Correcting the Imbalance 

An exploration of the roles of Ephesians 4:11-13

 
“So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

Exploring giftings

Together with my church, I have recently been looking at this passage and how we bring together the gifts to the church under what is known by the acronym APEST: Apostles, Preachers, Evangelists, Shepherds/pastors, and Teachers. An organisation called 5Q Central has enabled individuals to identify our top two APEST giftings through tests which question our personality preferences so that we can explore how those qualities can be used to balance the work within our churches. Personally, I came out as teacher–apostle, which set me thinking about how I am received by others when talking about the Bible.

To function effectively, our churches need to be using all the APEST gifts. Jesus has a balance of all these qualities whereas we tend to demonstrate one or two.

How have the dominant numbers of teacher–shepherds affected our church today, and how does this need redressing by the other teacher types?

A skewed balance

5Q Central claim that most of our churches have been dominated for many years by individuals of teacher–shepherd type, and this influences how our churches are run. 

The teacher (in the APEST sense) is clearly the person who has the desire to help others understand the Bible. Given that teachers in general have a prominent role in most churches, they inevitably have a strong influence. But not all teachers are the same. With our secondary gifting, most teachers show as teacher–shepherd; they want to create safe places for people to grow, not wishing to cause offence or upset in any situation. Contrary to this, the teacher–apostle seeks to preserve the vision, steward the mission and serve the church. Though small in numbers, we will also find teacher–prophets, driven to teach the truth, aligning the people with the word of God.

The question I have puzzled over is, how have the dominant numbers of teacher–shepherds affected our church today, and how does this need redressing by the other teacher types?

Over the years I have heard many teachers make statements that are at best ambiguous and often wrong, where the teacher has tried to make the Bible more palatable or acceptable to the shepherd characteristic. This, I am beginning to understand, has come about through the dominance of the teacher–shepherd type which has become unchecked. Equally, we must be careful when using the other gifts not to overload the believer to the point that too much of a change from where they currently stand in too short a period can drive them away.

We must disciple beyond ‘Jesus loves you’, to produce spiritual fruit and works as the process of sanctification takes place.

I realise that in the following statements we do not fall into two distinct camps, but each of us probably demonstrates a mixture of my examples. However I have heard all of these statements at sometime within our churches.

Example 1 

Jesus loves you just as you are.
While the statement may be true, it is only the beginning, for Jesus wants to transform us into His likeness.

The teacher–apostle in contrast might say; Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, from which we gain knowledge and understanding of God. Without fear of the Lord, we have no wisdom.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov 9:10)

We must disciple beyond ‘Jesus loves you’, to produce spiritual fruit and works as the process of sanctification takes place.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  (Eph 2:10)

Our demonstration of love needs to be based upon knowledge gained through our Bible understanding and worked out in the way we live. 

Example 2 

God is love and we understand love therefore whatever we do in love is godly.
With this type of statement, we are in danger of producing a human based scripture driven by human love rather than godly love. 

The teacher apostle might say; To understand godly love, we must have knowledge and other fruits given by God. Understanding godly love is accomplished through growth in all these attributes, leading to a change in our behaviour.

 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. (2 Pet 1:5-7)

In summary, our demonstration of love needs to be based upon knowledge gained through our Bible understanding and worked out in the way we live. 

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.” (Luke 6:32-35)

We too must approach God with reverence, recognising that it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice we are able to stand. 

Example 3

You have a daddy God; He is your buddy and He loves you.
The teacher-apostle rather, might highlight passages such as Revelation 4:10-11, noting that the elders do not run across the room and bounce on Daddy; they approach in reverence and awe:

“The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’”

It is in the balance of these two emphases that we grasp who the Father is. In the story of the prodigal son the father is overjoyed at the return of the lost son. We are all like the lost son and our heavenly Father will be full of joy when we find Christ. Yet He is also the One who created heaven and earth, and we need to also approach Him with awe.  Just as the prodigal son returned to his father recognising his unworthiness, we too must approach God with reverence, recognising that it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice we are able to stand. 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd

We know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, but He is balanced in all aspects of APEST. In John 6 Jesus talks about not losing any that the Father has given Him and that He is the bread of life and those who eat His flesh and drink His blood will live forever. We then read that, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” (John 6:65-66)

Understanding godly love has to be based on faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection – love encompasses all these things. 

Jesus looks for the very last sheep, all that the Father has given Him. Jesus did not run after those who walked away telling them He would give them a helter skelter in the synagogue that they might continue to follow Him.

We must work in God’s love, not human love

If the church is to be where it should be, we must balance all these APEST gifts to the church. We cannot allow the shepherd grace or any other grace to run unconstrained.

A friend was part of synod during one of the most important votes of recent time. Other voters turned to him and said, “Does the Bible really say that?” 

How are we in a position where those voting on the way forward for the church are appointed without basic Biblical knowledge, people who vote based on human understanding and emotionally driven convictions rather than the Word of God?

As said earlier, understanding godly love has to be based on faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection – love encompasses all these things. Godly love becomes part of us over time, while our churches are starting with human love and interpreting their scripture based on that human love.

We must leave our human preconceptions behind and seek godly love based on the Bible, not be driven by trying to force scripture into a mould compatible with human thinking.

To move forward we must leave our human preconceptions behind and seek godly love based on the Bible, not be driven by trying to force scripture into a mould compatible with human thinking.

In my early commitment to Christ, I chose to accept what the Bible says rather than interpret the Bible according to my understanding at that time. It is surprising how much more sense the Bible and the world make when the Word of God governs our thinking and understanding.

The following is probably the most frightening verse in scripture; we must work as if working for the Lord in all we do, with deed and heart in His will.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt 7:21-23)

We need to be changed by scripture, not adapt scripture to circumvent our shortfalls. This can be done by using the balanced graces of APEST, working with the Holy Spirit within us.
 

^{About the author. Brian Burgess was employed by Rolls-Royce before being transferred into EDS, then HP until retirement. He is married with two daughters and three grandchildren. He is author of ‘A Day is a Thousand Years’.}

^{Image by laurajstc on pixabay.com}