The Five Fold Ministry
Reference
Ephesians 4:1-16
Verses 1-6 speak about the one Church, the Body of Christ
Whether we recognize it as such or not, God only has one Church. It is made up of all those who have been placed (or baptized) into it by the Holy Spirit.
Verses 7-11 list 5 offices which Jesus has placed in His Church.
These offices are: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
Verse 12 gives the purpose of those offices
“for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ”
Verses 13-16 tell us how long those offices will be needed
From the wording it seems to me that those 5 offices will be needed as long as there is a church that is made up of imperfect people.
When I was a new Christian I joined a church which would be called “cessationist.” In other words they believed that gifts of the Spirit were temporary until the books which became our New Testament were written. Part of this belief was that healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues and other gifts ended around the end of the first century. Also, that the offices of apostle and prophet ended at that time and that there could never be any additional apostles other than 11 of the original 12 plus the Apostle Paul.
Shortly after my conversion I discovered that there were things available to us today that were available to the early Church. Things like healing, miracles, and the empowering or baptism of the Holy Spirit were still available. Why would they have ever ceased if we were still in the same church that was established in the New Testament? I remember reading a book by the late Jack Coe where he listed several apostles in the book of Acts. This showed me that the number of apostles listed in the Bible was not limited to 12. I remember that he related a dream that one minister had where he saw a large hand which had two of the fingers bound so they could not be used. The Lord spoke to him that we were binding or limiting God from moving and acting like He wanted to because we refused to acknowledge two of the five offices in the church. These offices that we would not accept were apostles and prophets.
Shortly after this I went to St. Paul, Minnesota to a small Bible School. There we were taught that the offices of apostle and prophet had ceased shortly before the end of the first century. This was an Apostolic/Pentecostal Bible School and they were teaching some of the same cessationist stuff that I had heard in the denominational church which I had left. I realized this teaching could not be true because I had already read about 20 or so people who were called apostles in the New Testament.
Let’s look at these 5 offices and at some of the people in the New Testament who are identified by the titles of these offices.
The first is the office of apostle. I have the following notes about 26 people called "apostle" or "messenger" or "he that is sent" who are named. There are also some who are not named, plus Jesus is called an apostle in the NT. Our word apostle comes from “apostolos” which means a delegate, one sent with full power of attorney to act in the place of another, the sender remaining behind to back up the one sent, a messenger. The word occurs 81 times in the NT. It is translated apostle 78 times, messenger 2 times, and he that is sent 1 time. The original 12 are listed in
Matthew 10:1-4 and
Luke 6:12-16. The following are listed as apostles in the New Testament:
1 Peter, or Simon, or Kefa
2 Andrew
3 James (brother of John)
4 John (brother of James)
5 Philip
6 Bartholomew or Nathaniel, brother of Philip
7 James, son of Alphaeus or James the less
Mark 15:40
8 Judas, or Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, son of James,
9 Matthew or Levi of Alphaeus
Mark 2:14;
Luke 6:15-16
10 Thomas or Didymus or Twin
11 Simon the Zealot
Acts 1:13
12 Judas Iscariot
13 Matthias
Acts 1:26 (Paul refers to him as one of the 12 in
I Cor 15:5)
14 Saul or Paul
Gal. 1:1; 2:7,8,
1 Timothy 2:7
15 Barnabas
Acts 11:22; 13:1-4; 14:1,4,14;
I Cor 9:5-6
16 Andronicus
Rom 16:7
17 Junia or Junias, or Julia
Rom 16:7 (only woman called an apostle)
18 Apollos
I Cor 4:6-9
19 James the Lord’s brother
Gal 1:19 Acts 1:14, 1 Cor 15:7
20 Timothy
I Thess 1:1; 2:6
21 Silas or Silvanus
I Thess 1:1; 2:6,
Acts 15:22
2
2 Titus 2 Cor. 8:23 (messenger)
Acts 19:22
23 Epaphroditus Phil 2:25 (messenger)
24 Erastus
Acts 19:22
25 Judas (Barsabas)
Acts 15:22
26 Tychicus
2 Tim 4:12
27 Unnamed brothers
2 Cor 8:23
28 Jesus Christ
Heb. 3:1
The following are listed as prophets in the New Testament:
Anna (
Luke 2:36)
John the Baptist (
Luke 7:28)
Agabus (
Acts 11:27-28,
Acts 21:10) and unnamed others (
Acts 11:27-28)
Judas and Silas (
Acts 15:32)
Only one person is called an evangelist in the New Testament. That is Philip (reference
Acts 21:8)
The word “pastor” is not found in the King James New Testament. The plural form “pastors” is only found in
Ephesians 4:11
As far as I can remember right now, only the Apostle Paul is called a teacher (reference
2 Timothy 1:11)
In
Acts 13:1 it mentions certain people who are called “prophets and teachers.” These people are Paul, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen. From the wording, I don’t know if all 5 of these were both “prophets and teachers” or if some were just prophets and some were just teachers, or if some fulfilled both offices.
