Description
We have been discussing the need for new wineskins in order to facilitate a balanced approach to the use of the fivefold ministry of the Ephesian equipping gifts. How can we now put these principles into practise? How can the Ministry Flow Chart be used within the context of a local church? In this episode we will look at this practical tool and see how it can help us identify which of these ministries are functioning in the church and which are missing.
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Video Script
Episode 15: Flow of Ministry
We have been discussing the need for new wineskins in order to facilitate a balanced approach to the use of the fivefold ministry of the Ephesian equipping gifts. How can we now put these principles into practise? How can the Ministry Flow Chart be used within the context of a local church? In this episode we will look at this practical tool and see how it can help us identify which of these ministries are functioning in the church and which are missing.
The Ministry Flow Chart
As we have been studying, the fivefold gifts have been given to the Body of Christ for its edification, so that it can do works of service within and outside of the local church. I would like to now introduce you to a tool our MCNet team has used around the world as we equip and consultations with church teams. The “Ministry Flow Chart” is a simple way to diagram the flow of ministry in a local church. We will begin by viewing the chart from the perspective of an individual. There are six columns in the chart, but it is important to understand that there is overlap between columns and so there is more of relationship between the columns than distinct separations between each. If you are following along we are now on pages 53-57 and the tools mentioned here are in the Resource Section of the workbook. It may be best to view this podcast so you can follow along with the diagrams.
Listed from the left to the right of the Chart are the six types of ministries needed in a church: Contact, Entry, Build, Identify, Equip, and Send. All the ministries of your church can be listed in one of these six columns. Moving from the left to right, for example, from #1 to #6, is the natural progression in which someone makes contact with the community of believers and then progresses in their spiritual life. Each column represents ministries that help a person become a believer and then mature in the faith until they are a “sent” believer—fulfilling their purpose as part of God’s mission. Note that on the chart, the letter “S” represents the pastoral function, as in “Shepherd,” while the “P” represents the prophetic role. So without further ado, let’s look at each of these ministry components from the chart:
Contact (Evangelistic Function)
The first column on the left, Contact, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to bring the Body of Christ into direct contact with people who are not familiar with the Gospel or connected to a church. These may include social activities, small groups focusing on reaching the unchurched, popular ministries such as Alpha, or serving the community by providing educational opportunities, recovery programs, or ministry to the poor, for example. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the church functioning in its evangelistic role.
Entry (Evangelistic/Pastoral Function)
The second column from the left, Entry, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to help new people feel welcomed and valued in the believing community. These may include visitation ministry, use of email and social media, small groups, and intentionally assigning friendly people to greet and assist newcomers at church events. The focus of any of these strategies is to help people be accepted, safe and cared for by the body of Christ. A sense of belonging to the community of believers will often encourage people to believe in the Gospel message. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the church functioning in its pastoral role.
Build (Pastoral/Teaching Function)
The third column, Build, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to help people become established in their faith and grow in their life in Christ. These may include any ministry that provides opportunity for instruction in the basics of living as a Christ-follower, as well as modeling Christian living for those who are new in their commitment to follow Jesus. A range of ministries that help people grow would ideally be employed, including groups and individual discipleship. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the church functioning in its teaching and pastoral roles.
Identify (Teaching/Prophetic Function)
The fourth column, Identify, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to help believers discover their gifts and talents and how they can effectively develop their ministry skills. This happens best in relationships between leaders and those they are serving. Developing an intentional approach to mentoring will be the most effective way to get to know individuals at a deep enough level to help them identify their gifts, talents and skills and discover how to best use them. This could take place through small groups or one-on-one mentoring relationships. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the church functioning in its teaching and prophet role.
Equip (Prophetic/Apostolic Function)
The fifth column, Equip, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to equip believers for the ministry God is calling them to do. These include formal and informal training opportunities that allow a believer to acquire the knowledge, skills and experience that will propel them into ministry. This can take place through classes, learning cohorts, mentoring, and supervised ministry opportunities. A leadership development culture that emphasizes equipping and releasing is essential for a church to be able to become effective as an equipping church. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the church functioning in its prophetic and apostolic role.
Send (Apostolic Function)
This column, Send, includes ministries, strategies, and activities that are designed to release believers to the ministries to which God has called them. This may occur in the local church as people are being discipled and trained, then released to function in the ministry of the local church. Sending also includes extending a church’s ministry and influence beyond their primary location. This includes planting new churches and ministries, as well as releasing those they have developed to work in other ministries, and participating in the global mission. According to the fivefold giftings, this is the “sent” church functioning in its apostolic role.
Considering the church or organization with which you are connected, does it have strategies in each of these areas?
Let’s take a quick break and on the other side we will use the chart as an indicator of which of the fivefold ministries are functioning in our church and which are missing or latent.
Flow Chart: Ministry Perspective
Before the break we were seeing how the Flow Chart can be used to illustrate how the church should express the fivefold functions in all of its ministries. Each one of the ministries or programs of your church will fit within one or more of the columns on the chart. Each column can also correspond to one or more of the fivefold gifts. By looking at the existing programs in your church, the Flow Chart can identify which of the fivefold ministry gifts are functioning and which are missing (remember that the letter “S” will be used to signify Pastor, as in “Shepherd” and “P” for Prophet).
So following the chart from left to right horizontally, as indicated by the arrow, represents ministries that an individual would encounter as they interact with the community of believers and what fivefold giftings are being represented in each. The first way most people make “Contact” with the church is through a relationship with someone from the church. The believer is functioning in the role of witness, perhaps with an evangelistic gifting. Then as they are welcomed into the community of believers they encounter pastoral ministry—represented by the second column, “Entry.” The next step of their growth should now include discipleship, which means they will interact with the teaching and pastoral ministries of the church—the “Build” column. This is the halfway point and I describe these first three columns as the Discipleship process. Most church have plenty of programs and ministries identified in these first three columns, but make the mistake in thinking that this is all there is to church, their job is done. The thinking is that this is sum total of our task – get ‘em saved and on their way to heaven, with a respectable amount of sanctification along the way. Our Discipling thru Intentional Relationships Guides are designed for this half of the process.
