Does the Church Still Need Apostles and Prophets?

By Jim Thomas

Does the Church Still Need Apostles and Prophets? is a book that examines the original New Testament design of the fivefold ministry of leadership in the church. It asks the question, Was the single pastorate the design of the Lord, or was it the result of our own choosing? This book intends to give the reader a look at the great foundation of the apostle and prophet in the scriptures and tackles the very difficult question of whether these giftings passed away with the first-generation church. This book examines in detail the scriptural ministries of the apostle and the prophet and why these giftings are just as valid today as they were in the first-century church. The total restoration of the plural team ministry that the book of Acts describes and the New Testament confirms will once again help the church to maintain its focus on discipleship and mission. After thirty years of functioning with fivefold leadership teams, the author shares this teaching and illustrates it with real-life examples of the transformation that happened in his own church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973633143

Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas is marking his fortieth year of ministry with the writing of this book. He grew up in a Mennonite community in Southwest Pennsylvania, near Johnstown. He is the founding minister of Living Way Fellowship (now called The Gathering) in Jerome, Pennsylvania. He has functioned in team ministry for most of his life. Jim has been married to his wife Sherry, also for forty years, has two sons and six grandchildren. He now resides in Pretty Prairie, Kansas near Hutchinson and Wichita. He has written four other books: The Road to Royalty, Seven Stages of Growth in the Life of a Christian (Pleasant Word) B.C., The Blessing and the Curse (Noahs Ark Publishing) The Place (First Light Ministries) The Day (First Light Ministries)

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Copyright © 2018 Jim Thomas.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-3294-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3295-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3314-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907897

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/24/2018

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Blocking the Doorway

Chapter 2 Overcoming the Myth

Chapter 3 The Great Foundation

Chapter 4 Fishermen, Tax gatherers, and Zealots

Chapter 5 Warning! Apostles are Fathers

Chapter 6 Elijah Must Come

Chapter 7 Paul and Barnabas, the Apostolic Team

Chapter 8 Supporting the Team

Chapter 9 Where are the Fathers?

Chapter 10 Building a Discipleship Fortress – The Antioch model

About the Author

Preface

I can think of no other teaching that has brought me more joy and persecution than teaching the fivefold leadership giftings of Ephesians 4:11 are still quite needed in the church today. I have witnessed a movement that has embraced these giftings and is growing, but still most of the church largely lives in the realm of the single pastorate.

I have experienced both and would never return to leadership as a single pastor. Scores of men who tried it now have found secular jobs. Many have found the job to be impossible and the expectations that are put on them to be unrealistic. Most won’t make it four years with their new congregation as the average tenure of the single pastor is now less than four years.

As I look back at our journey, it seems surreal to have been persecuted and called a cult, not for leading the church away from its foundation, but trying to lead us back to it. Is it cultish to believe the Bible? Is it cultish to hold Jesus and the New Testament as the standard that we should measure ourselves against? I want the persecution to count. I don’t mind suffering shame for His name if it leads others to truth.

I have never read a good apology for this movement. I believe it is time for some of us who have been in the movement for many years to come forward and offer a sound, Biblical foundation, from Genesis to Revelation, on why we believe in the plural ministry which includes the ministry of the apostle and prophet. I humbly offer this writing as a start and pray it will help to embolden those who have believed in the functioning of the fivefold gifts.

The Apostle Paul warned us generations ago that the church would choose for ourselves teachers who would tickle our ears and not endure sound doctrine. He said we would turn our ears away from the truth and believe myths. The teaching that apostles and prophets no longer exist anymore has become one of the myths that we have so strongly believed in. This myth has no foundation within the New Testament.

Why do we believe myths? Myths live on because they are filled with half-truths that are not challenged. When someone rises up to challenge the myth, it is easier to persecute them than to take a good hard look at the truth. Such is what happened to me and many others who embraced the teaching of the fivefold ministry of Christ.

My understanding of the fivefold ministry has greatly increased over the years; it certainly wasn’t a prevalent teaching in the church that I grew up in. God had so much grace in allowing us to see dimly at first, but to follow on the best we could until greater revelation was given to understand His design. I am grateful for His patience and wish to extend this same patience for anyone who is seeking the truth about the original design for the leadership of the church.

I have also written this book for pastors; it may seem that I am against your profession, but no one understands the pressures and unrealistic expectations that are put upon you more than I do. I have experienced its heartaches and know how so many are mistreated. I pray that you also would have the boldness to speak to your church about the plural ministry. Could you be like Barnabas and realize that your gifts, though necessary, are not enough to lead your church? Take courage and trust in the truth of God’s Word to be revealed. Team ministry is worth taking a stand for and being persecuted for.

Above all, it is time for believers to return to God’s original design for leadership in the church so that all of the saints will be discipled and all can have their gifts discerned and their callings made sure. We will all give an account to Jesus one day for the gifts and callings that are in us and what we did with them. It is a fearful day, and one that most churches are not preparing their people for. Hopefully, discipleship will return as a main thrust of the church so every one of us will be prepared for every good work. May we all hear, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

1

Blocking the Doorway

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering to go in.

—Matthew 22:13

A wise master builder is what the Apostle Paul said he was by the grace that was given to him. He laid the foundation, and now others were building upon it. Apollos, a teacher, had just visited the church in Corinth and had strengthened the church with his gift. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the increase. Paul’s warning was to be careful about how one builds upon that foundation.

It probably wouldn’t be wise to contract a plumber to build your house. The roof angles might keep him up at night or give him nightmares. Plumbers are needed in the project, but I wouldn’t want them to be in charge of the whole building process. Likewise, electricians are also needed, but they, too, should not be put in charge. Each part of the building process needs the gifts of various skilled tradesmen. But if you are building a house, then you want a wise master builder to head your project.

First Corinthians 3:5-11 are verses that give us this same analogy for the church. The gift of the apostle was given to the church to be the foundation layer and the wise master builder. The other four leadership gifts (prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, Ephesians 4:11) are needed just like plumbers and electricians are needed to complete a building. Each gifting brings its own expertise and focus, and each one is needed for the growth and the unity of the body.

What happened to this beautiful design? How did we manage to whittle this down to a singular leader who we call a pastor or a priest? Why do we think that our model is the standard, instead of the New Testament church being the standard that we should measure up to? Does it matter who the leaders of the church are and does it affect how we carry out the mission of the gospel? It absolutely does.

These questions are mostly never asked. As Christians, the way we function in the church is assumed to be biblical, the current model of how we do church is perceived as the norm. Whether we are aware of it or not, we then interpret scripture through the prism of our own model. Somehow, we have come up with positions of authority called priests and pastors, when neither of these terms were used in describing the leaders of the New Testament Church. The hard truth is that this new pattern has led us to a clergy-laity system that has stifled the growth of the body and turned church into rituals, calendars, and something we do on Sundays that often has no connection at all with the rest of our lives. Sadly, this sounds more like the Pharisee system rather than the church of the New Testament.

What is Phariseeism?

The term Pharisee has largely been misunderstood in the body of Christ. Since they were very critical of Christ’s ministry and of sinners, we assume this term is warning us about being critical of each

Reviews for Does the Church Still Need Apostles and Prophets?

[Sarah Masciantonio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely love this book. It's a must read for anyone curious about the apostle prophet office for today.