Pillars of the Church

⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. ⁸ Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men." ... ¹¹ And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴ As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; ¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph 4:7-8, 11-16).

Interesting passage. To me, this is the clearest explanation there is for the aim and function of the Church. Let's look at it for a moment.

The passage talks about "gifts", and we're well aware of "the gifts of the Spirit". However, this passage on gifts doesn't refer to things like "tongues" and "service". Instead, there are four (or five, depending on how you read it) gifts given by Christ to the Church. These gifts are found in verse 11: "He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers." Some refer to these as "the five-fold ministry". There are apostles. Notice I use a lowercase "a" for that. The role of Apostle (uppercase) refers to the original twelve and Paul. Paul was the last of the Apostles. But we still have apostles (lowercase). An apostle is simply a messenger, a delegate of Christ commissioned by God to bring His message. A prophet is a forth-teller. Thus, the two are messengers of Christ, speaking God's Word. Their roles are slightly different. The apostle, as a commissioned messenger, carries a different level of authority than the prophet. The prophet has the gift of clearly interpreting the Scriptures -- "Thus saith the Lord." Apostles are church planters. Prophets speak the Word. Now, some would argue that the role of apostle is ended, and some would do it convincingly. Certainly the Apostle -- defined as those commissioned directly by Christ, witnesses of the Resurrection, under special inspiration, and given ultimate authority in the Church for doctrine -- is no more. (I mean, there is no one currently who witnessed the Resurrection, right?) But I would argue that the modern apostle is fairly close to the modern "pastor" (although I would also argue that the modern "pastor" is not the same as the biblical one mentioned here). Then there are evangelists, people gifted to go to the uttermost parts of the earth and preach the Gospel. Finally, there are "pastors and teachers". Greek scholars tell me that this term differs from the others in that it seems to be a single concept, a "pastor/teacher", rather than two. This person given by God, then, would shepherd and teach. This person would disciple others.

Given the rest of the passage, these gifts seem to me to be the basic pillars of the Church. Since the primary function of the Church here is "the equipping of the saints", "the building up of the body of Christ", "a mature man", "to grow up in all aspects into Him", "the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love", it would seem that this purpose is built on the structures of these four primary gifts from God. The apostle plants churches and preaches the Word with authority. The prophet expounds the Word from God. The evangelist brings people to Christ. The pastor/teacher disciples fellow believers, "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you." Indeed, I would suggest that each of us fall in at least one of these categories.

Now, I've never heard this anywhere else before, so I'm out on a limb here. However, it seems to me that if you have all four of these primary gifts functioning in your local gathering of believers, you will have a successful church. It will have the truth of the Word preached. It will have the Word with authority and with insight. It will have people being brought to Christ. (That is the function of believers, not the church.) And those in the church will be constantly moving in personal relationships and interactions with other mature believers toward a deeper, more profound maturity. That, to me at least, seems like the ideal, healthy church.