Pray for Your Church: Leaders (5)
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ… Ephesians 4.11, 12
Order of operations
Ephesians 4.11 and 12 circles back to the foundational elements that pertain to the local church which we examined in Part 1 of this series, Pray for Your Church. We recall that building His Church is Jesus’ primary temporal agenda. But churches are not the end of that agenda, only its most visible temporal means. Churches are comprised with disciples, followers of Jesus who, as members of His Body—the church—join with church leaders in the task of building their church in unity and maturity as a sign and outpost of the Kingdom of God.
In our text Paul mentions certain permanent “offices” that are essential to the work of building the Church. Not every local church will include all these offices. In a comment on this passage in Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin affirmed the validity of apostles, prophets, and evangelists as ongoing offices which are essential to building the Church of the Lord. But he noted that these—like Paul and the apostles, prophets, and evangelists of the New Testament—seemed not to be attached to local churches but to the work of the Church as a whole. The Church will always need apostles, prophets, and evangelists to prepare the world soil for sowing good Kingdom seed, as well as for sowing that seed in places where the Gospel is yet to be known.
Calvin continued by saying that the office of pastor/teacher is essential for every local church. These, Calvin explained, following the construction in the Greek, are one office that shares two primary functions. As pastors—shepherds—and teachers, those who are called to this office have a very specific charge. Fulfilling their charge is crucial to “edifying the body of Christ” and, thus, to the progress of the Kingdom of God. Given what we see in local churches everywhere, we may suspect that this charge is something like “preach the Word”, as if preaching were the essence of the calling.
But preaching is not the essence of the calling of a pastor/teacher. Equipping is.
The Greek verb from which the term “equipping” derives means something like “to create” or “to put in proper condition” or even “to repair” or “to ready for service.” This is the work to which church leaders—those who are or who serve with pastor/teachers—are called to do. And the proof of their faithfulness in this calling can be measured in two ways.
Equipped to be saints
Church leaders are called to equip the members of the Body of Christ as saints. Saints are those who have been “set apart” for the Lord. They are His children, heirs, servants, and ambassadors. Saints are known as such by their devotion to the Lord—their love for His Word, dependency on prayer, righteous way of life, love for God and neighbors, readiness to bear witness to the Lord, and continued growth in Him. It is the calling of church leaders to help those whom God has called to Himself as saints to realize, increasingly, the hope and promise of their calling.
Church leaders must not ignore this aspect of their calling or leave the realization of it to chance. This is why shepherding the Lord’s people is such an important way of understanding the work of church leaders. For unless they know the people they are called to serve—where they are in their walk with and work for the Lord—they will not be able to bring them whatever equipping is needed to help them grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
It is a true measure of the faithfulness of church leaders that the members of Christ’s Body entrusted to them are growing as saints of the Lord.
Equipped for ministry
But the saints are also to be equipped for “the work of ministry”. This is just another way of saying that every member of a local church must see themselves as ministers—servants—in the truest sense. Servants of the Lord, of one another, and of their neighbors. Servants perform various works of service—ministry—by which the grace of God is received and shared with others (2 Cor. 4.15). The catalog of such works is as broad as the daily opportunities for doing good works or speaking good words that God grants us each day.
But being agents of grace in ministry to others doesn’t just happen. We must be equipped for it. Equipped to see ourselves as ministers. Equipped to do good works. Equipped to speak the truth in love. Equipped to perform all the “one-another” responsibilities of which the New Testament speaks and to use the gifts God has given us for edifying our local church.
Church leaders, under the leadership of pastor/teachers, are fulfilling their calling when they are equipping church members as saints of the Lord and ministers of His Word. Nothing short of or other than this will suffice as the essence of a calling description for those who serve in leadership capacities in the local church. In the work of making disciples and shepherding God’s flock, church leaders are called to be equippers.
Here’s a prayer you can pray on behalf of your church leaders:
Father, thank you for our pastor/teacher
and for all who serve together as leaders in our church.
Give them a burden, Lord,Â
to equip us as true saints
and to outfit us for those works of ministry
that will edify our church
and further the progress of Your Kingdom.
And let the saints and ministers of our church
submit to You and to Your Word
under the equipping provided
by our shepherds and leaders.
For reflection
1. What kind of “equipment” do you need to serve others in your church?
2. Which of the “one another” passages do you tend to practice most?
3. In which of the areas of “sainthood”, mentioned in this article, do you most need to improve?
Next steps—Transformation: Consider in prayer what you need to grow as a saint and minister of the Lord. Then begin to work to improve in each of these.
T. M. Moore
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Knowing Jesus
Being confident witnesses begins in our relationship with Jesus, in knowing Him. Two books can help you grow in Jesus. To Know Him is a brief and lively exposition of Philippians 3.7-11 and explains what Paul means by this. You can order your copy by clicking here. Be Thou My Vision offers 28 daily meditations on Jesus, drawing on Scripture and writings from the period of the Celtic Revival. Order your copy by clicking here.
Thank you.
Many of you are faithful and generous in praying for and supporting Crosfigell and The Fellowship of Ailbe. Thank you. I encourage all our readers to seek the Lord about becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal or Anedot, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
