Be A First
Century Ministry

One characteristic of a medieval model is that the professional clergy do all the ministry with the laymen in the church, just serving, attending, and giving.If you want your church members to only serve, attend, and give, you are not following what the Bible says.

 

A first-century ministry model is seen in the New Testament, the Book of Acts, and our plan is described in detail in Ephesians chapter 4.

 

In that chapter, we see that the Lord Jesus gave gifts to the church to minister the Word of God. And the gifts are people fulfilling their calling.

 

Ephesians 4 says that each Christian has a vocation, or a calling, and lists them in verse 11:… he (Jesus) gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

 

Some were called to be Apostles. They were those personally sent by Christ.

 

Some were Prophets, and they are seen in the book of Acts, but not after the Bible was completed.

 

SOME are called to be Evangelists. I believe that is the Bible word for a church planter or a missionary.

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​And then it says that SOME are called to be Pastors. These are those called to shepherd believers in a church.

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​And then we see something unusual. Ephesians 4 writes…

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Some Apostles
Some Prophets
Some Evangelists
Some Pastors

 

But then the Bible does not say “some” Teachers.

 

Why? Because the great commission in Matthew 28 sends us all to “teach all nations” and to “teach them to observe all things” or we can say disciple them.So, anyone not called to full-time service as a pastor or a missionary does have a calling as a teacher, a disciple-maker, a one-on-one teacher, like a tutor.

 

And Pastors and church planters are instructed to be “apt” to teach.

 

So the Bible teaches that if you are not called to be a missionary or a pastor, you are called to be a teacher or a disciple-teacher.

 

Most people fear public speaking, but in one-on-one discipleship, you only need to speak to one person at a time, and you are both growing together.

 

So then look, in verse 12, the Bible tells us that the purpose of the missionaries, pastors, and teachers or disciple-teachers is for the “perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ.”

 

To perfect the saints (believers) is to add what is missing. Why? So that they can join all of us (missionaries, pastors, teachers) in the work of the ministry.

 

What is the work of the ministry? Is it attending, giving, and serving? Everywhere you find the word ministry in the Bible, you see that there is a person who has the Word of God, and that person is transferring it to someone else.

 

And it is important to know that serving is not the same as ministering.

 

In most churches, you do not need to know much about the Bible to serve. In fact, you do not even have to be a Christian to be able to serve.

 

A medieval ministry model tries to get everyone serving. That is their primary strategy.

 

Serving and helping the church run smoothly is important, but that is not the purpose of the ministry, as we see in Ephesians 4.

 

A biblical first-century church sees people trust in Christ, and matures those young believers (lambs) to be able to minister the Word of God. Not just the Pastor, leaders, and 5% of the adult church members.

 

It is a church where the missionaries, pastors, and disciple-teachers work together to place the Word of God in believers, mature them, and multiply disciple-makers to join them in the ministry.

 

There is one more characteristic of a first-century ministry and it involves your priorities and motivation.

 

Is “perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry” optional for you? Or, do you take the Word of God seriously? Ephesians four starts with the Apostle Paul imploring us to take our calling seriously.

 

Can you picture Jesus asking you If you love Him?

 

If right now you can say yes that you love the Lord, then what did He want for His sheep? His sheep.

 

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you will do what the Lord wants or not, whether you take the Scriptures seriously or not as His disciple, no matter what the results are.

 

So a first-century ministry model is where the pastor/shepherd loves the Lord and the Lord’s sheep and has matured adults in his ministry to lead people to Christ and to bring the new believers to spiritual maturity under his care for multiplication.

 

And the Journey discipleship lessons were designed to help guide you to a New Testament first-century pattern of ministry. The strategy is built in.

 

Without this step, the mathematical outcome cannot be reached.

 

So we are talking about how to multiply disciple-makers, and to do so you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, and you to need to be a first-century ministry.

 

Now let's look at the next point.