A Recipe for Apostolic Mission
It's been my great joy to take part in the ordination of two Teachers in just over a week. One ordination was planned, with people travelling the length and breadth of the country to be there. The other was an on-the-spot response by the apostleship to prophecy at our recent Apostolic Church Ministries Conference.
This year, two of our Teachers are coming to retirement. And yet, in the space of 8 days, the Lord gave us two new Teachers. The Lord is like that — in His great grace, He keeps on blessing His Church with gifts.
Too often we make the mistake of separating teaching from mission or pitting mission against a dynamic ministry of the gifts of the Spirit. Yet that's not what we see in Scripture at all. In Acts 13 we meet some Teachers in Antioch. But when we meet them, they aren't alone.
Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. (Acts 13:1-3)
In these few verses in Antioch, three things come together: teachers, prophets, and apostolic mission. The teachers and prophets are united in worship and fasting. Together, the teachers and prophets serve the Lord and out of that unity of service and worship the Lord calls Paul and Barnabas into their apostolic mission. So from this harmony of teaching ministry and prophetic ministry, mission advances. From the unity of multiple teachers and multiple prophets, the Lord calls multiple apostles to plant multiple churches.
Antioch is neither a teaching church nor a prophetic church; it's not a church that tries to pit Word against Spirit or Spirit against Word. Either of those options would take us out of balance. Nor is Antioch a church that downplays either biblical teaching or prophetic ministry in the name of evangelistic mission. Teaching, prophecy and evangelism all go together in the life of healthy church. In Antioch, there is harmonious fellowship between prophets, teachers, and apostles, and that flows out into harmonious service. And this healthy church becomes a sending church — a truly apostolic church.
Teaching isn't something for a few super-studious Christians off in some corner of church life, far removed from the mission field. Just as in Antioch, so today, teaching and prophecy belong together in the context of apostolic mission. The teaching of the Word and the gifts of the Spirit shouldn't be separated. We need all the gifts and ministries Christ gives!
From the unity and harmony of prophets and teachers in Antioch, the Lord called apostles and sent them out on evangelistic mission. Neither teaching nor the gifts of the Spirit are distractions from evangelism and mission, but both feed into it, as the Lord uses them to build us up, encourage us, comfort us, equip us, and empower us for His call to take the gospel of Jesus who died for our sins and rose again for us to the whole world.
We need Teachers. Not just for emergencies and not just for a few studious Christians in a corner on the edge of church life. The whole church needs Teachers. For if we're to advance in Christ's mission, we need His Word. From the harmony of Teachers and Prophets in Antioch, the Lord worked to powerfully advance apostolic mission. And if we want to see powerful advances in apostolic mission today, we need not only evangelists and apostles, but prophets and teachers, harmoniously serving the Lord and His church together. We need the power of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of God's Word.
If you want to hear more about this, here's my sermon from the recent ordination of Ps Paul McMath as a Teacher in the Body of Christ in Lisburn, where the last part of the sermon picks up on this theme.