A fivefold pastor has three basic needs in ministry. For a fivefold pastor to be effective in the on-going development of the Kingdom and the local church, he should have these three basic needs met and these gifts functioning alongside him in ministry.

1> The fivefold pastor needs insight – a teaching gift. So he needs a fivefold teacher whom he can work with. Since his primary gift and calling is to teach people how to care for one another, he emanates love, comfort and security. However, even though the fivefold pastor can and must teach, he needs the added insight a fivefold teacher brings to his ministry so that people are firmly grounded in the Word of the Lord and the basic Christian doctrines. A fivefold teacher’s insight into the weaker areas of the group will help to give direction to the type and amount of teaching that is needed, focusing on the weaker areas so they can be turned into strengths.

2> A fivefold pastor needs foresight – otherwise he will get caught up in just the immediate needs that he sees in the local church and forget the direction that the local church should be going in. He needs a prophetic voice speaking into his life, the life of the leadership team, and the life of the local church.

3> A fivefold pastor needs oversight – he needs someone with an apostolic gift who can see the bigger picture. This person is available to assist through difficulties and speak encouragement in the midst of trials. Many fivefold pastors have given up on a local church during a difficult season because there was no one there to encourage them and help them see what was taking place in the larger scope of things. An apostle on the team can give hope and courage and stir faith in the heart of the fivefold pastor and the people while giving wise counsel and insight into the life of the local church. The fivefold pastor also needs the apostolic individual for vision and to know where the local church should be going.

A fivefold pastor needs the teaching, prophetic, and apostolic gifts speaking into his life and ministry so as to bring about God’s full plan and purpose for His people. At times, the fivefold pastor may feel threatened by the ministry of these other fivefold ministers but when he sees the need in his own life and ministry for input from other team members he will look to them for help. When he sees that the others in the fivefold ministry are not trying to build their own ministries but are simply helping to co-labour with him, he can trust them. The others in the fivefold are meant to come alongside and assist him in the purpose God has given to him as a fivefold pastor ministering within a local church structure.

We are looking at the ministry of the fivefold pastor…

Fivefold pastors have the God-given ability to connect long-term with a local church taking on the task of teaching the sheep to care for one another. In this way they are committed to the spiritual welfare of the local church. As he teaches and trains the people and works with the eldership team this helps the believers to feel secure and loved. The sheep are carefully nurtured and the flock is maintained as a result of the training the leaders and people receive from the fivefold pastor.

Fivefold pastors have the authority to work within the local church structure. This authority has been given to them by the eldership team that invites them in to minister, train, and equip. Their sphere of influence is limited by the mandate that they have been given by the local elders. The local elders have ultimate responsibility and are accountable for the health of the local church and God’s people. A fivefold pastor will often focus more on the eldership team than the people because as he equips the elders they are then able to train and teach the sheep in his absence.

The fivefold pastor trains and equips the body for ministry. The traditional pastor role – the concept of a local church pastor – dictates that he does most of the ministry. At least that is the mind-set of many people in the congregation. They believe that is why they support him. They hire the professional to do the work of the ministry for them. However, that is not the way it is set forth in the Scriptures. The pastor is a fivefold pastor who teaches the saints to minister to and provide pastoral care for others in the body. The focus of the ministry is thus not “up front.”

In the church that man has built there is a gravitational pull of ministry toward the front of an assembled congregation. Everyone who has ever ministered publicly has felt it. It leads to the misconception that the most valuable positions of ministry are centre-stage positions. People begin to think that the only way to get proper ministry is to walk up front and receive special prayer from the person on stage. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Remember, of the forty power encounters that took place in the book of Acts, only one of them took place in the temple. The rest took place in the marketplace. Listen to that again… All but one of the miracles took place out on the streets, in homes and with the people. But, in the Church world today, we think that there must be a full worship band playing, with ministry only taking place at the front of the auditorium. I am not making light of the anointing and dynamics of that venue, but there does need to be a conscious effort by fivefold pastors as well as the other fivefold ministers to continue to not only equip the saints for ministry but to gently nudge and encourage ministry into the hands of the people as we send them back into their world to minister. We are going against the Christian gravitational pull.

The early apostles didn’t have time to do all the work. They were too busy praying and studying the Word (Acts 6:3). The people were expected to be doing the ministry. When believers within a congregation understand that they are the ones who can minister, the congregation begins to grow. Believers will realize they have an important part to play and consequently will take ownership to it. Without that understanding they are looking to the pastor to make it happen.

The elders of congregations are in place to see that training and equipping takes place regularly. They do not have to do all the training and equipping themselves. For example, if the group is not growing, the elders can decide to bring in a fivefold  prophet and allow the prophet to blow out the cobwebs that have stifled growth. If the congregation does not have a vision for multiplication, a fivefold apostolic gift can be called in to stir things up by bringing attention to the greater purposes of God, rattling the cage of complacency and open people’s eyes to the surrounding world.

