POWER OVER OR SERVICE TO?

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he talks about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers being given to the church by Christ for the express purpose of preparing God’s people for works of service so that the body [of Christ] may be built up. (4 v 11&12).

This means literally that these ministries are there to facilitate the ministry of the others in the body of Christ. Or if you want it more basic, they are there to get everyone else ministering. The word service or ministry is ‘diakonia’ where we get the word or idea of deacon.

It is the same word as for Elder as well. So we have here a totally new concept of ministry. Today we think of ministry as being that which is done by a chosen few who are ‘credentialed’ by some man made denominational leadership and who often dress up as a woman if they are a man and are seen as someone special.

The New Testament idea of ministry is quite different. There are no special people as everyone is special because we are all called to ministry. Probably the main reason this does not happen because we have a few special people that are more concerned about their ministry rather than everyone else’s.

Another important reason is that most denominations don’t believe what the word of God says so they only appoint one of these ministries, that of ‘pastor’. The other four are nowhere to be seen. Such an action is saying that we don’t believe what the word of God says and we know better than God how to run the church.

One has only to dialogue with people on the internet in Christian forums to know that there is a desperate need for teachers amongst the body of Christ. Much of what is posted on the internet is based on a simple premise. Either it is a case of ‘I think that this is what it means so that must be what it means’ or ‘this verse says this so that must be what the scripture teaches’ with the writer choosing to ignore what the scripture as a whole teaches.

A classic example is Joel 2 v 28 where it says that in the last days God will pour out his spirit on all flesh and our sons and daughters will prophesy, our old men will dream dreams, our young men will see visions and the spirit will be poured out on both men and women.

According to some, this verse teaches that women can be pastors and lead the local congregation. The fact that there are 17 verses in the New Testament that indicate elders are older men and form the leadership of the local congregation is conveniently ignored.

The church today is desperately in need of makeover if it is going to come anywhere near being like the New Testament church that changed the world. One thing that it can do is give room for the other four ministries that currently it refuses to acknowledge and for these ministries to concentrate on getting everyone else fulfilling their ministry instead of insisting that everyone else become spectators for a few to perform their ministries.