Description
Welcome back to our series on the fivefold ministry gifts. So far we have seen that these gifts are functions—not positions—their purpose is to equip each member of the Body to mature and help each of us fulfill the mission of the Church. But how do these five gifts correspond to the other gifts mentioned in the New Testament? If these fivefold gifts are not primarily positions, how are they to be expressed within leadership and how will this impact the overall Church?
If you find the content of this episode useful, it would really help us reach more people if you click the Like and Subscribe for this episode on Youtube.
Check out our full list of The Fivefold Ministry Podcasts
To view all of our series, visit our LEADERSHIPmatters Podcast page.
Podcast Resources
Listeners of our LEADERSHIPmatters podcasts have exclusive access to our free bonus leadership materials. For this series these include Fivefold Functions: Personal Survey, Fivefold Functions: Team Unity, Fivefold Functions: Organizational Flow Chart, Fivefold Functions: Organizational Life Cycle.
Get exclusive access to free Resources or download Workbook
For other valuable leadership resources
Consider Helping
The majority of our work training new leaders in the church is international. In many cases, they cannot afford the material themselves. Please considering helping us reach those who can’t afford the resources by donating today.
If you can’t donate, you can still help by visiting our channel on Youtube and clicking Subscribe to tell Youtube that you value our content and they should show it to others like yourself!
Video Script
Episode 7: Ministry and Functions
Welcome back to our series on the fivefold ministry gifts. So far we have seen that these gifts are functions—not positions—their purpose is to equip each member of the Body to mature and help each of us fulfill the mission of the Church. But how do these five gifts correspond to the other gifts mentioned in the New Testament? If these fivefold gifts are not primarily positions, how are they to be expressed within leadership and how will this impact the overall Church?
Fivefold Functions and Gifts
So in our last episode we were noticing the fivefold giftings corresponding to God’s attributes and reflected in the ministry of Jesus. Even though they have all been historically present in the Church, in many circles today there has been a focus on only the pastoral or teaching functions. And these usually function only within a particular church position. We are now on pages 24-28 of the workbook and want to now look more closely at other gifts and how these relate to the fivefold functions.
The two other main “gift” passages are in Rom. 12:6-8 – where we read of prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy – and 1 Cor. 12:8-11,28, where Paul lists gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and apostle, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, administration, tongues. It is important to remember that none of the gifts are rewards or proofs of spiritual maturity, actually the early church in Corinth had many gifts functioning, but was still very immature.
As I have been considering and studying this topic over the years, I have come to realize that these lists may be more descriptive than prescriptive. In other words, these lists are probably not exhaustive, but merely listed as examples of possible gifts. The text seems to bear this out, as Paul never states the gifts the same way or in the same order, something a man of his scholarship could easily have done. As we saw in an earlier episode, even the fivefold gifts have a slightly different order in 1 Cor. 12 than they do in Ephesians 4. This seems to reinforces the idea that the gifts are about function and service, not a positional hierarchy, based upon which is perceived to be more important or impressive at the time.
All gifts, including the fivefold ones from Ephesians, are given to meet a need and not something the user possesses. Of course, particular ministries are characterized by certain gifts. For example, the teaching ministry relies on the gift of teaching, wisdom, and discernment, while the pastoral function would also include gifts of mercy, hospitality, encouragement, and so on. It would seem that our function in the Body is related to our gifts. But though some of these gifts may seem like natural abilities, they all are given by Christ and it is only through the inward working of his Spirit that they will meet the needs as he intended.
It is also important to remember that they are not “our” gifts. They are gifts of the Spirit which he gives to the Church for the service of others through us. This is another reason we should not get proud in the use of “our” gifts.
This is true even for those gifts with which we function regularly, those that could be seen by others as our “identity” or role. Regardless of what our gifts in the Body may be – which includes leadership – we are to have an attitude of servanthood, seeking to build up the Body of Christ, not stroke our own ego.
Fivefold Functions and Leadership
So how should these gifts function within leadership? It would seem from the New Testament that leadership in the Body was based upon spiritual gifting and yet there was a flexibility in how these functions operated in the early church. As we have already discussed, this is quite different than other institutions in society, then and now. I think we can make several other observations from the record of the early church in the book of Acts.
