Are You A Follower or A Disciple?

But first we must individually answer Jesus’s call to all believers to become His disciple. He said to His followers, ‘unless you love the Lord your God so much, that in comparison to how much you love Him, it appears that you hate everything & everyone else, YOU CANNOT be My disciple (my paraphrase)’.     

The Ministry of the Evangelist is done within the Church. It’s part of the five fold ministry to equip the saints to do the work of ministry. In this case Evangelism. While the five fold ministers have different ministries, they should still be involved in evangelism with the rest of the saints. There is only one reason the Church needs to remain on earth for, and that’s to do all we can to save every sinner that God has called for Salvation. Evangelism is the only thing we can’t do in Heaven.            

So what’s the difference?                  

As far as I can tell, there’s a difference between what we’re all “called” to do (by virtue of being Christians) and what “some” are “given” to do (by virtue of a possible fivefold ministry role).

• What someone is “given to do” is natural and part of his or her God-given identity, while what he or she is “called to do” is to “do the work of” all five.
• What I’m “called to do” is to represent Jesus in all ways, while what I’m “given to do” is to train and equip others to represent Jesus in a specific way.

What, then is the difference between, say, the evangelist and every believer’s call to evangelism? Well, the evangelist is given to the church to “equip His people for works of service.” What service? Simple. Evangelistic service! Makes sense, right?

• The evangelist equips everyone for evangelistic service.
• The prophet equips everyone for prophetic service.
• The pastor equips everyone for pastoral service. (I think you get the point…)

And if everyone is equipped in all these forms of service, the result will be that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  In short, we will all begin to serve like Jesus.

Working Ourselves Out of a Job

The word “until” is very important in the Ephesians 4 passage.  On one hand, it tells me that these five ministries still exist.  I don’t think we have “all” reached “unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.” I don’t think we have all “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Just take a quick look at the Body of Christ around the world, and you will plainly see that these things haven’t yet been accomplished, so the five roles certainly still exist.  Jesus has given them “until” these requirements are met.               

The other thing I learn from the word “until” is that once the goal is accomplished, there’s no more need for such ministries.  If every Christian is evangelizing to the fullest potential of Jesus, we don’t need any more evangelists to train and equip people how to evangelize.  If every Christian is prophesying to the fullest potential of Jesus, we don’t need any more prophets to train and equip people to prophesy. If apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers do their jobs correctly, they eventually won’t need to do them anymore!              

Of course, as long as there are new converts, there will still be people who need to be trained and equipped.