5 Fold Ministry

We need leaders who are on their face before God, interceding for the people, not whacking a golf ball down the cow pasture. We need men and women of God taking the church before the Lord in prayer rather than drowning a few worms in the muddy river waters. We need leadership that study the Word, so that they can teach and preach with the anointing, and not just stand and give a sermonette that won’t even stir a Christianette. We need leadership that will lead and not push. We need leadership to set the right example and not be an example of compromise.

The 5 fold ministry is for the Church today. One office is no greater than the other. For we all strive for the same thing. To build God's kingdom and not our own. Each office has a job to do in edifying the body of Christ.
Paul said, after Christ has ascended and he was called to be an apostle of the faith, there are 5 gifts God is going to give for the purpose of keeping the ministry of the church flowing. What are the 5?
a. Apostles. These are visionaries who don’t sit in one place and flourish; they are like Johnny Appleseed, planting as they go. The Apostle Paul said there are some who plant, some who water, and God, who gives the increase. Most of the apostles who are doing pioneering work today you will never know. The reporters are not knocking on their doors and writing articles concerning their work; they labor in the light of Christ because they have made a true spiritual connection.
b. Prophets. There are still prophets today in the church and a need for those who have the gift to work toward its development. Prophets don’t foretell the future, they forth tell the word of God. Prophets can either bless you, or they can cause you to do some serious soul searching. They are in tune with the situations around them, and often will weep and lament, as they know in their spirit the struggles God has with a somewhat stubborn generation.
c. Evangelists. Timothy, when he was starting out in pastoral ministry, we told to do the work of the evangelist. The evangelist is the spreader of the Good News and can be either in a local area or on the global scene.
d. Pastors. Some lump pastors and teachers together because pastors do teach but not all teachers are pastors so I am making that distinction. Pastors are called to be overseers of the believers in their local congregation. Of the 5 gifts, with personal experience, I would say the most difficult because sheep are difficult animals to herd. Of course, I am speaking of pastors in other pastures who have all the difficult sheep to shepherd, we don’t have that problem here, and we are all full of agape and would never do anything to cause our pastor heartache, right?
e. Teachers. These are gifted people who can take a life situation and bring life to it with Scriptural clarity.
God’s Ministry Purpose. "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." (Ephesians 4:12-16)
There are three things Paul says need to happen when the 5 fold ministry is in operation.
1. Believers will be equipped. Verse 12 tells us the place of those operating in the 5-fold ministry is 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. There has to be a response to what is invested in believers and in order for that response to happen, believers need to be equipped so they can do the work of service necessary to fulfill the Great Commission. Secondly…
2. Believers will be mature. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 verse 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."
Their needs to be a maturity of believers, which only takes place when they put into, practice what they have learned. Finally…
3. Believers will be solid. Verses Ephesians 4:14-16: "14Then 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. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From 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."