Five-Fold Ministry: The Teaching Role

We have already looked some at the five-fold ministry role of a teacher and their ability to equip the saints with discernment. However, we will now look at a broad overview of a teaching role.

An apostle primarily preaches the apostolic gospel of the death, burial, resurrection, and return of Christ. An evangelist preaches the salvation message, and a pastor focuses more on matters of an individual's heart and personal life. A teacher, however, systematically teaches the whole of Scripture to ensure that sound doctrine is established to balance all of the messages. The message of the teacher typically works hand-in-hand to balance the prophetic ministry which we have mentioned before and will look at more in the next session.

The attributes of God are like a multi-faceted diamond. There are so many different aspects of His nature that we cannot see all of the facets at once. Each time we look at Him, the light will reflect in a different way where we will notice something we have never seen before. As human beings, we cannot typically focus on more than one attribute of God at a time. This is why we need the body of Christ, because each person will see a different viewpoint of God at a different time. Each person has a message of how God has revealed Himself to them personally—this is called a testimony.

Because every person has a specific focus on who God is, a leader or even a small group of leaders cannot fully cover every attribute of Him. This is actually a gift from God to us, but sometimes it becomes dangerous when a group of people are hearing one message only and not seeing the full picture. This is where the role of the teacher becomes critical.

A teacher will systematically teach the whole of Scripture to walk through every part of the bible—rather than just picking topical themes. They will actually systematically walk through an entire book of the Bible and teach it in such a way that the whole picture of God is presented from that book. Then, they will incorporate other passages that help to balance and qualify the message.

Teachers are detail-oriented and can really fill in the gaps on many things that an apostle, prophet, or evangelist may leave out due to their gift-mix. Many times, a pastor will have a gift of teaching, but their teaching will be more based on addressing life-issues rather than systematically teaching scripture. In western culture, a teacher will usually teach deductively by stating the points first, then explaining them afterward. However, someone gifted in exhortation, preaching, prophetic, or evangelistic messages may preach more inductively (telling stories that eventually get to the point at the end or that reveal the point over and over throughout).

There are two things that teachers need to be aware of when in a regular teaching role over a body of believers. One, they need to make sure they spend an equal or greater amount of time systematically teaching through books and chapters of the Bible rather than only topical themes. This is so that all the facets of God’s nature are revealed rather than only one.

Second, they need to make sure that the body is getting a healthy dose of the big picture often—rather than only staring at the details. This is one reason that it is so important for the apostolic to partner with the teaching role; the apostolic person will constantly give the broad picture, and the teacher will break the picture down into little parts and details. Both roles are necessary.

Not only are there those called to the teaching role, but there are also many in the body of Christ who are gifted in teaching. It is important to call them into that gifting and allow them to use it, because many different perspectives and voices allow for a more thorough view of God. There are so many different aspects of the nature of God & each of us has a tiny picture, but the more voices released means a greater view of the whole nature of God. A teacher would fill the role of teaching, but they would also equip and release the saints in the body to teach as well.