5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (9) Evangelist

Evangelism Ministry

One of the peculiar difficulties encountered when you intensely study the scriptures and seek to get at the core and intent of the original writings we have in our bibles is that – in the New Testament at least – Ancient Greek and Modern English are not particularly tidy bed-fellows.  My wife, though hearing, is very proficient in Auslan, the sign language of the Australian Deaf community.  Like sign languages the world over, it is a language in its own right, with its own structure and grammar and nuances.  Working as I do with New Testament Greek and having my wife nearby working in Auslan, I have found that it is often easier and more effective to translate New Testament Greek into Auslan because the basic language rules are more similar than between the Greek and today’s English.

One of the areas where this is evident is those places in New Testament Greek where a noun is simply put into a verb form.  In English, we do it with some words, but not all.  And in some cases, if we do, the result is clumsy and confusing.  Let me illustrate this using the five ecclesia leadership functions we are talking about here.  Apostle is a noun, but try using it as a verb.  Is ‘to apostle’ a legitimate verb?  Is apostling a legitimate participle?  Prophet is a noun; prophecy is a noun; but prophesy is a verb.  Teacher is a noun; teach is a verb; teaching is a participle.

Pastor is a noun; in relatively recent times, pastor has become a verb too; and pastoring is now a legitimate participle.  In earlier times, the verb would have been shepherd and the participle shepherding.  In Uganda where sheep are rare and cattle are a measure of wealth, the word for pastor is not shepherd (herder of sheep) but cowherd (herder of cattle).

But what about the evangelist?  It gets quite murky here.  And one of the reasons it does gets murky  is that this word is not a translation from Greek but a trans-literation: English has simply Anglicised the Greek word and given it an English meaning.  For this reason, I am going to spend a little time boring down into this word and some of its associated words.

Let me begin by saying that ‘evangelist’ is the Anglicised form of the Greek word euangelistas, which is itself a composite word having a central root plus a suffix and a prefix.  The root word is angelos meaning messenger – one who is sent to announce, like the ‘angel’ who came to Mary the mother of Jesus.  The Greek angelia is the message the messenger delivers; so the suffix is changed to form the different parts of speech.  On the other hand, the prefix eu is Greek for ‘good’ or ‘glad’; so a euangelia is a good message, good news, glad tidings.  Then when you take the emphasis off the message and put it back on the messenger, what do you get?  A ‘good-news-er’.  There’s no such English word, so we simply transliterate it to ‘evangelist’.

In English, the words we have to communicate the idea of the one who shares the good news as well as the act of sharing it are transliterations to which we have given our choice of meaning and that choice tends to be dictated by our particular choice of religious and theological heritage.

For instance, one of the ways the Roman Catholic Church in Australia uses the term ‘evangelist’ is to describe the writers of what we call the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  They are the Evangelists.  Whereas to some in the Protestant traditions, an evangelist is an itinerant preacher with a message of heaven and hell – as he or she defines them.  To still others, an evangelist is a teacher of the theology of salvation for those predestined for it.  And there are other definitions besides.

And this is further complicated by the introduction of yet another word into our English bibles: gospel.  Many people simply translate the Greek euangelia with the English ‘gospel’, not realising that ‘gospel’ is a seventeenth century Anglo-Saxon word inserted into our English bibles specifically to imply a pre-determined meaning: what the church traditionally understands as its ‘message’.  Unfortunately, it became the word of choice to describe and name the four accounts of the life of Jesus in our English New Testaments: the Gospel of John for instance.  The original form of this word ‘gospel’ was godspell, which literally means “the story of God”.

We now have two separate things: the good news of Jesus, and the church’s story of God.  And they have proven to be very different indeed.  The church gets to define gospel, since that word has no connection with or root to the New Testament documents.  On the other hand, Jesus insists that the real good news is “the good news of the kingdom of God” and apostle Paul is adamant that ‘the good news’ is fixed and established as: 1) the revelation of Jesus as the saviour of the world and sole mediator between God and man; 2) that revelation uniquely given to him by God: “For I would have you know brothers that the good news which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This revelation given to Paul is the same thing Jesus talked about as recorded in Matthew 24:14 – “And this good news of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole habitable world as a witness to all the nations, then shall come the end.”  And again in Matthew in Matthew 28:19-20 – “Make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

This revelation is the one true ‘evangel’ – the one true good news or glad tidings.  All others, according to Paul, are ‘different gospels’, distortions of the real thing, having their source in the institutions and philosophies and religions of man.  And I have spent much time on this subject in my work This Good News.

Having established what the good news is and that it is not necessarily the same thing as the church’s gospel, can we now say that the person who spreads abroad this good news is a “good-news-er”?  And can we say that this “sower” is “good-news-ing”?  We draw on an image from Jesus and suggest the ‘evangelist’ is “a farmer who goes out to sow seed”, paying attention to sowing the seed in good soil that will produce a harvest. This, of course, takes us to…

The How of Evangelism Ministry

The New Testament uses three main ideas to talk about how the good news of the kingdom of God is spread around: proclaim; witness or testify; and sow.  Each has its own unique Greek word.

Let me start with the last word – sow.  In the previous few paragraphs, I have shown that this is the main idea behind the verb form of the word for ‘good news’.  When I was a teenager, a phrase commonly used around our local assembly was ‘gossip the gospel’.  We were taught that this means to be so saturated with the good news that, as you go about your daily life, you will take every opportunity to share the good news with those you touch and influence.  We were further taught that there is wisdom in paying attention to Jesus’s story of the sower and the places where the seed lands: hard ground, rocks, thorny bushes, good soil.  And we were taught also to take note of Jesus’ idea of not throwing your ‘pearls’ carelessly before ‘pigs’.

Those who ‘good-news’ in this way know and understand and experience what the good news is because it has taken root in their own lives.  They can then judiciously sow it into the ‘good soil’ of those around them God is preparing to receive the seed and grow His kingdom in.  The Greek word for this is euangelizo: to sow the seed; to gossip the gospel; to evangelise.

