Rethinking the “Five-Fold Ministry” Part 1 – Equipping

And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Eph. 4:11-12

Much has been written over the last 2000 years concerning what has come to be called the “Five-Fold Ministry.” According to Frank Viola the modern iteration of this phrase was coined in 1824 by Edward Irving, a Presbyterian pastor in Scotland, who began teaching that “the five-fold ministry” of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers had disappeared from the church and was in need of restoration. Some sources state that Irving actually structured a four-fold ministry, considering the pastor/teacher as one “office”. For our purposes this distinction is irrelevant.

According to Irving, the restoration of these ministries would usher in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on the earth. Irving and his followers began the Catholic Apostolic Church in 1832. Its chief purpose was to restore “the five-fold ministry” and usher in the Millennial Kingdom. The Church ordained twelve “apostles” who were to be the last days equivalent of the original Twelve whom Jesus appointed.

It was prophesied that these “twelve apostles” would be the last apostles to appear on earth before Christ’s return. However, this prophecy proved to be invalid when the last of these twelve men died in 1901. Nevertheless, the phrase was perpetuated and found it’s current embodiment through the Charismatic Movement which began in the late 60′s. It has become such a widely accepted doctrine that one would almost think the phrase can actually be found in the scriptures. However, neither the phrase nor its presently accepted definition has scriptural validity.

Are there apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers today? Absolutely. To those who doubt, just consider Paul’s following statement in Eph. 4:13, “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Notice the word “until.” Since we have yet to see unity of the faith and a mature corporate expression that measures up to the stature of Christ, then these gifts of the grace of Christ are still functioning.

In this series of blog posts I will be examining Eph. 4:11-16, but I am saving the discussion about the differing functions for last because the emphasis has predominantly been placed on the wrong thing. Paul is not trying to establish a doctrinal definition of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers in this passage. Nor is he establishing a clergy caste of “ministers.” Rather his focus is on the result of their function – the growth of the body towards maturity. So with that as our focus let’s begin with the initial work of “equipping the saints.”

I believe it is accurate to state that the present idea of “equipping” is generally synonymous with instructing. Most who consider themselves “equippers” see there main role as teaching, parsing out knowledge. However, an examination of this word from its original language reveals something far more engaging and, in my opinion, Jesus-like.

The Greek word translated “equipping” is katartismos, and it is only used once in the New Testament. To gain a greater sense of this word let’s consider its root word which is katartidzo. The most common translations of katartidzo are words such as “mending,” “restoring,” and “making complete.” Specifically, this word is used in Matt. 4:21 and Mark 1:19 to describe the work of mending fishing nets by James and John. Careful study reveals the nuance of this word which means to skillfully labor to restore something to its originally intended function – to fix what has become broken so that it can once again fulfill its intended purpose. Hence the following statement “..for works of service.”

This definition reveals that those who see themselves as “equippers” must take a more hands-on approach to mending and restoring, rather than just disseminating information. This word expresses relationship with the material being mended, and a working knowledge of its originally intended purpose. If we would effectively equip others we must make an investment in their lives that goes far beyond preparing a sermon. We must handle the fabric of others’ lives and have divine insight into their function. We must know that they were in the mind of God before the foundations of the earth, and that He has prepared good works for them to do. We must see the God-ordained potential in others and seek to draw that out of them by mending their brokenness, restoring their identity and moving them towards completion in Christ. To equip the saints is to co-labor with the Father in His work of crafting others into His masterpieces through extensions of the grace of Christ. Do the saints need to be taught? Certainly. But teaching alone does not equip them for service.

Lastly, we must see that the focus is clearly not on apostles, et al. Rather, it is on the product of their work – a mature corporate man in the earth. So let our emphasis shift from fixating on the “five-fold ministry” to the mature corporate expression that is infused with apostle, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding and teaching grace. This begins with a fundamental shift in our thinking concerning what it means to equip. Hopefully that has been accomplished with this brief writing.