Have you ever considered that one reason many have a hard time believing in the resurrection is because they look at the weakness of the Lord's own body, the church, with less than 10 percent of its members functioning? Of course the church is given as the most frequent reason why people do not believe the gospel, and this is understandable. However, before the end comes the church is going to be the glorious bride that she is called to be, with a body that functions with a beauty, grace, and power that will cause the world to marvel. Why not now? Today let's continue our study in Ephesians 4
…we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which 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 (Ephesians 4:15-16).
To know the next step, we need to know where we are. It is quite obvious that the church today is in a state somewhere between atrophy and death. Many churches only continue to exist because they are on artificial life support, the devices of human mechanisms and programs. Even so, the most revolutionary force to advance the cause of Christianity in history will come when the equipping ministries start equipping the people instead of trying to do everything themselves.
As I recently heard a very gifted Bible teacher say, "Most churches today are one gift churches. Most of the time this one gift is a teacher." He was not stating this to highlight his own ministry, but he was stating it with great remorse. However, it is true. Few who actually call themselves pastors really are pastors. Some are evangelists, others are teachers, some may even be prophetic or apostolic, but it is rare to see someone with an authentic pastoral ministry actually shepherding a church. I too am a case in point.
However, nowhere does it say that the leader of a church should be a pastor. In fact, in all of the New Testament it does not even say what a pastor does, or anything else about this ministry. It is only mentioned in the New Testament one time, in Ephesians 4 where it is listed with the other equipping ministries. So, how did this one ministry that is only mentioned one time in the New Testament come to so totally dominate the ministry of the church? Maybe there are a few other things that we should question while we're at it.
Occasionally the leader of a church will have a second gift such as evangelism, or maybe even a prophetic gift, and they are the ones who week after week practice and grow in their own gifts. However, the New Testament ministry that is revealed in Ephesians 4 is a team of ministries. The church is called to be a many membered body with every member "properly" functioning. The evidence that they are have a true New Testament ministry will therefore be a body of believers who are a living, functioning body.
This is no small task. We cannot expect to get from where the church is today to where we are called to be overnight. I have had this vision for a functioning body for almost thirty years. Our church in Charlotte is now nearly seven years old, and we still have less than 20 percent of the people functioning in their callings. It has been a very slow process for several reasons.
Possibly the main reason why we are still at this place is the fact that we grew from a few people to nearly two thousand very fast. If we had stayed smaller we could have spent more time with individuals who could have sped up the process, but we are called to be a large church. However, we want to use this calling to learn how large churches can do this because we know that this is for all believers whether they are in large or small churches. Sadly, we do not know any smaller churches that are actually doing any better at this than we are.
Second, it has taken a while to change the mentality of the leadership team from just doing the ministry to actually equipping others. Now we have a core of ministries that are devoted to this, but it is still taking time to stimulate and awaken believers who are in a state of atrophy because they have never been allowed to do anything of significance before. However, when just one catches the vision they always wake up many more. When one member of the body starts to function, it releases great encouragement to the rest of the body.
In one of our services this year Robin McMillan started out by saying, "We have ten guest speakers tonight, and none of them know who they are!" He then explained that he was going to choose ten people at random to share five minutes each. Everyone woke up because they knew that they could be called on. The ten who were chosen were apprehensive, but as soon as the first one started the Lord came upon them. They were so anointed that some were drowned out by the cheers of the congregation, many of who were standing on their chairs in excitement.
We now have about four hundred people on prophetic ministry teams. Not all of these are called as prophets, but all have demonstrated the gift of prophecy, or the gift of interpretation, and they are growing in their gifts through exercise. However, even the greatest prophet only sees "in part" (see I Corinthians 13:9). Therefore to get the whole picture we have to put the different parts together. For prophets to function properly they need to be rightly connected to the other equipping ministries given to the church.
If the Lord heals you, or gives you a prophetic word through someone else, it can be a great encouragement. However, it is not nearly as encouraging as when the Lord uses you to heal or give a prophetic word to someone else. There are few things that we can ever experience as encouraging as being used by God, and learning that He had a special purpose for us when He called us before the foundation of the world. There will be few things that can strengthen and bond together your church like when the Lord starts using the members of the church.
Ephesians 4:15 states that the body is built up by that which "every joint supplies." A joint is not a part, but is where two parts come together. We cannot form a joint with another part of the body if we do not know what part we are. The arm has to be joined to the wrist, not the knee, etc. Most churches have people coming and going continually because the people are not properly joined to the body, which can only be done as a functioning part.
In every way, it is in our best interest to equip believers to do the work of the ministry, and then release them with genuine authority to do what they are called to do. The Reformation is not yet complete. The church is still far from the form that it is called to be. The next great wave of the Spirit is going to be the awakening, equipping, and releasing of the whole body of Christ.