Apostles have the ability to stir the passion of Jesus in our hearts and spirits in such a way as to cause our flesh to get out of its comfortable mode of complacency and move into the exhilarating mode of action! Christ gave us the fivefold ministry team to train and equip His body that we would not be anemic, tossed to and fro, but firmly grounded, stedfast, fulfilling the Lord’s purposes for our generation. The fivefold pastor plays a major role in this equipping and maturing.

Fivefold evangelists desire to see others in the Church receive a burden for evangelism. You can tell the difference between an individual who has taken the call that is on every disciple to “go into all the world and make disciples” and a fivefold evangelist. A fivefold evangelist ministers to you in a level of grace that encourages you. After their evangelistic message or their training to evangelize, you cannot wait until you can go out and share Jesus with someone. A fivefold evangelist releases a gift of faith into the heart of the people and they realize that they can actually “make disciples” and share Jesus with others. This is very evident because they are called to “equip the saints.” Many other evangelists are good at crusade meetings and local revivals but there are missing the equipping element that is seen in the ministry of all fivefold evangelists.

When others share the need to go out and win the lost you may feel guilty that you are not reaching more people for Christ. False guilt in not a motivator, but if it is conviction from God – now that can be a great motivator. A passion for the lost and faith that the Lord has given to you the ability to tell others is a great motivator. This is what a true fivefold evangelist imparts into the hearts and minds of the people under his ministry. There is never a feeling of guilt and shame – always a sense of “I can do this.”

A fivefold evangelist trains and equips the saints in the “how to” of evangelism and releases a knowing deep inside that they can all tell others about the night and day difference that Jesus has made in their lives.

The Church today lacks an evangelistic fervour because of the extreme lack of the ministry of the fivefold evangelist. This role within the fivefold ministry team is the one who comes and gives practical training in reaching the lost. They will also motivate people to come to a place of faith, excitement, and anticipation of sharing Jesus with others. Their anointing is needed as it empowers people to go into their neighbourhood and work places and share the Lord with those they are relating to.

Fivefold evangelists also disciple others who have the call of fivefold evangelist. They will train, equip, and mentor those who are called into this fivefold ministry and then release them into the harvest to win others and into the Church to train others. Fivefold evangelists want to see themselves multiplied. They are not only interested in bringing others to Christ; their deep desire is to train and release many more like-minded and called individuals. This is true spiritual parenting.

Fivefold evangelists are also called alongside the other fivefold ministers to bring the Body of Christ to a place of maturity and perfection (Ephesians 4:13). They carry zeal and a holy fire that ignites the Body of Christ drawing them into a lifestyle of ministry. Fivefold evangelists especially are co-workers and extensions of the apostolic ministry (2 Timothy 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:2) They help to extend the frontiers of God’s Kingdom.

Each of the fivefold gifts carries a different personality. It is not always easy for fivefold ministers to relate to one another due to the strengths of their gifts and the fact that each views life, ministry, and the Church from the strengths of that particular gift. But it is a good thing that one of the dynamics of Jesus’ presence in our lives is the ability to walk together in unity. There is room for all the ministry gifts of the fivefold team.

While the ministry of the evangelist is one of the most widely recognized gifts in the Body of Christ; there is a vast difference between an evangelist and a fivefold evangelist. Both are seriously needed in the Body of Christ today. We need both kinds of evangelists to win the lost as they run major meetings in churches and in communities. But only fivefold evangelists impart zeal for souls to be saved and to equip the saints with wisdom and anointing to win the lost.

A fivefold evangelist starts by sharing Jesus with others. As they continue to see more and more people coming to a personal relationship with Jesus it becomes clear that there is a gift and a calling at work within them. He begins to share his experiences with the church of which he is a part. They are energized and excited by his testimonies and stories. People invite their unsaved friends to their house or local church while this young evangelist is there, and through the course of the evening see their unsaved friends led to the Lord. A fivefold evangelist continues to walk in submission the local church leadership making himself available to encourage others in sharing Jesus with their unsaved friends. He begins to share his anointing and his knowledge.

As times goes on, and he is found faithful, continuing to labour alongside of others within the church, the leadership team of the church may ask him to do some teaching on evangelism. He willingly agrees. Others are encouraged and motivated to share their faith through his ministry. The young evangelist begins to see this budding gift and calling in others and nurtures that gift in them, encouraging them to begin to use their gifts more frequently. The leadership team, observing his faithfulness and effectiveness, begin to see in him the calling of the fivefold evangelist and ask him if he is willing to enter into the leadership team of the local church. Then they begin to connect him with more mature fivefold evangelists who can continue to encourage the young man’s gifts and calling to grow and be released. He begins to be mentored by more mature fivefold evangelists and his calling begin to be released and recognized outside the local body as he continues to grow and mature.

Just like other fivefold ministries, a fivefold evangelist starts by faithfully using the gifts the Lord has given to him, not looking for position or looking for a title, but only desiring to be used by the Lord to bring others to Christ.

