Fifth Sunday of Easter

What is the Five-Fold Ministry?

Faith Family,

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Believe it or not, we are almost in the 5th month of the year – almost halfway through. As the year flies by, I continue to give thanks to our gracious God for putting you all in our lives. Your faithfulness and your enthusiasm fill my heart with joy and help complete my hope in Christ. Every day I look forward to serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alongside each of you and growing in our discipleship journey together. I pray as God has continued blessings us, may we continue to be a blessing to others.

I want to thank K.C. and Steve for filling the pulpit while I was either away or recovering. I want to also thank Jim Needham for taking me to and picking me up from the airport. I am truly blessed. Listening to K.C. preach on the Biblical Model of the Church and then Steve preaching on “Paying it Forward” it was such a great intro to what I want to preach about in May. Steve mentioned two things that you will hear again: The 5th Gospel and the Five-Fold Ministry. This week I want to briefly share about the Five-Fold Ministry as presented in Ephesians 4:11-12, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” 

According to the Apostle Paul, Christ distributed five distinct leadership roles to the church with the understanding that each office requires examining both their individual functions and their collective purpose. These are not unique. These roles represent an extension of Christ’s ministry rather than the spiritual gifts later mentioned in Paul’s Letters. All though these are individual roles, the primary function across all five positions involves teaching, training, activating and maturing believers for their own ministries. The role is for each to equip the saints for ministry.  This isn’t about a hierarchy of authority, but about creating a body, working together for the sake of God’s Kingdom. It is about equipping the church to be activated out into the community to be the 5th Gospel – revealing Christ’s character, actions, teachings, and love to all.

I will be looking at these later in a sermon, not sure if it will be a sermon series or one sermon, but for now know that we are co-workers with each other and with Christ, as I wrote about last week. Together, we use our gifts, our abilities and our passions to build up the body of Christ, to encourage one another and to expand the Kingdom of God. IT IS NEVER ABOUT GROWING OUR CHURCH. It is about THE KINGDOM OF GOD. God will grow our church as we seek to grow the Kingdom.

I look forward to making this journey of Evangelism and living out the 5th Gospel through the Five-Fold Ministries that Christ has authorized in His church with each one of you. 

Have a blessed Week! 

Pastor Frank