Role of the Apostolic: Importance of the Body

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them… (Romans 12:3-6)

Even though an Apostolic person can many times function in a variety of roles, their purpose is not to try to do everything or be the best at everything. Their purpose is to promote the function of the body.

One of the weakest areas in the structure of the church body today is the lack of a five-fold expression in the leadership structure—or even the lack of a group-leadership structure. Most local congregations have a pastor who is the head and everything in the church is based on his opinion.

Many times, you may have someone in the role of a pastor, who is not even really a pastor. They may be an evangelist or a prophet, and because of that, their leadership is lop-sided. They focus more heavily on one area, and neglect another area. Even a person who is actually a pastor, may not fully lead in the way the church needs to be led, because God designed His church to function as a body with many parts.

The lack of the function of the true apostolic is one reason (among many) that the church is not functioning in the way that it should. A true apostolic figure is someone who acts as a father to those in the church and calls them and establishes them into a moving functioning body as a whole—not a small handful of people who do everything while everyone else watches.

Sometimes, we have seen this done so wrongly that we shrug off the five-fold ministry all-together. Other times, we think so highly of those in church leadership, that we put them on a pedestal and treat them as those they were some famous rock-star. Both extreme is wrong.

The Lord is going to restore the five-fold ministry in the church and the functioning of every believer in their inheritance as saints before He returns. Therefore, we need to study the scriptures and seek God about a right-view of how his body operates, and ask God to rightly restore the five-fold ministry to His bride.