The qualifications of an evangelist are the same as that of any other fivefold minister. They must be of sound character and persons of integrity. They are to be full of the Holy Spirit and power. Philip, the evangelist, was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 21:8; Acts 6:5).

Evangelists must be sound in doctrine since a large part of their ministry is preaching the Word (2 Timothy 2:15). A fivefold evangelist knows how to preach with authority and power. Many times an evangelist is not one who has lots of notes and points in his message. He simply opens his mouth and preaches Christ. Unlike the teacher who spends hours putting a sermon together with notes and point after point, an evangelist studies but often speaks more from the well within vs. a prepared text. He normally will have a clear sense of where he is headed in his preaching, but it is not laid out as plainly as a teacher’s message would be.

So, an evangelist needs to study to keep his well full so that as he teaches and preaches, he is drawing from a deep well that has revelation from previous weeks of spending time with the Lord. This is simply part of the nature of how their gifts and calling operates. This is part and parcel of their ability to start anywhere at any time and preach Christ and Him crucified.

As with any of the fivefold ministry gifts, a fivefold evangelist must first be affirmed by the leadership team in his local church and serve his local church in modelling evangelism as a life-style. After he has proven himself there, he may be released to the next level of ministry – trans-local.

One of the different aspects of the fivefold evangelist is that the Lord will affirm evangelists by signs and wonders that follow them. These signs and wonders are for setting captives free and for drawing people to Christ (Acts 8:6, 13).

Individuals with a strong emphasis on signs and wonders are often called power evangelists. Signs and wonders are meant to be a tangible expression affirming that God is present desiring to minister to people. When Jesus laid hands on the sick, He often said, “The Kingdom of God is near you.” Signs and wonders bring us to the place where our hearts are separated from reasoning and free to respond to His Lordship because we cannot deny His power at work.

Evangelists with signs and wonders following their ministries need strong moral fibre and character so they do not misuse their anointing. Otherwise they would not be able to fight the temptation of accepting exorbitant favours, gifts, and finances from people served by their ministry. Misusing their anointing can taint them as they get caught in the trappings of ministry instead of purely doing the Lord’s work.

The fivefold evangelist (Ephesians 4:11-12) has an anointing that allows him to win souls and train others to do the same. They have a passion for souls, and the fire that is in them to see souls saved is contagious.

The fivefold evangelist is another aspect of who Jesus is. He is the evangelist of evangelists. There was no greater evangelist than Jesus. Jesus preached of Himself to a dying world: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to he Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Evangelism means to announce the Good News. Why is the Good News? Jesus has come. That is what He was proclaiming during His time here on earth. Jesus Christ has come and paid the price for your sin. Jesus Christ is the evangelist and His ministry on earth was to spend the Good News that He had come to save all of mankind (Luke 19:10).

When Jesus ascended into Heaven He gave each of His five ministries to different individuals (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher) and continues to do so today. The fivefold evangelist is a vital part of the leadership of the Church worldwide today. His ministry is much needed and not always well recognized. The gift of the fivefold evangelist and thus the ministry of evangelism within the local church is deeply needed in the Church today. Statistics tell us that we are not growing in most nations.

In North America church growth is really “transfer growth” rather than “conversion growth.” In other words, people are just moving from one church to another – most often from smaller churches to larger churches.

In other areas of the world people simply are not evangelizing and so the Church is not growing proportionately to the population. There is a great need for the ministry of the fivefold evangelist in every nation today. And, a need to understand what his ministry really is.

So, we should be crying out to God asking, “Where are the fivefold evangelists?” Jesus said that He gave “…some to be evangelists.” It is their responsibility to train and equip the rest of the Body of Christ, releasing them to do the work of the ministry, specifically to evangelize and win the lost. So, the problem in most nations today is a lack of training and equipping to evangelize. A lack of fivefold evangelists.

So often we think that the person with the ‘gift of evangelism’ should be the one to lead people to Jesus and the rest of us are simply not called to this ministry. There is no such gift as “the gift of evangelism” in the Bible. All believers are called by Jesus to ‘seek and save the lost’ and to ‘go into all the world and make disciples’ (Luke 19:10 and Matthew 28:19). And the fivefold evangelist is called to train and equip the believers to do this specific aspect of ministry in the world today.

From the Scriptures it is clear that fivefold evangelists are called to be training and equipping while they are also doing the ministry of evangelism themselves on a personal level. They must train others in order to “…prepare God’s people for the works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up until 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” (Ephesians 4:11-15).

Part of the “fullness of Christ” is that every believer would have a heart for the lost – for those who do not know Christ. Hence the fivefold evangelist comes on the scene to stir our hearts to share our faith in Christ. Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be My witnesses…” Evangelists stir our hearts to seek the Holy Spirit so that we can flow in the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) and thus be supernatural in our witness to the unsaved.

More next time…