Five-Fold Gifts

FIVE-FOLD GIFTS
The Ephesians 4:11-12 Gifts The way we at In His Spirit Evangelistic Ministries have found the Ephesians 4:11-12 gifts to be structured is as follows: - All of these gifts are intended to be used PRIMARILY for the building up of the Church Body so that the rest of the Body can do the work of the ministry. We see all of them classified as "Elders" with some distinctions of "Governing Elders" as seen in 1 Timothy 5:17. Many Church leaders have thought they DO the work of the ministry themselves, or that being an Evangelist means doing the work, rather than primarily teaching the Body to do the work. The same goes for those gifted as apostles. Apostles should guide and balance the growth of the church, not merely be "Missionaries" [An un-biblical title] which is usually confused with Evangelists today. An Apostle is one who is intended to stabilize the church body, and also to be a planter of churches. We see both functions in the Book of Acts. The resident apostle overseeing the local ministry, and the traveling apostle. Apostles seem to generally have ability to function in the other Ephesians 4:11-12 gifts from time to time. The gift can best be described as a "big picture" gift; making sure that there is a good balance to the ministry, not too outward or too inward A Prophet is one who watches the flock, listens to the Lord, and points the people back to God when they stray, or keeps them from straying. The Old Testament model of the Prophet was one who spoke for God to men, but since Jesus is now the ONLY mediator between men and God, we feel that the prophet is more of a pointer to God’s will, rather than the only deliverer of the message. An Evangelist is a person who seems to naturally bring out of unbelivers their need for God. An evangelist is someone who has the gift to easily direct people toward God’s salvation. The evangelist usually has "Divine Appointments" in daily life with people ready to give their life to Christ. It is natural for an evangelist to witness. It is the duty of an evangelist to teach the members of the Body to be witnesses themselves (the purpose for all of the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 is to "prepare God’s people for service") Today most evangelists have almost abandoned that duty, preferring personal crusades and missionary work to the responsibility of teaching the church how to to be witnesses. A Pastor is intended to "shepard" the church (his title). The function of a Shepard seems to be a protector of the flock (from heresy and attackers from within and without. Those gifted as pastors have a burning concern for each and every member of the flock. The pastor ministers on a more personal level than does the apostle who sees the whole body. The pastor is concerned with building up the individuals of the body. One of the functions of the pastor is to relate to the men of the church, teaching them to be the "priest of their home". "Pastors" today can’t do this work effectively because everyone expects them to organize the outreach, preach every time the Body meets, handle the office, manage and hire the staff, write the newsletter and manage the legalities of the church. (It is curious that the pastoral gift is in fact the gifting we have the least information about in scripture, and it is the gift we accept most and have a "job description" for in our "Americanized Christianity".