Earlier I had mentioned the dream a man had about the hand of God with 5 fingers and how these 5 fingers represented the 5 offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. I recently came across an article online which also described these offices by comparing them to the fingers on a hand. You may or may not agree with everything in the short article but I think it’s interesting. I have slightly modified the wording of the article but did not modify the intent of it. I believe it was written by a Church of God in Christ minister. I don’t know if it represents the organization and offices of that particular group or not.
First, the thumb. The thumb represent the apostle.
Try holding your hand out and take your thumb and touch the tip of each finger on that hand. The apostle is the only finger that can touch each of the other offices. He reaches them all. He stays in contact with the churches he helps in building and establishes. He incorporates these ministries into that body so each can be efficient. The apostle is the first headship of the church given the right and authority to touch every member of the body of the 5-fold ministry. He is a man "anointed" to go and establish churches, as the Apostle Paul did. The apostle sets up churches and church leaderships in cities, countries and nations. The apostle sets up a church, incorporates the Word of God as the basics of its existence. He establishes helps in establishment of ministry inside the church and sets up a pastor if necessary. He helps the office of evangelism in bringing in the people. The church now established, the apostle moves on and establishes elsewhere. The apostle is a true missionary and does the work.
The second finger is the forefinger. It represents the prophet.
A prophet is one feared in the Old Testament, knowing he was a man of God who brought a word from God and some times it was correction, and such, showing tremendous miracles. The word prophet comes from the word prophetes which means “one who speaks for another.” This pointer finger points us to God and points out the Word of God for us.
The third finger, the middle finger represents the evangelist.
Holding your hand out flat and fingers together, you have a middle finger, the longest finger on your hand. This is the evangelist. This finger usually sticks out farther than the other four. Thus the evangelist reaches out into the community bringing in souls into the kingdom of God. It is an anointing that is within the evangelist that reaches for souls.
The fourth finger on the hand is the ring finger, the covenant finger, and represents the Pastor of the church.
The pastor is married to the church. He is in covenant to the Church that God has placed him over. He provides weekly food for the church table, the Word preached and taught to the sheep.
The pastor labors studying and preparing the Word. He gives fresh food as manna from heaven. He visits the sick and others in the body of the church. He stays daily with the church and assures all is well. He sets offices inside the church, prays and guards over them. He helps keep the sheep from wandering off, and being eaten by wolves. The pastor is the shepherd and covenant man of the church's house.
The fifth finger on the hand, the pinkie finger, is the smallest finger and most time with the hardest job. It represents The teacher. This little finger is the one we use to reach down into our ears. The little finger, the teacher, is anointed to bring the word in a way that one with a hearing ear, can sit down and listen to the teaching until well fed. A dedicated teacher is always studying to be prepared and his light never turns out. It’’s the anointing in the office of teacher that makes the Word blessed. We need anointed teachers of the Word.
I’ve seen the offices of evangelist, pastor, and teacher compared to the obstetrician, the pediatrician, and the dietitian.
One must pray and ask God to show where one fits, God will show him or her. He is concerned about His ministry and His church working so that all works together properly.
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