An Introduction to the Equipping Gifts

The 2020 NFL playoffs just kicked off and it got me thinking about teams and teamwork. The thing about team sports is, in their purest sense, they demand that multiple individuals work together to achieve a goal- the assumption is that one person cannot do it all by themselves. Whether it’s the larger-than-life lineman, the tough-as-nails linebackers or the fast-as-lighting skill players, no one player or type of player can get the job done.

God has organized his church with a similar rationale. We are told that the church is to be a holy nation, an army, a body. None of these metaphors lend themselves to the idea that the church be a one man or one woman show. Yet, too often churches are organized in a way where one person, usually a charismatic, gifted leader with a big personality, does it all or is the foundation the rest of the church and it’s ministry stands on.

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that the only foundation the church should be built on is Jesus. Church leaders are fellow workers and builders helping the church be all it can be on the foundation of Jesus. Paul also unpacks the different members of the team God uses to build his church. Similar to the football team above, these gifts are very different but they share a common goal.

Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians,

“Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says:

When he ascended on high,

he took the captives captive;

he gave gifts to people.

But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.” - Ephesians 4:7-13 (CSB)

Here are a few important things to note from this text:

Everybody gets to play: Paul says “grace was given to each one of us...”, which we believe means that all men and women who are a part of Jesus’ family have at least one of these gifts or callings on their life. While we may all be at different points in our maturity process as disciples of Jesus, we are all gifted.

The gifts have the same purpose: Just like football players play different positions with the same goal of winning, we are all given different gifts with the same goal of helping the church grow in Christ’s likeness. Ultimately, our gifts exist to help the church walk more and more into the restored reality Jesus died to give her. The gifts don’t exist for someone to make a name for themselves, buy a private jet or start a ministry with their name on it. They exist to glorify Jesus by helping a church reflect the different aspects of Jesus’ character and mission.

The gifts have an expiration date: The text says these gifts will last until “we all reach unity in the faith, and are as mature as Jesus.” In other words, until the church has been perfected in love, Jesus will continue pouring out His gifts onto His people. I don’t know if you have looked at our churches or the broader churches in the world lately, but they are far from perfect. So in light of the fact that Jesus’ bride has yet to grow into full maturity, we believe all of these gifts, including apostles and prophets, exist and are needed until Jesus returns.

The gifts have different functions: We will be exploring in detail how these gifts differ from one another in later blog posts, but it seems clear that each gift has a different function. To assume that one main gifting or one type of leader is enough for everything a church, nevermind a family of churches, needs to become like Jesus is at best foolish and at worst dangerous.

The gifts need to stay together: We will also talk through this in a later post, but just as a team of all offensive linemen would be too slow to ever score a touchdown, a team of just wide receivers would be overpowered at the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, these gifts don’t often recognize or value one another. Instead, they often segregate and divide the church into segments. These segments end up being people with the same gift or people who prefer to be ministered to by a specific gift. The charismatic church is full of prophets, the reformed church is full of teachers, mega churches are full of evangelists, counseling centers are full of shepherds and so on. We need all of these gifts to work together to be the strongest team possible.

In closing, I’d love to leave you with a couple of questions for you to pray through...

• Do you value other gifts as essential, even if they are different to your gifts?
• Do you recognize that a church full of people like you with the same giftings and passions as you is an unhealthy, incomplete church that doesn’t reflect who Jesus is to the world?

Check back in as we continue this series on the Ephesians 4 gifts-  we’ll talk about discerning your gifts, misconceptions about the gifts, descriptions of what each of the gifts look like, the ways the different gifts approach situations and being churches that keep these gifts together to more accurately reflect Jesus to the world. My hope is that we would all be encouraged and challenged to walk more and more in the giftings Jesus has given us in order that we may point others back to Him and build up His bride into maturity.