As we read the text, we see emerging structures, or wineskins, developing in the early church. However, leaders were chosen, patterns of meeting occurred, and decisions were made, with seeming little or no clear formal teaching or explanation of these structures – or for that matter directives as to exactly how they were to develop. It is obvious that some structures and leadership terminology was borrowed from their Judaic traditions, such as the synagogue model. Yet new structures were also created to meet new needs, as we can see in Acts 2, 4-6, 12, 13, 15).
And yet it is not clear if these were one-time solutions—just the way they did things—or formalized patterns that all believers were to follow. In other words, were they just “normal” or “normative.”? What is clearly missing from the book of Acts is a formal, ordained clergy, a formal constitution, or a book of rules and regulations. Even when a large group of priests come to the faith, as in Act 6:7, there is no indication that they were to now became leaders in this new Christian community. It was to be about gifts and calling, and not position.
Unlike the Old Testament record that featured special people who intervened to God on behalf of the people – the priests – in this new Kingdom (this the New Covenant), all believers were to be such “priests” to God. We see this in 1 Pet. 2:9-10. Jesus Christ is our high priest and the church is a kingdom of priests (Rev 1:6; Heb 4:14, 8:1). In other words, all members of the Body were to now have this role, not just a few gifted people. We also observe in the book of Acts that there were different structures in different locations. While there were similarities, we are not told that the Jerusalem pattern was to be followed in Antioch, or the one in Ephesus the same as the one in Corinth. The New Testament record actually gives very few directives with regards to church structure and leadership. It would have been easy enough for the writers to do, which looking back we think would have been very helpful, yet this lack of clarity seems to indicate that there was flexibility in how the church was to be organized. Perhaps the goal was not to set up a clearly defined wineskin but allow for flexibility in the coming centuries.
While there does not seem to be one clear definitive structure, there were several principles that did emerge that any leadership structure needed to be based upon. Whatever the structure, it had to be aligned with Kingdom values, such as servant leadership. It also had to be culturally relevant in every context, without violating Kingdom values, and it had to remain flexible and change as necessary, which is back to our discussion on wineskins.
How do you think the other gifts relate to the fivefold functions? How have you seen this function within your own ministry?
Fivefold Functions and Leadership cont
Before the break we have been looking at the equipping gifts in relation to the other gifts and more specifically how they are to function within the emerging wineskin or structure of the early first century community of believers. In Paul’s Pastoral Letters, we see the organic development of leadership functions in the early church. We read of elders, deacons, bishops, superintendents, overseers. Yet, as with the other gifts, these seem to be more descriptive than prescriptive. They seem to describing functions, rather than instituting offices or titles that are to refer to specific position to be set up in all places for all time.
For example, the term “deacon,” in New Testament language and usage, clearly refers to one who serves, not as an official office or position. As the early church appointed certain men as deacons in Acts 6:1-6, certain principles seem to emerge. First, there was to be order and a division of responsibility and they were to meet a specific need; there was a plurality of leadership, something that we observe throughout the early church. It is also interesting to see that there did not seem to be a hierarchy of spirituality. Regardless of how menial the task, they were to have spiritual qualifications. Doing the menial tasks, deacons did not have to be just a bit less spiritual than the elders.
The deacons actually seemed to function in roles according to their giftings and the need, as we see with Stephen in Acts 7 and Philip in Acts 8:5 and 21:8. Both were deacons, but ended up functioning as prophets and evangelists. They were not locked into one position. There did not seem to be an attitude in the early church where leaders said, “Hey you guys are supposed to ‘wait on tables’ while us more spiritual types are to be the real ‘minister the Word of God.’”
In Acts 20, as well as in 1 Pet. 5 and Titus 1, we see that the terms “elder,” “overseer/bishop,” and “shepherd” being used. Particularly with the phrase, “Be shepherds of God’s flock,” the language being used is one of function rather than that of title or position. In their usage throughout the New Testament, these terms seem rather synonymous and interchangeable. As I said earlier, it’s hard to find a clear list that is consistent in every local church. Actually, in the original Greek, the term “elder” means to have the function of oversight and teaching. As Paul instructed the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:28), they were to watch their own life, watch out for others, shepherd the church and protect it from internal threats. The term “elder” then seems pretty synonymous with what we would call a “pastor” today.