The second idea in the New Testament is contained within the word we use when a person is called before a court to give evidence or testimony in a matter before the court.  The Greek word is martureo: to testify or to depose.  From this word, we get the English word martyr.  Not all martyrs died.  The fact that many did greatly influenced the English language to the extent that martyr came to mean someone who died for their faith.  Its original meaning in relation to our study here is someone who gives good and faithful testimony (or deposition) to the good news of the kingdom of God – for which many have died horrible deaths.

Apostle Peter wrote this:

“Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?  But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, ever ready to make a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.” (1 Peter 3:13-16)

When the good news of the kingdom of God has taken root in you, it changes you to the core of your being.  Among other things, your hope in life is radically altered and may often seem strange, and you appear deluded because, as apostle Paul noted, you are now dancing to a different drum; living according to a different vision, one that is unseen to many around you.

Whatever else you do, the New Testament teaches us, be ever-ready to give a good and sound defence for the hope that drives and motivates you.  Look at the examples of Jesus and Paul and the other apostles, how they didn’t lapse into fear and anguish when confronted with hostility but steadily sought the face and the wisdom of the Father and bore good witness.

Jesus teaches his disciples, “But when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak.” (Matthew 10:19)  And consider Jesus’ own experience:  “He who rejects me, and does not receive my sayings, has one who judges him at the last day.  For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:48-49)  I believe the Father does the same for all His sons, not just His once-born, first-born Son.

The third idea in the New Testament is the Greek word kerygma or kerusso, meaning herald and proclamation or to herald or to proclaim.  There are two parts to the central idea within this word.  First, it contains the idea of the ancient town-crier.  Before we had the printing machine and radio and television waves, men would take a bell and toll it to get the people’s attention, then loudly proclaim the news according to the script they were given.  Second, it contains the idea of the runner.  A marathon is called a marathon because the original one was a man who ran from Marathon in Greece to Athens, in 490 BC, to deliver the message that the battle at Marathon had been won.

The ‘angel’ heralded Jesus’ birth and John heralded the public ministry of Jesus and the beginning of the good news of the kingdom of God; Jesus is the first and the preeminent runner – he not only carries the message, he is the message.  The true ‘evangelist’ today may do either or both, but the message remains the same: the good news of the kingdom of God in Jesus – here and now.

The message – the ‘evangel’, the good news of the kingdom of God – is fixed and established and doesn’t change.  How it is delivered may very well change to suit the situation or the people involved, but its substance and content remains the same.  That is why Paul was so incensed that the Galatians were to hear Paul say, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different ‘gospel’ which is really not good news at all.”

The ‘evangelist’, I believe, is both gifted and skilled in all three forms: sowing the seed; bearing witness to Jesus and the truth that sets men free; and heralding the good news of the kingdom of God.  Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy applies well: “Proclaim the logos; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, warn, encourage; with all long-suffering and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

One final word from Paul: “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat of that temple; those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?  So also the Lord ordained that those sowing the good news get their living from the good news.” (1 Corinthians 9:14)

Next: the Pastoral ministry

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (8) Teacher

Teaching Ministry

The New Testament knows three different words each of which can legitimately be translated teach / teacher / teaching.

The first is didasko.  This is the word that is used in Ephesians 4 when Paul says there are “some teachers” given to the Body of Christ to take her on to maturity.  The teacher here is the Master.  In a trade, it is the Tradesman; in a university, it is the Master or Doctor.  Consult a modern dictionary, and it will tell you that a ‘journeyman’ is someone who has completed an apprenticeship and is working at their trade for or on behalf of someone else, an employer for example.  In this sense, apostle Paul as a ‘teacher’ (didaskalos) was a journeyman.  As far as God was concerned, Paul was qualified and ‘approved to be entrusted with the good news’ and he was engaged in that ‘trade’ for and on behalf of Jesus.  Remember Paul’s words, “I plead with you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  The relationship here would be, in simple terms, one of experienced adult to inexperienced adult.

The second is paideuo.  This is the word used when you want to talk about instructing a child:  “Train up a child in the way that he should go…”  The idea being conveyed here has to do with the responsibility of a parent to train and instruct their child in all the matters of life as it is lived in their place and time.  The basic relationship here is one of parent and offspring.  This word has the same root as the main Greek word for child.  Hence a paediatrician is a doctor who specialises in children.

The third is kateecheo.  This is the word used when you want to talk about giving a child a formal education.  It is the Greek word we get our word Catechism from.  Its inference is that formal instruction, even using rote learning models, is in play.  It is generally age-specific in that as the child grows in years, the teaching grows with them.  It is also often in the form of question and answer, as are the Catechisms of various lines of church life.  An example of this is a snippet from the Anglican Shorter Chatechism: “What is the chief and highest end of man?”  Reply: “The chief and highest end of man is to worship God and fully to enjoy Him forever.”

Ecclesia’s Teachers

The teachers of Ephesians 4 are of the first kind.  They are didaskalous.  They have served their time, done their apprenticeship (discipleship) and are qualified and approved to pass their learning and skill on to others.  They are in the service of God, working on behalf of Jesus, to add their part to the recipe for maturity for the Body of Christ that matches that of Jesus Himself.  The ones they are passing their learning on to are called ‘acolytes’.  So you have Master and Apprentice; didaskalon and acolyte.

This is the word Jesus used when he instructed his twelve apprentices before he left them: “disciple all the nations…teaching them to diligently observe the entirety of what I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20).

What kind of teaching is it?  It is adult to adult; it is about teaching things not known by the learner; it is not parent to child; it is not school teacher to pupil; it is not about teaching a child life-skills; it is not about learning a religious catechism.  It is about the kingdom of God; about ecclesia; about the fellowship of the saints; about the good news of the kingdom of God; about faith, hope and love; about pulling back the curtain on the revelation of the mystery of Jesus and his Bride; about seeing the unseen; about hearing the faintest whisper of the Father; about discerning which way the wind of the Spirit is blowing – in short, about what Paul calls “living according to the Spirit”.

