It's frustrating. The church you know is not the Church that is suppose to be. Our attitude toward leadership sucks. Sorry for the lack of vocabulary but I can't think of a more appropriate word. We have criticized the Roman Catholic church with it's system of priests but then turned around and set up our own. Oh, I know we call them pastors but we treat them like priests.
And why are there only pastors? The Word of God tells me there is a whole team of trainers that are suppose to be at work in the Body of Christ.
Yes, I called them trainers because that is what is suppose to be in place, not a priesthood. We are the royal priesthood, everyone of us according to the Word of God. We need trainers not priests. Look at this:
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. (Ephesians 4:11-12)
Some people refer to this group as the five-fold ministers. To me they are the trainers and they are more than pastors. People say that the age of the apostles is over and that there are no such things as prophets any more. These are either people who don't know the word, or want to shape the Church into their own idea, or just follow the crowd.. Nowhere in the Word does it say there is an end to the age of the apostles. There are apostles who are referred to in the Word who never met Jesus in the flesh. Apostles are not a group that met a certain criteria; they are chosen and appointed by the grace of God, just like the rest of us. We need to stop shaping the Church by man's design and allow the Spirit the freedom to teach and lead us.
These trainers are given to the Body to prepare God's people for works of service. This is training us how to operate in the Spirit, in the gifts of the Spirit, so we can grow and mature in our service. Look how it continues:
... 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. (v. 12-13)
The trainers act as catalyst if you would. As they train us something begins to happen, like a chain reaction:
1. prepare in works of service
2. so the Body may be built up
3. until we reach unity in faith and in knowledge of Jesus
4. we become mature
5. attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ
There is so much more to our Christian walk than we allow ourselves to believe. And we will not discover those things until we allow ourselves to become what our Father has re-birthed us to be. We have to learn how to operate in the Spirit of God so that the Body may be built up, so there can be unity in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, so we can become mature and in becoming mature, attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I know I am repeating myself but I want this to sink in.
We need more than pastors. We need the complete five-fold ministers. We need to do more than worship. We need to serve. We need to do more than give a cup of cold water. We need to learn to operate in the Spirit. We need to learn how to use the gifts of the Spirit. We need go beyond our flesh and operate in the supernatural. We need the whole measure of the fullness of Christ and it starts with submitting ourselves to the training of the five-fold.
Read the Word. Really read the Word and not just the stuff that fits into a humanistic agenda. It is more than just feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. That is part of it, but we need the whole thing. We need to operate in all the gifts of the Spirit. We need to see the power of God flowing through the Body of Christ again.
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