But this is only half of the process for a believer. The final three columns of the church’s task and individual’s growth, is the process of Mentoring. The fourth column represents the first step in this process. As they are growing in the faith we need to help each member Identify their gifts, the fourth column, and then be equipped in using these gifts, represented the fifth column. Finally, they discover their role in Jesus’ mandate for the church from Matt. 28:19-20. Each member is a “sent” one. Each has a part in participating in his purpose for his Body on this earth. This left to right progression is the natural progression of a person from being a seeker and not knowing Jesus personally, to being a disciple of Jesus and participating in the mission of the Church. Our Mentoring thru Intentional Relationships Guides are designed for this half of the process.
As I mentioned, many churches only focus on the first three columns (from the left) and, having accomplished this, consider the task of the church to be complete. This is often due to the fact that these are the ministry functions they are most comfortable with. In this scenario, the mission of the Church is reduced to only a few of the fivefold ministry gifts, which inevitably leads to lack of balance and health. However, for a believer to continue to grow in their participation with the mission of the Church, they must be Equipped and Sent as we see in columns 4 and 5. This requires the prophetic and apostolic gifts to be functioning in order to renew current wineskins. As believers are encouraged to exercise their gifts, this enlarges the church’s capacity to accommodate the new wine of new ministries.
In order to have a healthy balanced church, there must be functioning ministries in each of these columns. As we saw in a previous episode, “birds of a feather, tend to flock together,” in other words, what often happens is that those of similar giftings are usually attracted together. So a church that is, say, strong in teaching will inevitably attract a greater majority of members who value, and likely have, latent teaching gifts. A strong pastoral church tends to attract those who have these needs need and like to be nurtured and so on. As we are aware of this dynamic we can ensure that we have a ministry mix of all five gifts so that everyone in the body has opportunity to have their latent gift affirmed and developed.
Is your church healthy and balanced with regards to its expression of the equipping functions and gifts? If not what steps could you take to move in this direction?
Flow Chart: Organizational Perspective
We are looking at the Flow Chart viewed from the perspective of an individual and the functions, or gifts, that correspond with their personal spiritual journey. However, viewed from the right to the left, the view is from the perspective of the entire community or organization. Obviously there are some overlap in the chart relating to the functions, but this reflects the reality that those with equipping gifts usually have more than just one of the fivefold functions. Identifying the mix is important for the leadership so that they know which functions are missing and which are needed for the Body to be healthy. You’ll notice that this loosely corresponds to Johnstone’s pyramid turned on its side.
Each church, organization or movement has a beginning, but how does it start? Well it is usually initiated by someone functioning with some sort of apostolic giftings, ideally a team of individuals. These people are the initiators and founders of organizations and ministries and so they often have more than one of the equipping gifts. As a catalyst, they often gather other gifts around them. If they are mature, they recognizing their lack in some areas and so they bring others on the team in order to provide a balanced approach to the ministry. So the apostolic, prophetic, and teaching functions are needed first and are foundational in the establishment of a new work, ministry, or church plant. Building on these gifts, the pastoral gift, along with teaching is needed to build cohesive relationships and maturity. Finally the gift of the evangelist is needed to continue to reach into the community. Of course, these are not in isolation from each other, but should all be functioning at the same time in a healthy church. But due to the life cycle of the church, at different stages some of these are more crucial than others.
It would seem that apostolic and prophet gifts, and to a lesser degree, evangelistic gifts, function together more naturally, as they tend to be outward focussed, while pastoral (shepherding) and teaching gifts—and perhaps to a lesser degree the evangelist gift—have a greater affinity and ease of functioning together, as they tend to be inwardly focussed. This may explain the historic tendency for the ministries of the church to be reduced to only the pastoral and teaching ones. Often the evangelistic gifting is also included, but the apostolic and prophetic functions have often been marginalized or undervalued.
If Jesus was the fullest expression of the fivefold ministry functions, then for his Body to attain to the fullness of Christ it has to return to a full expression of the fivefold giftings. As with all diagrams, there are limitations to the Flow Chart, but it can help to describe what can sometimes seem like an abstract concept. Though there is not always a clear delineation of the gifts in each column, I think it helps us see how the fivefold ministry gifts should be dispersed throughout the ministries of the church. If all the equipping gifts are functioning in the church it will be healthy; sustainable, and reproducible.
A Team Model
At the very least I think it would make sense to look at our ministries and local churches to ensure that each of the fivefold gifts is functioning through the programs and strategies we use to serve others. Perhaps we could even consider staffing our teams according to the fivefold giftings. Those focused on the missional, strategic, organizational structures of the church, others on prayer and intercession, and evaluating the future direction of the church. Teams for developing strategies for outreach, as well inclusion and growth and so on. This would be preferable to a church that only emphasizes one or two of these gifts, the ones they are most comfortable with. While it may not be easy, the goal is to have a ministry that has a balance of the each of the fivefold functions.
What practical insights did you learn from looking at the Flow Chart through the perspective of the fivefold ministry gifts? Does your organizational have a balanced ministry according to the Flow Chart?
In our next and final episode, I am going to introduce you to another tool that we have used to help church teams understand where they are in the life cycle of the church and what steps may need to be taken. You may have seen a version of this, but here we will look at how each organizational life stage reflects the fivefold ministries. I am looking forward to having you join me next time as we wrap up our series.