The new Testament uses only this word didaskalon when it speaks of teachers in the Body of Christ.  Acts 13:1 says there were prophets and teachers in the ecclesia at Antioch: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul (who later became Paul).  It doesn’t say if these men were both prophets and teachers or if some were one and some the other.  Looking at other parts of the New Testament, I think it is likely Saul’s primary gifting was teacher and Barnabas’ was prophet.

What it does indicate is that these men were ministering to the Lord and fasting.  As they did, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”  They were prophets and teachers; and then they became ‘apostles’ by this act of sending them out – that is the meaning of the word.  An apostle is one sent out with a commission.

This fits with the whole idea of the kind of teaching I am talking about.  They had done their time, served their apprenticeship and were qualified and approved by God for the work they were now being sent out to do.  Notice the Holy Spirit instructed them to set apart Barnabas and Saul “for Me”.  They will be working for and on behalf of Jesus under the direction the Holy Spirit.  Note verse 4 says, “Being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”

Then verse 5 notes that when they reached Salamis [on the eastern end of Cyprus] they began “good-newsing” (sowing) the logos, the story of Jesus, in the Jewish synagogue there.  Given that Jews from Cyprus were likely to have been in Jerusalem at Pentecost a few years earlier (the Acts 2 account), it is also fairly likely that the ministry now built on the foundation of Peter’s proclamation on that day.  And we note it is not just Barnabas and Saul: they had John Mark (see Acts 12:25) with them.

The record shows they carried on teaching the logos throughout the whole island and eventually came to Paphos on the western end of the island where the Roman Proconsul Sergius Paulus wanted to hear their message.  They were opposed by Elymas who is described as both a magician and a Jewish false prophet going by the name Bar-Jesus (which means son of Jesus) trying to turn the Proconsul away from the faith.  Saul (now mostly called Paul) receives intuitive knowledge from the Holy Spirit and spoke out boldly to the magician and made him blind there and then.

Acts 13:12 makes this important statement: “Then the Proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching (didasko) of the Lord.”

As Westerners, we love to fit this story into our church structures and suddenly make Paul an evangelist as we think of evangelists.  He wasn’t; he was a teacher; he taught; he ‘evangelised’ with the logos (the story of Jesus) and his hearer was amazed at this teaching of the Lord.  Consider Paul’s own words to his son-in-faith Timothy: “And for this I was appointed a herald and an apostle – a teacher of nations in faith and truth.” (1 Timothy 2:7)   What we note of Paul here is that he is a teacher who, by virtue of being set apart for God and sent out with a commission, has become an apostle, who functions in a prophetic teaching ministry.  Is it any wonder Paul later indicates that the foundational ministries in ecclesia are first apostle, second, prophet, third teacher?

The How of Teaching Ministry

Paul, throughout his life, is the living embodiment of teacher and teaching ministry – and his story indicates one of the ways teaching ministry functions.  The other main illustration of teaching ministry comes in the form of Timothy and Titus, two of Paul’s disciples whom he apprenticed and eventually sent as overseers of ecclesia, one to Ephesus, one to Crete.

One teaching ministry is to spread abroad the logos of God, the story of Jesus, to bring men and women to faith in the Lord; the other is to build up the believers within the ecclesia of God, making them solid and well-grounded in the knowledge of God and in the hope of the good news.  This then enables them to always be ready to give a good account of and reason for the hope that is in them.  This latter work seems to be the emphasis in Timothy’s ministry at Ephesus and Titus’ on Crete.

Both Timothy and Titus were appointed and sent by Paul as ‘overseers’ (Greek: episkopos, literally meaning overseer) and according to Paul, one important trait of an overseer is that he be qualified and ever-ready to teach (1 Timothy 3:2).  What he wrote to Titus gives the more detail (Titus 1:9-16): “The overseer must … hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict.”

Take careful note of these verses.  I believe Paul’s instruction to Titus opens a window on how the ministry of teaching was established in the ecclesias Paul brought his influence to.

“Cling steadfastly to the word of faith which is in accordance with the teaching [you received from me and my co-workers], so that you are able to exhort with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it, for there are many rebellious men – empty talkers and deceivers; especially those of the circumcision sect – who must be silenced because they are subverting and corrupting whole households, teaching things they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain.  One of them – a ‘prophet’ of their very own – said: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”.  This is true testimony! 

“For this reason, reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who have perverted the truth.  To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure for both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and incapable of any good deeds.  But as for you, speak the things that befit sound teaching” (Titus 1:9 to 2:1)

These are stern words indeed.  I am of the opinion that, as the ‘Pharisee sect’ of Acts 15 and the ‘Jewish circumcision sect’ of Titus 1 are alive and well today, so also should be the powerful teaching ministry described here.  Unfortunately, by and large, it is not – and hasn’t been for many many years.  It is difficult in the extreme today to find – alive and well – the good news of Jesus devoid of what I call antique legalism: the legalism of today’s Pharisee and circumcision sects.  Whole households, indeed whole congregations of people, have been subverted and corrupted by an array of pseudo-gospels that come with all kinds of strings attached.

And like then, so now: many times it is done for the sake of sordid gain, either financial or personal.  And like then, many of these make claims of being apostles and prophets who go around saying things that are contrary to the good news of the kingdom of God, contrary to the logos of Jesus and contrary to the scriptures.  Many of the things they teach are straight out of the Law of Moses: “Jewish myths and commandments of men who have perverted the truth” (see above).  It is as if the law of Moses is part of the good news we are to preach and part of the administration of the ecclesia (keeping the ten commandments for instance).  Apostle Paul’s words, as delivered to us by Luke in the book of Acts and by Paul himself in his epistles, loudly proclaim to all who have ears, “IT IS NOT SO!”  Concerning these teachers Paul wrote strongly: “I WISH THOSE WHO ARE DOING THIS WOULD CASTRATE THEMSELVES; I WISH THESE TROUBLE-MAKERS WOULD EMASCULATE THEMSELVES.” (See Galatians 5:12)

But the problem now is that everything has been turned on its head.  The faithful teachers of the faithful word as Paul was and as Paul referred to are now considered the trouble-makers.  The Pharisee sect rules!  They get to say what is taught – and who teaches it – and most often it has nothing to do with obvious Spiritual gift or Divine calling.  Even perhaps more than in Paul’s day, today it is absolutely imperative that teachers teach; that teachers “exhort with sound teaching and refute those who contradict it”; that the “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers … must be silenced because they are subverting and corrupting whole households, teaching things they ought not.”

