clcgh.org Building The Capacity Of Christian Leaders, Equipping The Saints For The Work Of Ministry, Redirecting Straying Christians To The Sound Knowledge Of Christ
One of the mistakes made in the Body of Christ today is the attempt by ministers to teach or comment about everything.
It is not proper for a minister to teach about everything pertaining to the Christian faith because no one knows everything about God, the Bible and the Church.
A minister who thinks he knows and understands everything Christian is just proud. Paul writes that ministers know in part. In other words, an apostle knows something a prophet does not know, an evangelist knows something a pastor does not know and teacher knows something others do not know and vice-versa.
God has arranged it this way to promote humility and interdependence in the Church for the good of all.
Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church sets in it fivefold ministry offices (Ephesians 4:11). Please, pay attention to the word “offices”. Each office is unique with special characteristics, training, operations or functions for the equipping of the saints for work of ministry.
Christians who by the grace of God are appointed to occupy these offices are one but by their calling, preparation, divinely ordained responsibilities and above all their different levels of studies, meditation, fellowship with the Holy Spirit and varying degrees of grace received from the Lord, they know differently, see differently and carry out their duties differently.
Ministers in each office understand themselves better and so must concentrate on speaking to issues within their ministry. A controversy develops in the Church if an apostle who is not a prophet crosses the red line and attempts to talk about prophets and the prophetic ministry . This is one of the causes of the controversies that have engulfed the Church.
Considering the uniqueness of each ministry office, the only ministers who may qualify to speak to the issues of every other ministers may be teachers.
Thus, ministers must learn to discipline themselves, tame their tongues, humble themselves and keep within their boundaries with faith, love to promote peaceful coexistence.
In every country, there are various security services but each security service performs different tasks even though they serve the same one country. They are well organized; the military does not speak about issues concerning police, immigration, fire, customs, prisons and Vice-versa.
The same must be culture of the Church. However, a minister who receives grace to function in multiple ministry offices like apostle, prophet and teacher may qualify to speak on issues concerning those ministries.
For instance, Paul occupied multiple ministry offices as a preacher, apostle and teacher (2 Timothy 1:11).
By James Quansah
