The Plumbline

 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13) If you have been in church circles for any length of time, you have probably heard the term 'the five-fold ministry' of the church at least once or twice. Christ gave particular instructions as to how his body of believers would operate. The purpose of the five-fold ministry is really quite simple - to equip his people to do his work and build up the believers into a unified body of faith-filled, fully equipped disciples. The apostles are sent out to establish new churches - helping plant new churches wherever they are called. The prophets are list...