It is also important to note that leadership in the early church was always plural; leading was a team sport. The terms elders and deacons were always in plural form, even as we have seen with the fivefold equipping functions.
A clear consistent hierarchy is not developed in the New Testament writings, as there is much overlap between elders and deacons, for example. However, the spiritual qualifications of those who serve in the Body of Christ was clear and the same for all. From 1 Tim. 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9 we discover that they are to be hospitable, able to teach, not violent but gentle, not a lover of money, not quarrelsome, not a recent convert, self-controlled, have a good reputation with outsiders, loving what is good, upright and holy, disciplined, above reproach, having one wife, temperate, respectable, not given to drunkenness, able to manage their family well, honest, and holding firmly to truth. Leadership in the Body is not about position and title, but about being a person of character who is willing to serve others, not themselves.
As someone serves others consistently with a similar gift, this “function” is sometimes called our “ministry.” It can even reflect our life purpose and calling. But this does not necessarily mean that it should become an office of position. So while the fivefold functions have a leadership dimension as they are used to equip others to do the work of the ministry, they are to function in this new community according to Jesus’ Kingdom principles of leadership. As we have discussed, leadership and authority should look quite different within the Body of Christ. Those who are serving the community of believers with one or more of the fivefold gifts are not to be “bosses” or members of a new elite hierarchy, but fellow servants who submit their gifts to the Body of Christ.
The equipping gifts have a specific function in the body, however, I think it is important to not read back into Paul’s teaching a professional clergy, for he would have had no concept of a professional clergy as we know of it today. While Scripture can have a fuller meaning down the road, good biblical interpretation means that it cannot have a meaning today that it never had for its first readers. Could it be possible that the gift of leadership is not necessarily synonymous with one of the fivefold ministry giftings? For example, could someone function with an equipping gift while at the same time not have a position or “office” in the Church? This is something to think about and topic we will explore in future episodes.
Do you think the fivefold gifts are directly correlated to leadership? Why or why not? What are the implications for how ministry is organized in the church?
Fivefold Function and Ministry
My purpose here is to expand our understanding of how these fivefold giftings can function in the Body. Of course my comments are not without some context. They come after two thousand years of church history, as well as our own cultural and institutional context. All of this has influenced our understanding of the Eph. 4 gifts. I understand it is difficult to lay aside our own experience and church histories and try to view these gifts as a first century reader would have. While not easy I do think it is worth the effort. I remember once speaking in a church in an African country and behind me on the stage was a large picture of each of their 12 founding “Apostles” of their church. Proof positive that traditions indeed die hard. Unfortunately there was also a fair amount of bad theology involved. We may not go that far, but we each have our own history that impacts our understanding.
Hirsch takes it a step further and suggests that the expression of the fivefold functions may have a wider role within all of society. As with the other gifts, there is not always a clear line between their use in the Body of Christ and in the community. However, it should be remembered that these are spiritual gifts given to those “in Christ” for a specific role of building up His Body. They best function through Christ’s Spirit that lives in and through us. Actually this concept of a separation between the “sacred” and “secular” can usually be traced back to a misunderstanding of the principle of the priesthood of all believers. While most would agree with this, theologically, in practical terms there often remains a separation between the clergy and laity; the sacred and secular; or even the church and the community.
So as we continue, I want to challenge us to see beyond the cultural or theological limitations of our particular context. We may have certain gifts that we serve others with more regularly as the need arises and others we use less frequently. Leadership roles may not be directly described by any one of the equipping gifts. Hirsch makes the case that each of us can function in these five gifts, in varying degrees. As we come into full maturity we will be able to function in more than one of these categories depending on what is required. While this may be stretching the text a bit, it is definitely something to think about. If Christ is living in us and has all the gifts, and we are to become more and more like him, perhaps Hirsch is on to something.
In what ways do you think the church in your culture/society could better apply the scriptural teaching of the “priesthood of all believers”?
At this point, if you have not done so yet, you may find it helpful to do the Fivefold Gifting Assessment to see your own mix. There is also a Team Unity tool that assesses our balance with the other gifts. In our next episode I will look at the fivefold functions from the perspective of the church community and then from the perspective of the individual leader. I’m looking forward to having you join me then.