By Robert Pennington and Sidharth Mohandas

A number of months back my grand mom shared with me a vision she had. In the vision she saw 5 men approaching her and then heard some one behind say, “These have been sent to equip you”. She said the Lord led her to a verse in Ephesians 4:11-13

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s 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.

Those five that she saw were the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers. This is what we know as the five-fold ministry. I felt it was important that I share with you the role of these five ministries in the Body of Christ. I can say that not many Christians in our day know why these five ministries are present. Scripture says it is to PREPARE GOD’S PEOPLE FOR MINISTRY, and to build up the Body of Christ and the final goal is: Unity in faith. Don’t you think that’s exactly what’s lacking today in the Body of Christ? God has ordained these five not so that people can come every week and listen to what they have to say, but so that they can be equipped to minister the Gospel to others wherever they are.

Today there are a lot of people who take pride in saying, “Oh I’m in the ministry… In the full-time ministry…” Well, be sure to knock their heads and tell them God does not have part-time jobs for anyone!

In the early church every believer was a minister.

Don’t ever think that you’re not a minister of God just because you are not among the five. You see, God is no more proud of the Apostle than He is of the Janitor, all He looks for is obedience to the call. You can be a Janitor or a Business man and still be a minister of God. And so don’t try to be the Apostle if you are called to be the Janitor!

Pauls statement here proves it:

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. [1 Corinthians 1:11-12]

The great apostle Paul encouraged by normal believers!? Yes! Do you see those two words I see? MUTUALLY ENCOURAGED…? I say again, every believer is a minister of God. God has a position for you in the Body of Christ that only YOU can fulfill, do not belittle your calling, my friend. And this is why God has ordained these five…to equip you to fulfill your calling.