Church Governing and the 5-Fold Ministry

The 5-fold ministry is a church governing model that has come about in recent years. The scripture that is used to support this model is Ephesians 4:11-13 which reads, “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 until 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” (NIV).

It is believed by a growing a number of people that this is the “true” and most biblical church governing model due to its use of modern-day prophets and apostles. I will give my critique of this model and explain why I think it is a based on a misunderstanding of the scriptures and in many cases inspired by church hurt from the biblical and ordered pastoral elder-model that we should be using today.

Ephesians 2:20 (same book being used to defend the 5-fold ministry) tells us that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”. It can be argued, then, that the foundation of the church has already been laid and that the role of the prophets and apostles to reach the unity spoken about in Ephesians 4 was to lay the foundation. When God’s revelation was given to us through the apostles and prophets, those roles were no longer needed (as you will read later).

Paul referred to himself as the last apostle (1 Corinthians 15:8). He makes this statement about 20 - 30 years after he encounters Christ on the road to Damascus. It seems logical that very early in the church these titles seemed to have disappeared. Those of elder/bishop/overseer/shepherd seemed to take precedence. Those in the early church, who functioned similarly to the apostles, made a sharp distinction between themselves and the apostles. Yes, Jesus referred to others outside of the 12 as "apostles", but this seems to be because the 12 had direct contact with Christ Himself. "Apostle" also means "sent/messenger" in the Greek as opposed to a title.

Revelation 21:14 also speaks about the obvious significance of the 12 Apostles and their role in laying the foundation.

I know in the 5-fold model the word "favoritism" has been used regarding God showing favoritism to these modern-day apostles and prophets. In some way, the modern-day apostles and prophets have favoritism with God/heavens, and elders/pastors have favor with people. The apostles and prophets get information of “downloads” from heaven and relay that information to the people. This in dangerous and contradicts Acts 10:34 and as you will read 1 Timothy 2:5.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17 that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. The Prophets were the mouthpiece for God, providing the body and foundation of the scriptures pointing us all to Christ. So, Jesus Christ (the Fulfillment) and the Apostles, took the Christ-crucified message out among the people (1 Corinthians 1:18). The foundation has been laid and cannot be laid again - please read 1 Corinthians 3:11 and Isaiah 28:16

Prophecy is not a foretelling/psychic type reading, always speaking of peace and goodness, but a forthtelling of God's word to edify, and may not always be the most pleasant to hear. It also should be weighed and tested (1 John 4:1-6). The gift of apostleship is that of a messenger or "apostolos" in the Greek. which are what we see with the other individuals that were sent out with a message from a king/kingdom. As you can connect, the apostles (small “a”) were sending a message already established about the Kingdom of God.

Five-fold ministry puts man in a place of supposed divine appointed authority, rather than a humble servant leader (pastor/elder). Pastoral offices have been misused and abused for sure, but that does not remove their place in now being the offices that build up the body and equip the saints, using the foundation laid by the Apostles and Prophets in accordance with God's holy and finished word (Deuteronomy 12:32, Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19).

It is always assumed that a person in my position is a cessationist (believes that the supernatural gifts have ceased), which I believe exposes an imbalance our hearts. An imbalance that exalts and maybe over emphasizes a component of our worship to a place of idolship, pressing more on some outward or mundane things rather than the more important stuff - loving God and one another. We need to be mindful to not "strain at a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24).

I believe the Bible speaks about ALL the gifts being for today (read 1 Corinthians), but I think we have a history of misusing and abusing the scriptures in a way that can be dangerous and fleshly, which cause a misuse and abuse of not only pastoral/elder offices but as we are seeing today, a use of offices today that from what I read scripture tells us is no longer needed. I believe we a as a church in the west have either become too hard hearted and shut off when it comes to the Holy Spirit and His working in our lives, but I also feel we are dangerously turning that proverbial “plane” too hard the other way to where we are acting out of spite and being just as unbiblical and dangerous as the former.

I have seen as a pastor that both sides leave people spiritually abused and burdened.

In closing, we need to study the scriptures properly so we can understand the objective message behind them. By this we will grow, mature and equip. We need to know the true Gospel and remember what Christ did for us so we can love others because we were loved first. We need to know scripture so we can govern our churches properly and humbly. We need to test and weigh what we hear to affirm teachings like the Bereans, and not just go off of experiences. Stop listening to online prophets and evangelists and listen to your pastors who rightfully handle the word of God and teach and preach. We need to know scripture and understand it so we can serve, even as leaders, in a way that builds up each other so we can continue to live lives in a fallen world, glorifying God so others can come to know Him.

In service to Him,

Pastor Josh