I recently read a teaching book on teaching ministry in the church today.  It contains so many things from the Pharisee sect that I refuse to mention it by name or by author or publisher.  And yet it comes from the very heart of one of the large international movements of “Third Wave” church life of the late 20^th century.

Teachers today, on the one hand, need to teach – oh, we desperately need them to teach; and to heed the teacher.  And the teachers need so desperately to learn and to teach the fundamentals as taught by Jesus and Paul and to soundly defeat the lies and the plunderings of the Pharisee sect and be heard to rebuke them sternly as Paul wrote to Titus.

On the other hand, the teachers often feel so heavily constrained by apostle James’ teaching: “Let not many become teachers, my brothers, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgement.  For we all stumble in many things.  If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” (James 3:1-2)  James goes on for several verses about how dangerous is the tongue and the importance of taming it – as one tames a wild beast.

Here’s what I suggest – to myself and to anyone else who is gifted as a teacher in the Body and who carries the burden of teaching as did Paul, Titus and Timothy.  Take what Paul wrote to Titus seriously; remember, as James said, that our tongue can run away with the rest our being and don’t let it; remember the stricter judgement that James wrote about; but also remember Paul’s teaching that a) it is those who are led by the Spirit of God who are sons of God and b) the sons of God have the mind of Christ.  Then teach your heart out in the power of the Holy Spirit and under His direction.  God needs teachers who will today do what Paul was teaching Titus to do, not teachers who hold back for fear of their tongue running away with them.

Yes, the tongue is a small member and it indeed can start a forest fire; but personally, I believe that is precisely what God wants to do in this hour – under the direction of the Holy Spirit and by His power.  “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’, says the Lord.”  The safeguards necessary are given clearly in Paul’s instructions, especially the qualities he taught Timothy and Titus to insist upon for overseers.  These qualities clearly apply to Timothy and Titus themselves, not just to the ones they would eventually appoint as elders.  They apply equally to teachers in the Body today.  But you will never find Paul advocating holding back out of fear of starting a fire.  I think perhaps Paul understood Jesus’s words, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!”

Old vs New

Now there is one other important issue here: what is the ‘source’ of the ministry of teaching we have within and among the people of God today?  Throughout his writings, and those of Luke who wrote Acts, Paul is at pains to make it perfectly clear that his ‘gospel’ – his evangel – is not a post-Jesus extension of Jewish law and traditions; it is not a revised Law of Moses.  Indeed, the writer to the Jews (the Hebrews) strongly puts the case that not only is Jesus superior in every way to Moses, the covenant he inaugurated is superior in every way to the Mosaic covenant.  And Jesus was abundantly clear on this issue.  The new evangel is not a matter of adding Jesus to the old evangel; it is an entirely new, separate, distinct and vastly superior message.

And one of the facets of its superiority is its source.  The old message traces its source back to the Jewish covenants of Abraham and Moses and it is essentially a message of law and order, blessing and cursing, obedience and disobedience, all based on the written code.  The covenant of Abraham and the Law of Moses are the primary source of the old message.  And these covenants were administered through a human priesthood and a series of rites performed according to a calendar.  And God dwelt among His people as represented by the box known as the ‘ark of the covenant’, not in them either individually or corporately.

This bears no comparison with the new message.  The new message is entirely ‘other’.  God no longer relates to man (Jew and non-Jew alike) according to the terms and conditions of the old covenant.  He instituted, and inaugurated in Jesus, a new covenant whose basis is grace, not law.  God no longer dwells in temples made with hands, but within the lives of His family members and in their gatherings of at least two or three.  The written code of commandments and rules and blessing and cursing has given way to God’s trustworthy word being written on the hearts of people: His logos (which is firstly His Son and secondly the story of His son), His rhema (which is whatever He speaks in the moment to His children), and scripture (now interpreted through the covenant of Jesus).  It is a message of faith, hope and love; of deep, satisfying intercourse with God and, as a result of that, with our fellow-man and with our selves.

And what type of knowledge does the teacher primarily deal with?  It is the knowledge that comes from a sound mind studying and working hard like an athlete to exercise and challenge the intellect – both his and his hearers; it is the knowledge that comes from the discipline of sitting at the feet of Jesus and of other Spirit-anointed teachers who have been given to the ecclesia for her maturity; it is the knowledge of “correctly handling the word of God” (logos, rhema and scripture), not peddling it like second-hand merchandise.

All of these are the source of the teaching ministry within the ecclesia of God in the new covenant.  And all that has its source in the old covenant – in the “Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth” and in the Pharisee sect and the circumcision sect – is to be refuted and silenced, according to Paul.  Paul’s summary instruction for teachers is Titus 2:1 – “But as for you, speak the things that befit sound teaching.”  Amen!  And by doing that, you teach without trying: you teach how to be a teacher and how to teach.

And can I encourage teachers to note this: Jesus’ ministry was about disciples and discipleship and making disciples (Greek – matheetees).  When he commissioned the twelve, the central instruction to them was to ‘disciple the nations, teaching them…’  And Paul’s instruction to Timothy – and quite probably Titus as well – was, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  This is discipleship in action.  And it is intended by Jesus and Paul to be the basic and central thrust of how the new life in Christ is to be lived in the world.  When we do this according to Jesus and Paul, drawing on the sources I have indicated here, things are far less likely to go astray and off track.  I encourage you to revisit what I presented earlier in the section on apostolic ministry from Floyd McClung and his work: You See Bones, I See an Army.  Things tend to go off track when they get polluted or diluted by religion, legalism, institution and the grubby hands of man; when they depart from the rich simplicity of Jesus.

Next: Evangelist

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (7) Prophet

Prophetic Ministry

What is prophetic ministry?

