The five gifts

In addition to the elder function, Jesus has given five gifts to the Body to build it up into maturity: apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding and teaching.

These are not organisational roles or titles. They are people operating in a particular gifting for the Body’s benefit. Anyone might receive these gifts, elder or not, and operate in them as the Holy Spirit wills and commissions. People in the New Testament who had the grace on their lives for these giftings were often identified, commissioned and/or acknowledged to be operating in one or more of these gifts (Acts 11:27–28; 13:1–3; 15:32; 21:8; Gal 2:7–9; 1 Tim 4:14; Rom 16:1–2; James 3:1).

Each of the gifts comes with its own authority to serve the church, different from the authority that comes with eldering.

Their purpose, as stated in the Scripture, is to equip and build up the Body of Christ, so that the Body of Christ can minister as Jesus on the earth (Eph 4:12).

These five giftings are not the same as the gifts of the Holy Spirit that He distributes among the members of the Body — a word, a healing, an act of mercy, a tongue. Those are covered in Gifts of the Spirit.

These gifts are meant to operate with a view that they should become obsolete: “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith…” (Eph 4:13).

The goal is that they are eventually no longer needed, and we are all mature and operating fully as the Body of Jesus on the earth. Granted, this is unlikely to happen until Christ’s return, but this should be the mentality.

Ephesians 4:7–13 is directly at odds with the modern practice of making these gifts into titles and organisational roles and installing them as necessary, permanent, hierarchical fixtures.

This gift is a foundation-laying gift that brings the gospel and the wisdom of God, and forms new communities of faith, with Jesus as the cornerstone (Eph 2:20; 1 Cor 1:18–31, 3:10–11). The authority is relational and multi-community. It is a fatherly authority that flows from bringing the community to birth (1 Cor 4:14–15). It is a very visible and highly influential authority for this purpose, while still never being a power-over, lording-it-over authority (2 Cor 1:24). The authority from this gift arises in the process of doing it, not from any name or title (1 Cor 9:1–2; 2 Cor 10–12).

Before Paul operated in the apostolic gifting, he operated in the prophetic and teaching giftings at his local church in Antioch (Acts 13:1). There is no indication he was an elder there (Acts 11:30). He received the apostolic commissioning by the Holy Spirit, along with Barnabas, and was sent out from Antioch (Acts 13:2–4). After his missionary journeys he would appoint local elders in the churches he planted and return to the Antioch church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5); continuing there in a prophetic and teaching gifting, building up the Body.

There is no indication Paul operated in an apostolic gift at Antioch. It wouldn’t even make sense, since the Greek word for apostle, ἀπόστολος (apostolos), means “one who is sent” or “a sent one / messenger / envoy”. In the New Testament cultural context, this Greek word was not a title, but a functional term for a person dispatched by someone with authority to represent them and carry out a specific task. People who operate in an apostolic gifting are sent by Jesus to represent Him and plant new churches.

Antioch was Paul’s local church, where he was in submission to the rest of the Body of Christ (Eph 5:21).

The prophetic gifting exists to encourage and strengthen the Body (Acts 15:32). It is also a foundation-laying gift, alongside the apostolic gifting (Eph 2:20), helping new communities of faith to form by speaking the heart of God into them.

Someone operating in the prophetic gift speaks what the Spirit gives, for the upbuilding, encouragement and consolation of the Body (1 Cor 14:3). The speech carries weight because it is from God. The authority is in the word spoken.

It is expressed in different ways. Agabus seemed to operate in a more predictive sense (Acts 11:28; 21:10–11), while Judas and Silas encouraged and strengthened the brethren at length (Acts 15:32). All three are named as prophets.

Whatever is said must always be weighed. Nothing is taken at face value because of who said it.

Prophecy is not restricted to those operating in a prophetic gifting. The Holy Spirit gives prophecy to whomever He wills (1 Cor 12:10), and Paul tells an entire local church, “you can all prophesy one by one” (1 Cor 14:31).

Being given something to say does not make someone a prophet, and in a house church most prophecy is exactly that: ordinary people encouraging and building each other up as they go. Since “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10), every believer is operating in it to some degree, often without ever calling it that. That wider gift, open to everyone, is set out in Gifts of the Spirit.

A teacher unfolds the Word with care and precision. James 3:1 warns that not many should become teachers (in a more regular, public sense), because they will receive a stricter judgment. A teacher should be aware of this accountability that they’ll have to Jesus. The authority for this gift sits in the accurate handling of the Word in building up the Body.

This gift also plays a foundation-forming role in new communities of faith (1 Cor 12:28). The apostolic gift comes to bring the wisdom of the cross and the foundational message of Christ. The prophetic gifting speaks the heart of God to the new community being formed. The teaching gift then upholds and makes clear the apostolic and prophetic message that has been laid down.

As with the prophetic, being given to the church as a teacher is not the same thing as being given something to teach. Teaching is also one of the gifts the Holy Spirit distributes as He wills (Rom 12:7; 1 Cor 14:26), so anyone can operate in it as the Spirit moves, and it often happens without formality in the normal happenings of Body life (Acts 18:24–28).

This gift has an authority that comes in the announcement of the Gospel, often powerful and public, and aimed at those who do not yet believe. Mention of it is rare in the New Testament. Philip operated in this gifting (Acts 21:8), as well as Timothy (2 Tim 4:5). In Ephesians, Paul makes it clear that this gift is meant to build up the Body into maturity (Eph 4:12), so any operation of it should be to that end; likely a mix of both sharing the gospel and training the Body up to do the same.

This is a gift that comes with a caring, protecting and guiding authority. It is a gift that is almost always associated with elders in the New Testament, except for Ephesians 4:11. Someone who isn’t functioning as an elder can certainly express this caring gift.

One detail of the Greek is worth noting. The first three of the five each get their own article — the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists — while the last two share one: τοὺς δὲ ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους, “the shepherds and teachers”. That groups them more closely than the rest, and some read it as a single gift, shepherd-teachers. The construction does not require that, so we hold it loosely; but shepherding and teaching clearly sit close together.

Authority comes with each of these gifts, for the purpose of equipping it and building it up into maturity, so that it (the Body of Christ) can minister as Jesus on the earth (Eph 4:12). This authority is distinct from the authority that comes with eldering. The eldering authority is meant to steward, protect and care for a local body, along with the other elders.

The people operating in those giftings aren’t meant to be “the ministers”.

Everything above is the Ephesians 4 list, where the gift is a person given to the church. There is a second and much wider set of gifts in the New Testament, and they work differently: the Holy Spirit distributes them among the members as the Body gathers and ministers to itself and to the world (Rom 12:6–8; 1 Cor 12:8–10, 28).

Prophecy, healings, tongues, mercy, serving, teaching, faith, giving and the rest are handed out “to each one individually just as He wills” (1 Cor 12:11). Every believer has the potential to be moved by the Spirit to operate in any of them, at any time.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit