Everyone in our church family has a role to play

Mark Pugh calls the church to unity and fivefold teamwork in ministry at ELS

Mark Pugh recently bought a dining room table. He was a bit surprised when it turned up, though – it wasn’t assembled, just a flatpack that still needed to be built.

Undeterred, and impatient to get started but home alone, he ignored the guidance that “construction is a two-person job”.

“It took longer than it should have but I did my best, made it work and we’ve had numerous successful meals at that table,” Elim’s General Superintendent said in his opening talk at ELS. “But at the end of that hard, heavy-lifting job that was designed for more than one person, I ached!”

It’s similar to how we often approach ministry, said Mark.

“So often we look at our lack of resources then just get our heads down and do it anyway,” he explained, “but ministry was never designed to be a one-person task.”

His message was simple: everyone in our church families has a role to play. Teamwork is essential, and for it to happen effectively we need to recognise and release the five gifts – or graces – through which Jesus equipped the church.

Five vital graces

Mark explored what he dubbed “Jesus’s going-away present” by exploring Ephesians 4. Verses 11 and 12 say: “Christ himself 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.”

He began by explaining that these graces are ways which God equips every believer. “Everybody who has experienced the saving knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be equipped,” he said.

While we’re invited to grow in all five graces, we naturally lean towards one or two in particular because we’re all different, he added. But all graces are equally important. No one is meant to sit on the sidelines because ministry is to be shared.

Every gift matters

The church is fully equipped and effective when all gifts are active and working together.

“We need the pioneering, innovation, entrepreneurship, envisioning and breakthrough that the apostolic brings,” said Mark. “We need the revealing of God’s heart, the sensitivity to his presence and the call to intimacy that the prophetic brings.

“We need the evangelists’ outward focus and prioritising of getting the message of redemption to those outside the Christian community.

“We need the healing, care, peace, life and well-being that the shepherds bring; and the clarity, insight, structure and transferable wisdom that the teachers bring.”

Facing friction

Interestingly, just before the Ephesians passage lists the five graces it calls for unity: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3)

“That makes it sound like we’re not going to naturally get on!” Mark pointed out.

The distinctiveness of each grace, he explained, can create friction because teachers, evangelists, apostles etc all see the world differently.

“How a shepherd defines success will be very different to how an apostolic leader defines success. Each will likely have a preference of how they should respond in a given situation.”

This is where the call for unity comes in. “If you don’t make every effort to unite, you will separate and turn ministry into a one-person job. All five can only operate in the context of humble, gentle, patient unity.”

The trouble with titles

Trends and titles can also be stumbling blocks, Mark added.

“For decades, Pentecostal churches in the UK operated with a strong expectation that our ministers would fulfil a shepherd/teacher ministry.

“These are beautiful graces which are so needed today, but over the past 20 years we’ve stopped talking about ‘shepherds’ and ‘teachers’. We’ve talked more about ‘leaders’.”

One result is a trend for conference speakers with apostolic gifts: “People who took a church from two to 20,000 in three days or were late because they raised a few people from the dead on the way in!”

Inspiring, yes, but ultimately something which can leave shepherds and teachers feeling like failures when they try to apply what they’ve heard.

Sharpen up

Every gift matters, Mark said, adding that bundling all five under the title “leader” can make it difficult to appreciate what God wants to do through us individually.

This is why the ELS programme featured teaching around each separate grace. It focused on helping people understand the five graces, recognise their individual giftings and grow in them.

“We function best when we recognise the primary grace that flows in our lives. What’s more, when we grow in its application we also learn to partner with those who’ve got complementary graces.”

A big part of this is sharpening the stewardship of our gifts.

“Just because your primary grace is a shepherd, it doesn’t mean you’re a good one!” said Mark.

“You might actually be a bit socially awkward. Your heart might be to bless someone in hospital but they might be thinking afterwards, ‘I’m glad he’s gone!’

“Let’s become better at the graces. Let’s sharpen those things that the Lord has entrusted to us.”

Powerful potential

Identifying and honing graces takes work, but the results are powerful, said Mark. “When they come together it’s like streams beginning to flow into a river.”

Elim needs the fivefold ministry, functioning together with humility, grace and gentleness, he said.

Coming together to present the fullness of Christ to the world will have a powerful impact in our churches too.

“We’ll look at our congregations and stop seeing them as people we can get on rotas; we’ll start seeing them as people we can release to the nations.

“We’ll empower ordinary people to do extraordinary things. But it all starts with us recognising that we’re not in this to be superheroes. We’re in this to raise up heroes.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.