When our bodies are sick and we go to God to get well again, He has His medicine and His health professionals to dispense that medicine.  The person might be a “worker of miracles” and His prescription a miracle.  He might also use a medical practitioner who will prescribe medicine to make us well.

Among the people of God historically, prophets have been God’s spiritual health professionals.  Their role is that of bearer of God’s diagnosis and prescription for the health of the Body.

As a general principle, we can say that during times of ‘health’ when the Body is not rebelling and is flowing in the Spirit, the ministry of the prophet concerns itself principally with guidance and direction.  An obedient people can enquire of the prophet “should we do so-and-so?”;  “should we go down this track or that one?”.  The prophets’ ministry is to an obedient people of God what a coach’s ministry is to a healthy, fit athlete.  The prophets’ ministry is to a disobedient people of God what the coach’s ministry is to an unfit, flabby, out of shape athlete.

For a moment, consider two scriptures:

“Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”  (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Ecclesia and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (rhema), and to present her to himself as a radiant ecclesia, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”  (Ephesians 5:25-27)

It is fairly safe to suggest from these that when the Ecclesia is “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless”, prophecy will no longer be necessary because “perfection” [maturity, conpletion] has come.

This suggests to me several things:

ü As long as the Ecclesia has wrinkles, spots, stains or blemishes, God will have His prophets who will sit in His council, see and hear (Jeremiah 23:18) and then go and speak.

The suggestion that the Ecclesia will have these deficiencies until we get to glory is to make light of Jesus’ prayer of John 17 and to make nonsense out of scriptures like Ephesians 4:13-16 and 5:25-27.

ü Prophets have the unenviable task of being bearers of what sounds and looks like bad news.  Consequently, it remains true that the people of God always “kill” the prophets and persecute those God sends.  (Refer Luke 13:34).

Imagine someone you know who is sick going to the doctor and finding out what ails them.  The doctor gives them a  prescription and they go to the Chemist but instead of paying for the medicine and  taking it to get well, they bash the chemist and return to shoot the doctor.  Such people have some form of mental illness and would in all probability be regarded as criminals – at best, criminally insane.

This is what happens to the prophets among the people of God.  The fact that it happens itself proves the need of the very ministry God sent them to bring.

For the ill person, to go on blissfully ignorant of illness may seem ‘good’ but it will eventually catch up with them.  What seems good is in fact bad news.  For that same ill person, the ‘bad news’ of diagnosis and the bad taste of the prescription are actually ‘good news’ for his/her health.

So many times prophets are accused of being ‘negative’ and the bearers of bad news when the truth is their spiritual diagnosis and prescription (‘bad news’) is actually good news for the Body - if the Body will listen and act.

This demonstrates the first aspect of prophetic ministry in the Ecclesia: spiritual diagnosis.

Terry Virgo describes this aspect of prophetic ministry as the prophet’s voice coming “like an axe to the root of our problems... The prophet has the incisive clarity of vision that cuts through clutter and searches out motives and intentions like a probing laser beam.  He forces us to ask uncomfortable questions that lead to uncomfortable answers.  He causes the leaders to re-examine the church’s activities in the light of the principles which he shows them.” (Restoration in the Church, Kingsway, London, 1985.  p.109)

A second aspect is that of “speaking things into existence” or declaring things which are not as though they are and seeing them come about.

This aspect of prophetic ministry is revealed to us in Isaiah 44:24-26 where God declares, “I am the Lord ... who carries out the words of His servants and fulfils the predictions of His messengers.”  When holy men and women live in His presence, sit in His council and look and listen, God sends them out with His message.  It is contrary to His nature to then turn that message into a falsehood and deceive or mock his servant the prophet.  Jeremiah accused God of doing just that (Jer 20) and God proved otherwise.

This predictive aspect of prophetic ministry is also seen in the New Testament in the ministry of Agabus (Acts 21:10-14).  Terry Virgo says of this type of prophetic ministry: “it is not human manipulation that [leads] us along, but the Living God.”  (Ibid, p. 116)

A third key aspect of prophetic ministry is that of encouragement.  This is illustrated for us in the ministry of the prophet Nathan to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7.

First, Nathan ministers to David.  Then during the night God ministers to Nathan, correcting the guidance he had given David.  Next, Nathan ministers to David “all the words of this entire revelation.” And what was David’s response?  He “went in and sat before the Lord” and ministered to Him and prayed a “contrite heart” kind of prayer.

It is significant that Samuel records David’s victories immediately after he records this instance of prophetic ministry and his response to it.  In chapter 8 he records: “In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them...”  And he defeated Moab, Hadadezer, the Arameans, and the list goes on and on.

Again quoting Terry Virgo: “Some prophetic ministry paints a large vision of what is going to happen, inspiring us to new acts of faith and delivering us from the commonplace.  We come to under-stand that the church has a glorious destiny. ‘The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it’ (Isaiah 2:2).  We excitedly press on through the pressures as a prophetic people”  (Ibid. p. 116)

This type of prophetic ministry is further illustrated for us in the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah to leaders such as Joshua and Zerubbabel during the restoration program recorded for us in Nehemiah.

The How of Prophetic Ministry

Ephesians 4 tells us that the risen Jesus has given to the people of God prophets who, along with others, are given for the prepation of the people for works of ministry that God has for them.

“Some have tried”, as Terry Virgo says, “to dismiss the prophet by arguing that he is simply a preacher or teacher, but the lists of gifts in Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Romans 12:6-7 are consistent in differentiating between them.  Why does the Holy Spirit record them as different if they are simply the same gift? And what are we missing in the church without their ministry?” (Ibid. p. 114)

Of those who do accept the role and ministry of the prophet today, many still insist on a pyramid-type structure of local ecclesia leadership and the prophet comes further down the ladder than the local ‘Pastor’, Elders or Deacons.  As long as we maintain these structures and ideas, the prophetic ministry we ‘hear’ will be of limited benefit to us because often the word the prophet has for us concerns these very structures and ideas.

