How five-fold ministry is essential to a functioning church.
Gifts of Ascension
As the church has evolved over time, some changes have led to it maybe not functioning as it should.
The roles of pastor and teacher have often been combined. Evangelists tend to function outside of church and prophets and apostles are few and far-between.
However, it is evident that the “Ascension Gifts” mentioned in Ephesians 4 bring all of these roles together, suggesting that for the church to operate well it needs all five — or none at all.
- The Apostle: The pioneer. They keep us true to our mission. They’re the foundation layer.
- The Prophet: They glimpse God’s heart and draw it into the fellowship.
- The Evangelist: They proclaims the gospel with their whole lives. Not just with a microphone on a street-corner.
- The Shepherd: They’re passionate about developing a loving community of people.
- The Teacher: They’re the mediators of wisdom and understanding. They communicate, simply, complex ideas.
So the question is, do you carry one of these gifts? One way to find this out is to see which area of church life that you can speak into in a unique way.
