Restoring Order to Christ’s Body
As Christians, we are called to community. In every community, everyone has a different role to play, a specific function, and a unique contribution that is needed for that community to thrive. If individuals are not fully functioning in their roles and in proper relationships with those around them, the entire community suffers.
Some of the most important relationships we have are with the five-fold ministry gifts. Every ministry gift teaches but has a different expression, function, and assignment. Still, they all have the same purpose: Equipping the saints for the work of ministry. When we do not have healthy relationships with the ministry gifts of Christ, we are hindered from being adequately equipped for God’s work.
As stated before, all believers have within them a measure of the five-fold ministry gifts. Our relationship with other believers allows us to benefit from those giftings and is one source for equipping us. However, there are those among us whom God has ordained to stand in the “office” of the five-fold ministry. These leaders in the body of Christ are uniquely anointed to equip us in ways that others cannot. These leaders are the gifts that Christ has given to the Church to prepare us, strengthen us, and equip us for spiritual warfare and the work of the ministry. We need some level of relationship with all five of these anointed gifts.
One of the reasons we don’t see the level of signs and wonders we see in the early Church is that we have moved away from God’s ordained community structure. When God’s community is out of order, and we don’t have much-needed exposure to apostles, prophets, and evangelists, we become well-equipped to teach and pastor but ill-equipped to function in kingdom authority. Without a relationship with all these five gifts, we will likely not be well equipped to represent the kingdom of God with demonstration and power.
Ephesians 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Notice in verse 14 that one of the reasons we need exposure to all five gifts is to keep us from being tricked and deceived children tossed about by every doctrine that blows through the congregation. We need exposure to all five gifts to grow up into the full measure of Christ’s body.
If you are hungry for God, you know in your heart there is so much more power available to us than we are experiencing. The Church has been ill-equipped and powerless for centuries. Could this be from not understanding the function and importance of our relationships? Could this result from not understanding God’s plans for community and not holding to His original design? We must be exposed to all five ministry gifts because they equip us differently.
It is no accident that many denominations no longer recognize the ministry of the apostle and prophet. Apostles and prophets help equip the church with power and prepare her for what is coming. The last thing the enemy wants is for his plans to be exposed in advance and for the Church to be equipped to foresee those plans and empowered to destroy his works.
Satan deceives the Church with denominational preferences, racial divisions, political differences, and doctrinal disagreements to keep us weak, ill-equipped, and ineffective. He attacks the body of Christ to damage the joints, straining and breaking relationships to cut off our supply of the Spirit. The unity of the faith is what the devil is trying to prevent. (Ephesians 4:13)
All relationships are meaningful, even the ones that challenge us. Every relationship is a gift, a garden, and an opportunity to sow into and reap from.
Question: What will it take to restore God’s ideal community?
Question: What is your role in the community?
Question: Can you identify some roles that are not filled in your community?
Question: What can we do as leaders to build and maintain a healthy community?
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