The Builders and the Building are Us
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV Read More
There are in-depth classes (ask Austin Maxheimer!) and really good books (like the Forgotten Ways) about the importance and meaning of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, but I’m going to save that for another day (or drop it into the extra credit).
The point of all of them, notice, is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. When Paul talks about saints, he was talking about every believer. The goal of every office and role in the church is to build up the people in the church so that they can do the work of the ministry. It’s really easy to think that it’s the pastor’s job to do the work of the ministry. It’s easy to think that the work of the ministry that the pastor does is to build up the church to make us feel good. Their jobs are not to build us up to feel good or to build us up to be happier at our jobs or even great parents.
The purpose is for each one of us to build each one of the rest of us up, to strengthen us so that we can all do the work of the church together. When you see a committed, thriving, loving church, it isn’t because of some electric pastoral staff, but because every person in that church is actively committed, thriving, and loving one another. That is ministry work. That is the work of the church.
Any work we do to serve one another and build one another up has an impact on the Kingdom of God. Kids that leave Sunday school all orange and happy are a blessing to their parents. Parents that take the sermon and their prayer time into the dining room share wisdom with their kids. Young guys that have an insight from a song share the scripture with a few other guys and suddenly they are all moved to pray for a neighborhood.
God gave us a structure to grow like tree limbs grow from a strong trunk. At the same time, the limbs and the leaves are where the fruit and birds grow. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers are all a big part of the church because they are all of us.
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