Five spiritual gifts working together to catalyze a community’s alignment to Jesus: What a Godly idea and plan!
“It was Christ himself who 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” (Eph 4:11-12).
Apostle Paul did codify this important insight, but it did not originate with him. Rather, it was Christ Himself who apprenticed Peter, James, John and other Apostles including Paul to walk out this shared leadership strategy. This template is also visible throughout the book of Acts starting in the Upper Room (Acts 1:12ff).
In Christian parlance, groups that walk out this Jesus-aligned methodology in order to mobilize disciples into ministry are commonly call “five-fold” or “APEST” teams. Truth be told, my book The House of Jesus dives deeply into this subject though I seldom use this particular phrase. So, I thought it best to more fully unpack what I have learned on this subject from the Word and decades in vocational ministry.
This blog begins a related sequential series and here is the upcoming line-up….
Five-fold’s Creator: As I have just highlighted, Jesus was the catalyst who introduced this shared leadership strategy for His Community. What an organizational genius the Master was: Creating, apprenticing and instructing the first team-of-teams (Peter, James, John) who would serve as initial point-leaders for the new Church after His ascension.
Five-fold’s Foundation: The pre-condition for this team approach is godly relationships as Jesus models and Paul details in his epistles. This second blog will detail the essential and non-negotiable role of love inspired trust for this leadership strategy to be realized.
Five-fold’s Visions: All members of these kinds of teams, though diverse in gifting and function, are called to share at least two common visions and their related desired outcomes. This blog will unpack that reality along with how each gifting helps to make it happen.
Five-fold’s Process: What are the best practices for enabling these diverse giftings to accomplish “what seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:28)? It’s not as difficult as you might think if the foundation of the team is trust.
Five-fold’s Benefits: Why should we bother? What’s in it for the body of Christ? Paul details multiple reasons why prioritizing and emulating Jesus’ leadership strategy is a huge win. We will also touch on the Church’s history which painfully reveals the consequences of not fully following the Master’s lead.
Five-fold’s Enemy: The counsel of both Paul and Jesus to the Ephesians highlights that the Church has a powerful and unrelenting enemy. Unfortunately, I, too, have first-hand experience in regards to this “prowling lion”. This blog is designed to awaken any who might be naïve to his goals or tactics.
A question for you to start chewing on: As it relates to the Jesus team(s) that you serve on, do they function more like a five-fold team as He modeled or do they behave more like a team that is primarily influenced by nearby institutions and culture? This series will help you more fully answer this inquiry.
Choosing Jesus’ ways again today,