What the scriptures do suggest, I believe, is a mutually submitted and accountable circle of “elders” among whom are ones given to the Church by Jesus to be apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and shepherds.  When this is so, prophetic ministry can become an integral part of the life of a local assembly.  However, if we insist on having a ‘head honcho’, almost invariably, it will be the one with prophetic ministry who is the first to be squeezed out — because he challenges our very leadership and organisational structures.

At the local congregation level then, we must give the prophet room to move — not just in bringing individual words (many times, these are not prophecies as such, but words or knowledge or words of wisdom), but the whole local ecclesia must itself be exposed to the prophetic ministry.

In the ‘Apostolic Ministry’ section, I outlined what I see as a linkage between three threes: three types of knowledge (experiential, intellectual and intuitive), three things called ‘the word’ (logos, scripture and rhema), and the leadership functions of apostle, prophet and teacher.  Each of these is a critical and essential element in the process of the kingdom of God being proclaimed and entered into, and the Body of Christ being transformed, degree by degree, into the image and maturity of Christ.  In this, the apostle is the pioneer, the vanguard movement.  His emphasis is logos and experiential knowledge.

However, the prophet comes, as always, with the perspective of eternity; with intuitive knowledge and the rhema of God; to reveal things in the Spirit; to expose; to exhort; to be like a hammer and like pruning shears and like a surgeon’s scalpel; to be like an x-ray machine both on our inner workings and the workings of the Spirit of God; to bring insight and resolution.

And listening to a prophet won’t be like listening to a teacher.  The prophet will often sound unbalanced — because he will sound like he has only one message.  He does not attempt to be balanced.  Rather, his burden will be that the present issue is being understood and resolved.

The Roving Prophet

In this day — when the prophets are only just beginning to be accepted as prophets; and when many local assemblies are not at the point I have described above — God uses what I call the roving prophet.  He is not simply a part of a local ecclesia leadership circle.  Instead, he moves from place to place.  You might say that the whole Body of Christ is his congregation.

Scripture also shows us this.  It affirms that in the broad, general arena, God has an order and He is calling us today, through the prophets, to restore that order.

“Now you are one body and each one of you is a part of it.  And in the ecclesia God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.” - 1 Corinthians 12:27-28

The absence of pastor and evangelist from this ‘order’ is interesting, to say the least.  But that aside, clearly the restoration of God’s “order” of things as revealed through Paul does not suggest  that these are levels of personal authority.  I suggest, rather, that they are levels of ministry importance to the Body of Christ as she moves forward together, in the Spirit, towards her glorious destiny as the perfect bride of the Son.

[I also susggest that “workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing” in fact describes the new, true evangelists and that “those having gifts of healing, those able to help others” describes the new, true pastors.]

Prophetic ministry is indispensible to the people of God and the only real question we need to ask is: will we accept the prophet  AS A PROPHET?  Will we accept the prophet without having to label him/her ‘Pastor so-and-so’?  Will we accept the prophet without caving in to our felt need to demonstrate to the congregation that we too have this gift — so we don’t really need to listen to him/her?!

When we accept the prophet AS A PROPHET, we receive a prophet’s reward (Matthew 10:41). 

What is a ‘Prophet’s Reward’

First, it is the prophet’s presence.  When we honour a prophet as a prophet and accept the ministry, he/she can be with us — and even come back! — without the pain of rejection.

Second, it is the blessing of God.  When we accept the prophet’s ministry and begin resolving the relevant issues, our obedience encourages the Spirit to stay among us.  Rejection of the prophet’s ministry encourages Him to gradually depart.  [Note ICHABOD of 1 Samuel 4:21-22 and the departing of the glory of God from the temple in Ezekiel 9 to 11]

Third, not only does our obedience encourage the Spirit to stay, it puts us in line to receive the promises of God relating to the prophecy, and to receive the actual fulfillment of the prophecy.

Conclusion

ü Prophetic ministry enlarges our expectation of the immediate presence of God.

ü It changes us so we begin to grasp God’s intention for the Ecclesia and so we can become a “prophetic people”.  Short-term problems no longer dominate our thinking and prevent necessary change.

ü It enlightens us to the purpose and destination of the spiritual renewal we find oursleves in.

ü It cuts through the layers of rubble to reveal motives and intentions.

ü It forces us to ask uncomfortable questions that lead to uncomfortable answers.

ü It causes us to re-consider our activities and programs in the light of the principles the prophet reveals.

ü It exposes weakness and need so that it can be changed.

ü It increases our resolve to be obedient to God’s revealed will regardless of the implications.

ü It lifts our eyes from the small, the local and the parochial to the large, the universal and the national.

ü It brings clarity to the business of “understanding seasons”.

ü It helps prevent us from being side-tracked with present worries and relative trivialities.

ü It impacts our lifestyles and forces us to re-assess our values (rather like the pearl merchant I mentioned earlier).

ü It can so affect ecclesia life that the assembly itself becomes a prophetic voice to the nation.

We are clearly in a time of the restoration of true prophetic ministry to the ecclesia.  We need to make room for it — and for the prophet himself.  After all, he is a man too and needs our fellowship and support and encouragement as any other does.

I venture to ask: how can we afford to go without prophetic ministry?

Terry Virgo makes the point well: “Without the prophet, the local church will lack the vision, motivation and faith to fulfil its God-given role.  When a purely pastoral foundation is laid in a local church, that company will fail to be truly charismatic even if many become Spirit-filled, speak in tongues and sing new choruses.

“The prophet must not be invited simply to excite the people occasionally, but to equip the saints to produce the fruit of his own ministry in their lives.  He will see where death has crept into a situation and where discouragement has resulted in the congregation simply going through the motions without any expectation.”  (Ibid. pp. 114-115)

But prophetic ministry, like any other ministry in the Ecclesia, cannot — AND MUST NOT — be controlled by men seeking to bring it under the umbrella of 'my church' and 'my vision' — or even 'our church' and 'our vision'. 

Both the Ecclesia and the vision belong to Jesus.  At best, we are under-shepherds of God’s flock.  We are also “unprofitable servants” who have only done our duty (Luke 17:10).  But we have had the enormous privilege of waiting on Him.  And, as the scripture says, thus “we will run and not be weary; we will walk and not faint”.

