Pastors and Ministry Gifts

1. I would say a person can be said to stand in a particular ministry office - such as apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher - if:

a) the person has a personal call and gift from God to stand in that office - and knows it;

b) the person is doing the stuff;

c) others eventually recognize it, including other leaders who are willing to endorse them; and

d) they are successful at it.

2. I think it's beneficial that a person correctly identifies his ministry gift; for example:

a) there is a difference between a believer who prophesies, and someone who occupies the office of a prophet. All believers may prophesy, including children - but a prophet is someone who is recognized as a leader in a church quite apart from his prophesying;

b) if someone is known to prophesy regularly using the simple gift of prophecy, yet does not occupy the office of prophet, then the person would be better to find his place as a member of a church-congregation rather than see himself as a prophet exercising a leadership role in a church;

c) there is a difference between someone who is called to plant a new church, and someone who is called to bring a specialist ministry to the body of Christ;

d) if someone is called to plant a church, then it will be successful - the congregation will be healthy and growing - and the church should ultimately have pastors and be led by pastors;

e) if someone is called to bring a specialist ministry rather than to plant a new church, then he should do so without attempting to plant a new church or to be a pastor; for example:

i) if the person is a gifted evangelist, better that he goes out and does the work of an evangelist rather than pastor or plant a church;

ii) if someone is called to bring revival and the presence of God to a city, then it's better if he holds meetings just to do that, and encourages people to belong to a church, rather than try to plant a church and pastor it - unless his primary calling is to plant a church or to be a pastor, ahead of his calling to bring refreshing to the body of Christ in the city (usually - there may be exceptions); A pastor may be able to do a little bit of evangelism, prophesying, hold revival and refreshing meetings, and short-term missions without prioritizing those things - but pastoring is not something a person can do just a little bit of without prioritizing it - pastoring is something that if it is going to be done at all, it must be prioritized - otherwise it won't be done adequately, and the congregation will be affected. Therefore if pastoring isn't a person's priority, then he probably shouldn't pastor or plant a church - he should instead focus on the specialist ministry God has given him (there can be exceptions, of course);

f) Just because a person decides to start a new church, or to pastor a church, does not necessarily mean God called and gifted him to be a pastor;

g) If he is not a pastor, then he ought to desire that everyone in his meetings either finds a church to belong to and is led by those pastors, or he ought to desire that the group itself eventually has pastors appointed over it if it doesn't already and that the group is led by those pastors;

h) Once a new church-plant has matured to the point that pastors have been appointed in it, the leadership of the church should be handed to those pastors - rather than retained by the founding minister, unless the founding minister's priority-calling is to continue as the resident leader of that church. Otherwise, any relationship that continues to exist between the pastors and the founder should be a voluntary one - one that gratefully acknowledges the founder's gift and call but based more on mutual respect rather than an imposed hierarchy.