Five-fold ministry

[Sister Alvear]

I believe in the five fold ministry...

[kingdomapostle]

Originally Posted by Sister Alvear

I believe in the five fold ministry...

Me too.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Sister Alvear

I believe in the five fold ministry...

As a young Christian I went to the Apostolic Bible Institute in St. Paul, MN to learn more about the Bible and to prepare myself for whatever way God might lead me. This school was established in the late 1930's and many UPC officials, ministers, missionaries, etc. received Bible teaching there. I was appalled to hear Bro. Norris (founder and president of the school) teach that there never could be any more apostles than those original 12 and that there could never be any prophets after the first century. He taught that choosing Matthias as an apostle in Acts chapter 1 was a mistake made by the others and that God never recognized him but instead replaced him with the apostle Paul. I hadn't been a Christian long but even I knew that there were about 20 people called "apostle" in the NT. Of course I wondered, if he's wrong about this, what else is he teaching wrong? That sure didn't instill much confidence in me as to the accuracy of a school which had such influence on UPC leadership and ministry.

[Sam]

The way I understand it, bishop/overseer/episkopos and elder/presbyter are basically the same per 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Bishop or overseer speaks of the authority and elder speaks of age and wisdom accumulated.

In Acts 20:17-38 Paul called for a meeting with the elders/presbyters (verse 17) and called them bishops/overseers (verse 28) and told them to shepherd/pastor/feed the congregation (verse 28).

[Michael The Disciple]

Originally Posted by Sam

The way I understand it, bishop/overseer/episkopos and elder/presbyter are basically the same per 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Bishop or overseer speaks of the authority and elder speaks of age and wisdom accumulated.

In Acts 20:17-38 Paul called for a meeting with the elders/presbyters (verse 17) and called them bishops/overseers (verse 28) and told them to shepherd/pastor/feed the congregation (verse 28).

Thats the way I see it it too Sam.