One final word from apostle Peter: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.”  (2 Peter 1:20-21)

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (6) Apostle

Apostolic Ministry

There are a number of important understandings of apostolic ministry that come directly from the word itself.  I fear that we often think the New Testament writers had an English dictionary beside them when they were writing and chose words with pre-defined terms that worked for their readers.  I get that impression from a lot of what I hear and read.

Putting that aside, let’s go on a bit of a hike to see what we can find concerning apostles and apostolic ministry.  To begin with, I want to consider a ‘big picture’ item that I believe gives an appropriate context for apostles – the original ones as well as contemporary ones.  For this, I use the word ‘exclave’ (not enclave, but exclave).  Yes, it really is a word

First take a look at the following illustration.

Noting that B and C are the same colour, C is an enclave in relation to A and an exclave in relation to B.  It is an exclave in that it is essentially an outpost of B – a part of B excised away and placed within A.  We can see many glimpses of this in Australian society because of our multicultural make-up.  There are large ethnic groups within Australia from many nations of the world.  Consider the Greeks in Melbourne for example.  In relation to Australia and Melbourne, they form an enclave; in relation to Greece, they are an exclave – a little part of Greece excised and planted in Australia.

International embassies are also a fine illustration of an exclave.  The US Embassy in Kampala (C) is an enclave in Uganda (A) and an exclave of the USA (B).

In a similar way, Paul's understanding of the place and the role of the New Covenant People of God in Christ (C) is that they are an enclave in the world, the kingdom of man (A) and an exclave of the Kingdom of God (B).

And there is an important extra dimension to this illustration: The Kingdom of God – the place God inhabits – is eternity, a ‘place’ not constrained by time, space and matter. The kingdom of man is the place of time, space and matter. The new covenant people of God – what Paul calls the ecclesia – is a volatile state of transition between the two. The people of God have ‘eternity in their hearts’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and are undergoing a permanent transformation into the likeness of Christ (Romans 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 3:18) while still being largely constrained within the time, space, matter continuum.

The ecclesia is an outpost of Eternity (the eternal Kingdom of God; the realm of God and His Son) placed within the world (the temporal kingdom of man; the realm of Satan and his entourage) for the purpose of representing the interests of the Kingdom of God and His Son and of providing the ‘bridge’ or way of passage from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved son as Paul sets out in Colossians 1:13.

I am sure that if (God forbid) the US Embassy in Uganda (C) is torn down, the Ambassador and his staff will be evacuated home (B).  Now listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians.  He says that if our earthly tent is torn down, we do in fact have, in God, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

The US Ambassador in Uganda (or embassy staff) from time to time probably groan and long for ‘home’.  That’s what Paul says here: “we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.”

Paul goes on to say that we groan “…to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.  Now he who has prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”  I am sure the US Ambassador to Uganda has received some pledge as to his future back in the US.

Now following such a wonderful assurance from Eternity, Paul goes on to list for all to see what he counts as the ‘therefores’ of this situation:

• We walk by faith, not by sight, and are of good courage – while we continue to prefer “to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord”;
• We make it our ambition – whether here or at home – “…to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad”;
• (Knowing the fear of the Lord) “we persuade men, but are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf”;
• (From now on) “we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation”;
• We are “ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; ‘we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God’. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Paul understood that he was an Ambassador from a distant country in an exclave of that country, situated in a different country living as a feared or despised enclave, but having the gifts, ministry and calling of reconciliation between the citizens of the host country and the King of his country.  That’s the job of an Ambassador – and it’s the job of an Apostle.  And, incidentally, apostle is a Greek word, while the Latin equivalent (with the same meaning) is missionary.

We must not commit the error of trying to create a definition of apostle and apostolic ministry out of the murky mass of mediocrity we call ‘church’.  God’s intention is that apostles and their apostolic ministry define and build ‘church’ – or, more correctly, ecclesia, since church as we know it is man’s idea while ecclesia is God’s idea.

Paul is doubtless an apostle, even though he is somewhat different from the original twelve apostles Jesus appointed.  And Paul evidently sees that others around him share his gift, ministry and calling.  So the first thing we can learn here is that ‘apostle’ is not a class of ministry, but the description of a man (or woman) who has the gifts, ministry and calling as an Ambassador of Christ as he described in 2 Corinthians 5, especially verses 19 to 21.

In like manner, we can learn pretty much everything else we need to know from the rest of 2 Corinthians 5.  We can then add to that the things we can learn from the recorded history of Apostle Paul and his years of ministry throughout Judea, West Asia and Europe – as recorded for us in Acts and in the letters written to the congregations that were started.

In addition, Jesus is referred to as “the apostle and high priest of our confession” in Hebrews 3:1.  John wrote that “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14) and he said in John 1:14 that “the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us”.  Jesus wasn’t just an Ambassador and an Envoy; He was all that as well as the King’s Son.

Then, of course, there are the twelve disciples whom Jesus sent out as emissaries – apostles – into the world.  John records Jesus saying, “As the Father has sent me I also send you.”  The twelve were disciples who became friends, who became ‘sent ones’ – apostles we would call them in English as we simply take the Greek word and Anglicise it instead of translating it.

The How of Apostolic Ministry

Let me start this section with a quote from Cheryl McGrath, a prophet involved in a ministry called Great South Land Ministries.  The article is "THE TWOFOLD COMPANY OF APOSTLES AND PROPHETS AND SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE PROPHETIC COMMUNITY" of April 2012.

"In the story of the feeding of the five thousand we see a prophetic picture of the fivefold governmental ministries given by Christ as a gift of grace to His Bride (Eph. 4:7-8). There are five loaves, which must first be broken to be fit for the Bride to eat, just as the Bread of Life, Jesus, was also broken in His own body. It is in the breaking that the multiplication takes place. The five loaves speak to us of the Bread that comes down from Heaven and represent the five-fold functions of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Twelve is the prophetic number representing corporate government.

