Issue 196
You may have been Myers Brigged, Belbined or Type A or Bed! You may have been labelled introvert, extrovert or completer/finisher. If you have not been formally psycho-measured, your friends and colleagues will no doubt have a few opinions on your character and style.
But have you been Ephesians foured? Before you press delete, thinking you are receiving eccentric emails, may I explain? Paul identifies five types in his letter to the Ephesian Christians. He argues that these types are designed to ‘prepare God’s people for work’. So, unless I’m mistaken, there must be something here which relates to your work.
The types Paul is describing are apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists. And before you immediately delete yourself from that list, consider the fact that these are not only descriptions of individuals who are gifts to God’s people but ways of preparing those people for work. So their function is to do Christians good in specific ways – ways which we can call apostolic, prophetic, pastoral, teaching and evangelistic.
How often have you, or some Christians you know, needed help to get something new off the ground? It is a difficult thing to start a business or go into an uncharted area. It may be research, it may be a new market or product, it could be a new team or a new job. These things can happen to all of us but there some who spend their whole lives finding new challenges, starting, pioneering, founding and often getting criticised for it.
This is the realm of ‘apostling’. An apostle is a pioneer – an entrepreneur who can’t help but do new things and probably suffer for it; and we need to prepare each other to serve God by this means.
But, some will argue, we are talking about work here, not about church. We are talking earning a living, not building the kingdom. My answer – if you are a Christian, what is the difference, please?
We need to prepare each other for pioneering work. We need apostolic specialists who help fellow Christians break new ground in whatever their field. If you are a specialist, God wants you to prepare others. If you are one of the ‘others’, who occasionally enters the new, then you need help. If you are a new specialist, then you will need some mentoring. It is time we prepared each other for work. Put that in your house group and debate it.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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