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Series Overview
Over these summer months we have been looking at the seven key disciplines that the church has practiced since it’s inception.
Seven key disciplines that shape the church for mission, these disciplines shape the church so it can be the presence of Jesus in our broken world.
For the sake of those who have missed a sermon here are the seven disciplines that we have been exploring:
The discipline of:
Being with the “least of these”
The Lord’s table
Reconciliation
Proclaiming the Gospel
The Kingdom Prayer
The Fivefold Gifting
Being with Children
Today we are going to look at what scripture describes as “the fivefold gifting”.
The fivefold gifting is about leadership and how God has structured the church through these gifting’s.
God has given the church positions, or offices that are based on servanthood, yet structured in a way that not one person is more important than the other.
These offices within the church have been a challenge to understand over the history of the church, mostly due to corruption and misunderstanding.
This doesn’t surprise me, simple because they are offices that God has given as a gift to people.
When there are people involved, there will be corruption, and misunderstanding.
Gifted to Serve, Yet Wanting Position
If we were truly honest with ourselves when we think of positions within leadership structure, we probably think about status, or hierarchy.
We think about who is in charge of what, who is the most important person within the leadership structure.
Yet scripture gives us a different picture or leadership, a different picture of what it means to hold an office in the church.
A Good Example
As Jesus and the disciples headed into Jerusalem the disciples started showing their human side, their need to be important and seen as leaders.
They were clamouring for their place at the top of the pecking order in the coming new kingdom.
As Jesus talked about the coming suffering he would face, James and John asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left side in the kingdom.
They were saying, “Put us in the best positions to be over people.”
I want don’t want you to miss this picture, Jesus is talking about his upcoming suffering and death, and his companions are busy clamouring for a high position in His kingdom.
That’s right they were trying to look after themselves, and make sure they were important.
Listen to Jesus’ response, it sets the stage for how the New Testament defines leadership structure:
Biblical Leaders are Called to Be Servants
For Jesus, authority in the kingdom would be exercised in no other way, it can only be exercised through serving others.
There would be no hierarchy, no coercive power, no one person ruling over and above another person.
His model, as we will discover, is mutual, shared leadership under one Lord.
But how can we be led into the challenges of being a Christian community without someone on top?
How can anything get done without one leader to move things forward.
The answer is given to us by the apostle Paul.
The answer Paul gives us is recognizing those among us who are gifted by the Holy Spirit to lead in their respective gifting and enabling them to exercise those gifts in mutual submission to one another.
This is very different then how we practice leadership in the world.
Paul gives us a clear outline of this leadership structure for the church in Ephesians 4.
The Fivefold Gifts of the Spirit
Paul starts this chapter challenging the Ephesians to “live worthy of the calling you have received” (v.1).
Paul is not speaking to individuals here.
He is picturing a group of people brought together under the mutual worship of one Lord.
They were to lead a worthy life together in “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (v.2).
There will be conflict, for sure.
This is to be expected.
But in these conflicts, we will make “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (v.3).
Because through one baptism we all participate in “one Lord,....one God and Father of all” (vv.
5-6).
This is a picture of a people gathered under the authority of one Lord, working it out mutually.
Paul then quotes Psalm 68, starting with “When he ascended on high.....” Interpreting this as an enthronement psalm, Paul pictures Jesus as enthroned at the place of ultimate authority, the right hand of the Father.
It is from this place of ultimate authority that he gives gifts to his people (Eph.
4:8).
Paul then recites the five gifts that are given directly from the Lord in power.
These gifted people are to lead in dependance on that same Lord, who is the source of the gift.
In other words, God has given five specific gifts to specific individuals to lead in the church, through mutual submission and authority to each other.
None of these five gifts is more important then the other, they are all needed for the church to function properly in the Spirit.
The Five Gifts are as follows:
Apostles - Initiate, gather, and pioneer new works, calling people to live now in the kingdom.
Prophets - who speak so as to reveal the truth and call of God into a situation, especially the injustice and neglect of the poor.
Pastors - tend to and sustain people’s souls, especially the hurting
Evangelists - bring the good news to those who are hurting.
Teachers - help to explain and deepen people’s faith.
Can you point out in our church who has been gifted to what office within our church?
Gifted to Serve, for the Equipping of the Saints
Each of these five gifts mutually work together for one purpose, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Each of these gifts in Ephesians are multiple, and they are interdependent.
No one person can carry out all the gifts in the community.
Each person is to stay within the boundaries of their giftedness as “according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (v. 7).
Paul is talking specific to the five gifting of the Spirit, and not everyone receives these gifts, but those that do are to function together as servants for the one goal of equipping others for ministry.
This means they are not the only ones doing ministry, they are the ones who equip the church to do the ministry.
Paul give other direction concerning these gifts throughout scripture:
These gifts are for others good, not for status, but for the common good of others.
The Spirit allots the gifts to each person “individually as the Spirit chooses”.
No one can say they don’t need one of these gifts, the gifts can’t function on their own, they must relate to one another.
Paul tells us that it is according to the grace given to us, that we have different gifts.
We are to use these gifts as God has given them.
In other words, don’t venture outside of you gift, function within it because there will be someone else on the team that will fulfill the need for the others gifts.
Paul is clear in telling us that no gift is better, they are all necessary.
No one person can do all things.
Hockey Gives Us a Picture of How This Can Work
If we look at the structure of a hockey team, we can see a great picture of what God is doing within the structure of the church.
On a hockey team there is a group of coaches, the coaching teams role is to equip the team with strategy, and help fine tune the naturally given gifts the players already have.
But there is more then one coach, there is a head coach who sets the strategic plan of how the team is going to play the game, but He is not the only one who teaches it to the players.
There is always a coaching team, assistant coaches who work directly with the players to craft their gift, to encourage them when they are struggling, to work them harder when they are slacking off.
Picture the head coach being Jesus, and the assistant coaches being these five gifted people who have been empowered by the Spirit with a gift.
But the forward coach doesn’t coach the goalies.
Each coach on a team has a specific area that they specialize in.
One coaches the goalie’s, another the defence, another the forwards.
There are coaches that focus on skating skills, and others on fitness.
Each coach plays a role, and each coach is important to the big picture of equipping the players to win.
Coaches Don’t Play the Game
Notice something very important, coaches don’t actually go out and play the game for the players, they just prepare them for the game.
Each player has a gift, and the coaches have helped to organize how that gift can be used to help the team.
There are position, centre, wingers, defence, goalies.
Each of these positions play a role.
Each role is important for the success of them team.
This is exactly how the church is to function.
God has given us coaches who are gifted in different area’s, but the church also needs to play the game.
No one person can win a hockey game.
There is one interesting point in all of this that I think is very important.
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