"The twelve baskets filled with surplus bread and fish speak to us of the full sufficiency of this Christ-appointed fivefold government to bring the Bride to maturity. What then, of the two fish? I believe the two fish represent the twofold that is hidden within the fivefold - that is the joint foundation-laying ministry of apostles and prophets. Just as bread brings a fullness and nourishment to the physical body, fish also provide an added source of essential nutrients that are unique to that species.

"Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God (Deu. 8:3). Prophets bring to the Bride the rhema word tempered by the logos. Apostles deliver to the Bride the logos, impregnated with the rhema. Both together provide the Bride with specific revelation and direction."

Cheryl McGrath 

www.greatsouthland.org

Copyright 2004 Cheryl McGrath, Great South Land Ministries, Australia. 

Apostles and prophets are now and always have been critical for the proper functioning of the people of God throughout history - the McGrath article makes the point well.

Although I have no particular authority or reference to point to here, I firmly believe there is a linkage between three threes in the New Testament: three types of knowledge; three things called ‘the word’ and three primary leadership functions.  The prophet primarily deals with the rhema word of God – simply ‘that which He speaks’ – and his primary source is intuitive knowledge (Greek eido).  The teacher primarily deals with the grapho word of God – the scriptures – and his primary source is intellectual knowledge (Greek epistami).  The apostle primarily deals with the logos word of God – Jesus and the story of Jesus – and his primary source is experiential knowledge (Greek ginosko).

Each of these is a critical and essential element in the process of the kingdom of God being proclaimed and entered into and in the process of the Body of Christ being transformed, degree by degree, into the image and maturity of Christ.  In this, the apostle is the pioneer, the vanguard movement.  The apostle comes “to bring the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  He is a wise builder if he establishes that and then moves on so the complementary ministries of prophet and teacher, bringing the other types of knowledge, are free to have effect.

Once again, I come back to the seminal work of Terry Virgo in Restoration in the Church (1985: Kingsway Publications) where there is an excellent brief examination of apostolic ministry in the ecclesia in the present day.

Virgo points to these main ministries and functions of the ‘sent-ones’ today:

• They are master-builders and foundation-layers (1 Corinthians 3:10).  “Paul did not regard his apostleship as a position in a hierarchy or structure…  He had a stewardship from God.  He had to proclaim the unfathomable riches of Christ and bring people to an assured understanding of what it is to be in Christ and have Christ in them.” (Ibid. p 132)  And he asks the searching question, “How many in the average evangelical church are deeply assured that they have been crucified with Christ, have been delivered from sin, have died to law and are free from all condemnation?  Apostolic doctrine handled with apostolic authority and insight is desperately needed.”

• They bring practical correction to a local assembly that “has not only received an attitude of legalism but has actually built some of its structures around it.” (Ibid. p 133)  Local assembly elders are often the ones who feel the desperate need for apostolic ministry and authority – and that is part of the apostle’s portfolio.

• They bring a genuine fatherly care to local assemblies, without demanding allegiance to them personally.  As part of that care, they will often be able to recognise and appoint local elders with appropriate gift, ministry and calling.  The New Testament would suggest that the principle of “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) was an important part of the arrangements for this.

• They break new ground for the good news of Jesus – often as distinct from sowing where another person has ploughed.  It should be noted that the Jews had ‘evangelists’ too.  Jesus said of the Pharisees that they “travel over land and sea to win a single convert” (Matt 23:15).  They didn’t stop Paul – indeed, they probably made him work that much harder – because Paul had received the word of the new administration of God by Divine revelation and knew his calling was to take the message of reconciliation, justification and redemption to far-flung places.

• They help us determine what we are aiming to build and, when the choice is appropriate, they help us build it.  But, as Virgo suggests, “If we want to preserve the status quo, certainly we can cope without them.  If we want a nice, cosy, charismatic house group or a safe institutional church enjoying a little renewal we can find some of our hopes fulfilled.  But if we want to see the church [assembly] come to the fullness of the stature of Christ, to a mature man, it is essential for all the gifted men mentioned in Ephesians 4 to have their full place in our church life.” (Ibid. p 136)

• They start new local assemblies and assist others to break through barriers that their leaders find impossible to penetrate.

• They “bring the plumb-line to church life to see if it matches biblical revelation…  He cannot impose his authority in other churches, nor should it be his desire to do so.  He will, however, happily respond to invitations from church elders who reach out for his help.” (Ibid. p 138)

• They often find they cannot work alone and go about in teams, often working with younger disciples and elders who evidence the gift, ministry and calling to apostolic service.

• Virgo also makes this valid point: “Apostolic ministry transcends nationalism and does not attempt to superimpose one nation’s culture on another.  Some travelling ministries will count it their joy to stimulate the development of emerging apostles and prophets in other nations and then step back and let them fulfil their calling, as Barnabas did with Paul.  God will raise up Antioch bases all over the world – churches of far-reaching vision that release fresh apostolic and prophetic ministry.” (Ibid. p 141)

I think it is also very important to learn from Floyd McClung according to what he has written in You See Bones I See An Army (2007: David C Cook).

McClung believes that church [ecclesia] can be described in simple terms in a few words.  He takes Jesus’ words “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” as Jesus’ definition and description of what the ecclesia is and how it meets.
I view McClung as a modern apostle.  I believe he fits the description well and has done so for much of his adult life.  The story of Living on the Devil’s Doorstep is testament to a man with a commission – a job of work to do, sent by God and attested to by signs and wonders.

McClung works tirelessly to what he calls “an inner set of core beliefs that, for better or worse”, guide his life.  For him, they are these:

• Simple church
• Courageous leadership
• Focused obedience
• Apostolic passion
• Making disciples

I write McClung’s five core beliefs like this: He became a disciple and through focused obedience was led on to courageous leadership which led in turn to apostolic passion for growing simple [local] assemblies that make disciples that practice focused obedience and courageous leadership inspired by apostolic passion for growing simple churches that make disciples …..

Why do I include that here?  Because, for me, it is a beautiful practical expression of apostolic ministry from the heart of a present-day apostle who has a heart for the same things as “the Apostle and High Priest of our Confession”.  His book is an expansion of each of these five elements which, I believe, summarise apostolic ministry today.

Next: prophetic ministry.