Plurality of Ministry
God desires the Church, the Body of Christ, to be a growing, healthy, and functioning body, where every member has his responsibility to the edification of the whole. In order to accomplish this, God has given to every individual in the body natural talents and abilities that are to be used for His glory. It is not accidental that individuals in the body have certain aptitudes and interests. These are all part of God’s plan for that person’s life purpose. Unfortunately so many people fail to look for ways in which they can channel these aptitudes and abilities into investment in the kingdom of God. God desires that all of these abilities be used for the glory of God. (Matthew 25:14-30)
In addition to natural talents and abilities, God also has given spiritual gifts that are to be operating in the House of the Lord. When we enter into the kingdom of God by the new birth, we are taken out of the natural realm and transplanted into the realm of the Spirit. While natural talents and abilities are helpful for the extension of the kingdom of God, natural talents and abilities will never be enough to get the job done (Zechariah 4:6). For this reason, God distributes spiritual gifts to the members of His body that operate above the natural realm into the supernatural. They operate above natural ability by tapping into God’s supernatural ability (I Cor. 12:7, 11).
On the basis of these things that God has given to the members of His body. God has further given to each member of the Body a ministry, or function that is to add to the edification of the whole. The word “ministry” simply means “service” or “function”. In every body there are many members and all the members do not have the same function (Romans 12:4-5).
“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (I Peter 4:10-11)
In order for us to understand fully the way in which these ministries operate and their importance, we need to realize several things.
1. These ministries all find their origin in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As such Christ was the pattern for all ministry. If we want to know how a certain ministry is to operate in the body of Christ, we simply need to look to Christ to find out how He operated in that ministry.
Christ is THE:
Apostle (Hebrews 3:1) Giver (Galatians 2:20)
Evangelist (Luke 4:8) Shower of Mercy (Hebrews 2:17)
Pastor (John 10:11) Worker of Miracles (John 11:47)
Teacher (John 3:2) Healer (Luke 6:17-19)
Elder (Romans 8:29) Governor (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Deacon (Luke 22:27) Intercessor (Hebrews 7:25)
Exhorter (Luke 2:25)
2. These ministries are merely an expression of Christ in you.
Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily and therefore as the Head, the fullness of all ministries is in Him. When we become attached to the Head by new birth, we become partakers of the fullness that is in Him. We ourselves do not contain the fullness, we only partake of a measure of the fullness that is in Christ.
When we are attached to the head, we become a partaker of that grace that is necessary to fulfill the particular ministry that we have been given by the Lord.
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:7)
Since this is the case, it is very important that we as believers recognize the ministry that we have been given, because we will receive grace for that ministry. Without the grace for that ministry, the ministry will inevitably fail because none of these ministries can operate effectively on a natural level. All of them have to be supported and underwritten by the grace of God. The grace of God in relation to service is simply the supernatural enablement of God Paul recognized the grace that was upon his life, therefore he could move with confidence in the ministry which he had received from the Lord (Romans 12:3).
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle,because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (I Corinthians 15:9-10)
“And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship: that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." (Galatians 2:9)
If we are to be successful as stewards of the manifold grace of God, we must be sure that we recognize the grace of God that is upon our lives. The grace of God goes with the calling of God. Paul tells us that when it comes to the evaluation of the grace that is on our lives we should be sober. We should be careful in our evaluation and estimation of ourselves and careful not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. How many ministries have failed because they attempted greater things in God than that for which they had received the grace? We must be careful to perceive God’s grace in our lives, and then it will not be difficult to perceive the ministry that He has for us.
We must remember that God never holds us accountable for that to which someone else has been called. He only holds us accountable for what He has instructed us to do. I am struggling to be a pastor in the body of Christ but God has given me the grace to be an intercessor, then I will not receive the commendation of a good and faithful servant. God only measures us against what He has called us to be. He never rates us on the basis of what we do, only on the basis of how faithful we are to do His will for our lives. There maybe those who attempted to be apostles in their own strength who will receive the judgment of an unfaithful servant in the kingdom of God, while there will be those who were singers in the choir who will receive the accommodation of a faithful steward and become the ruler of cities in the kingdom to come. Our placement in the future kingdom will not be dependent upon our natural talents and abilities, it will not be dependent upon the number of spiritual gifts we exercised, it will not be determined on the basis of the ministry calling that we had in this lifetime, it will be determined on the basis of faithfulness, that is how faithful we were to what God told us to do. If we are judged faithful, we will be assigned areas of ruler-ship in the kingdom of God (Matthew 25:14-30).
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:1-8).
3. These ministries functioning together will make up or comprise the fullness of Christ.
When Christ ascended on high he led captivity captive. He left the earth bodily, but He did not leave the earth without a witness. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was outpoured upon the expectant disciples and there took place the miraculous birth of the Body of Christ. At this time Christ distributed His ministry and fullness of grace to His body: being broken and distributed to each member of the Body.
When Jesus instituted the Last Supper, and identified the bread as being His body. He was teaching us something about the New Testament Church, the body of Christ. The first thing Jesus did was to break the bread which spoke of the fact that Christ’s natural body was to be broken in death. After the breaking He distributed that bread to the disciples. He took of His fullness and distributed it to His body (Ephesians 4:8-12). No disciple received the fullness of the loaf but they all received a measure of the fullness. Each became a partaker of the divine fullness. No one ministry has it all, but all have a fragment that they are to share with the rest of the body.
If we are to experience the fullness of Christ’s ministry we must receive and acknowledge that which is in each member. God’s desire is that the bread that was broken become one lump or one loaf again (I Corinthians 10:17).
When the individual members of the body of Christ are in unity and harmony then the loaf is restored as a whole and we can experience Christ’s fullness.
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:11-16)
In order for this to happen, we must begin to recognize and receive the ministry of others. We must recognize that we are members one of another (Ephesians 5:30), and we need each other to be what God has called us to be to the world. Christ only has one body. If the members of this Body are self-centered, full of striving, and critical of each other, the body is divided, the seamless garment of the Lord is rent, and the ministry of the body is rendered ineffective.
4. These ministries functioning together as the many-membered Body of Christ are to fulfill and complete the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Christ was here on earth He ministered out of a heart of compassion seeking to save that which was lost. He came to proclaim the good news, to gather sheep, to instruct in the ways of God, to exhort to righteousness, to give Himself as a ransom for many, to reach out to man in his need. Christ as a man on earth could not reach out to everyone. More Christos or “anointed ones” would be needed to satisfy the heart of God. Christ rose from the dead as the firstborn of many brethren. Now He desires to carry on and complete His ministry through His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1:22-23)
Christ as the Head is continuing to preach and heal and prophesy and teach and exhort and seek out the lost, but now He is doing it through His Body. The book of Acts begins in a beautiful way. Luke writes of his former treatise, the Gospel of Luke, which is perhaps the most complete account of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry
extending from the birth of John the Baptist to the ascension of Christ. He refers to this treatise as being only a record of that which Jesus “Began both to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). That three-and-one-half years of ministry was only a beginning. The book of Acts as well as Church history records all that Jesus continued to do and teach by the Holy Spirit through the Church of Jesus Christ, which is His Body.1
1Material taken directly from Kevin Connor’s Book: The New Testament Church., publisher Sovereign World Ltd.