. I also believe that there are those in the church today with the gifts of prophecy, and tongues, and teaching, and mercy, and giving, and all those many, many other gifts.

What I reject is the idea that there are only five main gifts in the church today, or that these five should be exalted above all the other gifts mentioned in the New Testament as if they are more special or more necessary or more crucial than any of the others.

At face value, the message of the New Testament is that you matter. Your gift – whatever it is – is necessary. You are important. You have something the rest of us need. We have something that you need. We need one another to grow and to thrive.

As Paul says in each of these passages, there are many gifts, and they are all given by the One Spirit, and we are all members of each other. Our gifts are not for us, they are not about us, they are about one another and the purpose of these gifts is to be a blessing to everyone else and to exalt them, not ourselves.

So, I’m not sure about you, but since there are something like 28 different spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible, and 58 "one anothers", I’m a big fan of the 28 or the 58 Fold Ministry of God.

How about you?

-kg

**

FIVE FOLD MEN?

“Looking to Connect with real 5 Fold men? Do you function as Apostle or Prophet? Come & see in Charlotte NC”

Earlier this week I received this message via Twitter and it bothered me enough to reply back to the person who sent it with this reply:

“Why do you assume all 5 Fold are "Men"? NT points out several female Apostles (Junia, Priscilla, etc.) and women teach/prophesy.”

So, I wanted to expand on this topic a bit more here, if you guys don’t mind. Ok? Good? Thanks.

So, why is it that we all assume that the 5 Fold Ministry is all about men? I guess I should pause here a moment and explain, for those who may not know, what the Five Fold Ministry thing is all about first.


According to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:11, "It was he (God) who gave some to be (1) apostles, some to be (2) prophets, some to be (3) evangelists, and some to be (4) pastors and (5) teachers."

So, because Paul lists five different avenues of blessing in this passage, most assume that every Church should have all five of these servants present to be a healthy church. Most, as evidenced by the Tweet I received this week, further assume that these are all male servants. (There is another aspect of assumed hierarchy contained in this passage but I will not touch on that in this discussion).

However, if we’re going to take scriptures like this and declare that they are normative for the Church and authoritative for the life and health of the Church we also need to include everything else that Paul had to say about what was important for the church to grow and be healthy. Like where he says, in 1 Corinthians 14:26, "When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All these must be done for the strengthening of the church."

So, for now let’s focus on the Five Fold Ministry and the assumption that all of these servants are men.

WOMEN AS APOSTLES
As I said in my response to this person, there are several female Apostles in the New Testament including Junia:

“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.” – Romans 16:7

For centuries, the Christian church renamed here to make her appear male, but in recent times New Testament scholars have restored her femininity.

The New Testament also mentions Priscilla and Aquila several times, usually listing the wife, Priscilla, first. As men were traditionally mentioned first, the practice of listing the wife first in their case is a strong indication of her prominence.

Even if this is not the case, the fact remains that Paul, when speaking of this couple says, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 16:3) which puts them on an equal level with Paul as they were doing Apostolic work as he was doing, even taking another Apostle (Apollos) into their home to teach him about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to pray for him to receive it (and he did).

So, this couple was not only doing apostolic work, like Paul was doing, but they were even ministering to other Apostles to be filled with the Spirit of God. And they also hosted a church in their home, so they were church planters, leaders, and servants in the local community.

So, there’s no doubt that women in the early New Testament church served as Apostles.

WOMEN AS PASTORS/ELDERS
As I’ve pointed out numerous times before on this blog, the word “Pastor” only appears once in the entire New Testament and it’s here in Ephesians 4:11 where we get our Five Fold Ministry concept. However, the term is simply the common word for “shepherd” and it usually appears as an actual shepherd (as when the angel’s appeared to the shepherds by night to announce the birth of Christ) or of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” in the Gospels. Later, Peter urges Elders and Overseers to “shepherd” the people in their church family, and this suggests that these three services are interchangeable and performed by the same group of people, regardless of what they are called.

Another problem with our New Testament translations in the past has been the mistranslation of the word “women” in 1 Timothy 3:11 as “wives”. This error, performed quite on purpose, renders the instructions for female deacons/elders (women) as “wives” effectively removing obscuring the truth about female elders.

Fortunately these same mis-translators did not erase Phoebe in Romans as a deaconess/elder, (Romans 16:1) and thankfully we have NT scholars today who are more honest about the actual Greek words found in the text rather than following in the bias found in past translations.

Elders, according to Paul, are supposed to be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:9, 5:17). This means that if the elder is a woman, and there were female elders, then she should be free to teach.

Therefore, we can see from the New Testament that women served as Apostles (Junias, Priscilla), and as Pastors/Elders (Phoebe).

WOMEN AS PROPHETS
It may seem overly simplistic to point this out, but it’s probably a good idea to reinforce the notion that someone who prophesies is a prophet. Prophets are the ones who prophesy. Got it? Great. So, in the letter of Paul to the Corinthians he says that women who prophesy should make sure to cover their heads. (1 Cor 11:5) Paul even goes on to stress later in the same letter that, of all the spiritual gifts, one should eagerly desire the gift of prophecy above all other gifts (1 Cor 14:1), and says also that “the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in a tongue” (1 Cor 14:5) and that the “one who prophesies edifies the church”. (v. 4)

So, clearly, women did prophesy in the early church and Paul commended this service as one of the greatest gifts performed by someone in the church body.

Therefore, women served as Apostles, Pastors (Elders), Teachers, and Prophets. As for Evangelists, I think it could be argued that the work that Priscilla and Aquilla were doing mirrored that of Paul and Paul was often found preaching the Gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles.

Lots more could be said on this topic, and perhaps will blog more on the topic later as comments or questions arise.
Thanks,
kg