Key Words:
anointing, discipleship, five-fold ministry, impartation, oversight, finance, entrepreneurship, relational unity
Summary
The crises state of discipleship in Perth is deeply connected to confusions over the role and nature of training bodies. These include divided loyalties between colleges and churches and financial dependencies that work against the purity of teaching and godly dependency. A biblically based way forward involves the recognition of the foundational role given to the 5- fold ministry in the city in discipling the one church in Perth.
Introduction
The church in Perth severely lacks discipled Christians. One of the fundamental reasons for this is the confusion created by the present institutionalised nature of ministry training colleges. These have their own struggles that point to the need for radically new thinking.
The ongoing struggles of current forms of ministry training in the city include student numbers, finances, misunderstanding between colleges and local churches. These are symptoms of more foundational problems.
Problems of Oversight
There are many occasions when students at a college receive instruction that is contradictory to that taught in a local congregation. This could be on patterns of ministry e.g. the 5 –fold ministry is not for today, church doctrines e.g. place of baptism, or church practices e.g. tithing. This creates inevitable confusion in the lives of many (especially younger) students. Its foundational problem is due to a divided oversight.
A student is likely to commit their will to both being loyal to the teaching of their local congregation and believing that God will speak to the through the lecturers of a college. In practice, this creates a double mindedness where the two sources of wisdom are in contradiction. “5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”(James 1:5- 7)
A False Solution: Train Them Inside
A popular solution, especially amongst mega –churches is to train one’s own people. This may impart the same “spiritual DNA” but depends on numerous assumptions. One is that the 5- fold ministry is resident in the local church. The Ephesians 4 model however speaks of a city or broader church. It similarly assumes that the local church does not need scrutiny from outside itself, this particularly impedes the role of the APE’S who carry an anointing that exceeds that usually found in a single locality.
The Biblical Model: Oversight in the City
Paul consciously appointed “elders in every city” (Acts 14:23; Tit 1:5). The implication is that any “training body” would be in communion with this oversight. More expressly, if we are taking the Ephesians 4 model seriously, that this oversight would be responsible for the equipping of the saints as disciples of Christ in each city. That is, they would, directly or indirectly exercise the oversight of discipleship. There is little doubt that this was done directly in Jerusalem (Acts 2:42; 4:2) and Antioch (Acts 11:25- 26) and was seen as a primary ministry responsibility.
Problems of Finance
These seem perennial, even where colleges have the support of mother denominations. Hudson Taylor said, “God’s work done in God’s way never lacks God’s supply.” It is fair to say that at times colleges are reduced to the status of beggars – this is not right “25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”(Ps 37:25)
I believe this problem indicates an essential foundational confusion. Jesus said, “24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt 5:24). Mammon, has a broader meaning than money. It involves seeking security in anything other than God. Jesus is effectively saying that you cannot put your trust totally in God and something else –like the favour of friendly supporting churches. Such a position necessarily reduces the authority o the training institution to fearlessly preach the Word of God. “You do not bite the hand that feeds you.”
A False Solution: Entrepreneurship and Government Compliance
Undeniably, it is a combination of management skills and the availability of Austudy that has kept almost all colleges afloat in Australia. This will lead to an even greater indebtedness with the increasing use of Fee Help by private providers. Concurrently,administration costs have exploded in order to satisfy the demands of the government “master”. This trend will only increase over time.
Some may see this as within the divine providence, but the spiritual cost is very high. “You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; 7 for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers.” (3 John 6-7)
Any Christian body that becomes essentially dependent upon the state for survival opens itself up to great dangers of manipulation and control. For example, the state church in Sweden has been forced by the government to accept liberal bishops.
More subtly, it is a simple fact of life that if you do not need to pray to get finance to finish college your dependency upon God is reduced. This will progressively create a culture of affluence not unlike that in our secular higher education bodies.
The Biblical Model: The 5 – Fold Ministers to the Church the City
As indicated above, the 5- fold ministry has oversight by exercising their charisms to the assembled church of the city.
This model is quite simple and is an outworking of Ephesians 4. The “saints” gather to the ascended Christ who gives to them through the Word and by the Spirit via the APEPT in their midst. Since the APEPT are in fellowship with one another and already constitute the oversight of the variously represented local congregations, in principle, the various problems enumerated above are already dealt with.
This of course implies a recognition, that whilst present in the New Testament church, is not yet present, and in its fullness may never be, across Perth. Nevertheless, it would appear to be an essential practical and ministerial outworking of the prayers of Jesus in John 17 (Cf. Ps 133 etc.) The APEPT of the city in this way impart to the visibly one community of the people of God the one “mind of Christ”, “wisdom of God” etc. Acts 13:- 3 is such an action that includes these various elements.
What is Required to Make This Happen
1. A coherent APEPT group in the city that is relationally constituted by their adherence to the centrality and supremacy of Christ.
2. Mutual recognition of the integrity of this group by the congregations in which they already hold oversight.
3. Wider recognition of the role and authority of this 5 – fold ministry by the broader body of Christ.
4. Deconstruction of some of the existing Bible Colleges.
5. Opportunities for the body of Christ to assemble on a wide scale to receive ongoing discipleship from the APEPT team.