The Bible Prescribes Five-Fold Team Leadership

Churches, like other organizations, develop habits that become traditions over time. These patterns of behavior often deviate from what the Bible says because of humanity’s propensity for sin. Our fallen nature has fostered cultural practicesthat are frequently given priority over what God’s Word says. Jesus gave an example of this in Mark 7:1–13 when He observed that the Pharisees were placing their traditions ahead of the Word of God.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And He said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men……Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (Mark 7:1–2, 5–8, 13, ESV)

Traditions Often Impede Biblical Obedience

Christians need to consider our tendency to give human customs precedence over what the Bible states. A way to decrease the risk of following traditions is for followers of Christ to adhere to the example of the Berean church, as these believers examined “the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11b, ESV). Diligently reading, praying, and meditating on the Word of God can minimize an individual’s and organization’s risk of putting social practices ahead of God’s commands and other doctrinal errors. Careful Bible study can also help identify longstanding ways in which the church has adopted extra biblical traditions. Seeking the Lord in this way can help Christians rectify the problem so that the church can return to biblical obedience.

Church leadership is one group that has been prone to adopt patterns that vary from what the Bible says. The New Testament (NT) shows a five-fold pattern of leadership that the early church followed. Ephesians 4:11–12, 15 says,

And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ. (ESV)

During the era of the early church, the church grew rapidly; in fact, the early church was able to transform the Roman Empire by following the biblical pattern of leadership. Yet the church changed from following this NT leadership pattern after the church became involved with Roman culture. It is important to consider what the Bible says about church leadership and how the church has drifted away from the biblical five-fold leadership pattern.

Biblical Basis for the Role of Evangelist

Evangelists hold one of the leadership positions in the New Testament, even though the word is only mentioned three times in God’s Word (Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5). Although evangelists are only directly referenced three times in Scriptures, the evangelical movement has greatly expanded since the evangelist Charles Finney worked in the mid-1800s. Evangelism is now considered to be one of the primary activities of the church. Despite a shortage of NT verses, evangelism is widely accepted as a leadership position in a substantial number of churches.

Biblical Basis for the Role of Pastor

The NIV and KJV Bibles only mention the position of pastor once in the NT, while the ESV does not mention it at all. The only New Testament verse that mentions pastor is Ephesians 4:11, a verse that also mentions apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers. It is interesting that this passage, which discusses the five-fold leadership team, is the only NT reference for pastors that could be found among three widely used translations. Although there is an absence of NT support for pastors being primarily in charge of churches, most Protestant churches are led by pastors. In some churches, it is necessary for a person to become some type of pastor in order for them to be a leader. This does not mean that pastors are not essential—a number of verses affirm pastors as being overseers and shepherds of God’s flock, and the KJV has seven Old Testament references to pastor. Although pastors are of critical importance for the church to function properly, an adjustment is needed to restore the New Testament team leadership paradigm.

Biblical Basis for the Role of Teacher

After considering pastors and evangelists, it is good to look at what the NT says about other positions. Teachers are mentioned 14 times in the ESV, 9 times in the KJV, and 79 times in the NIV. There are a variety of descriptive passages about the position of teachers, such as “not given to much wine, teachers of good things” (Titus 2:3b, KJV) or “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers,” (Acts 13:1a, KJV). However, there are also a number of verses that admonish teachers to be careful what they teach, like the Lord’s exhortation in Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (NIV). Other verses warn about false teachers, such as “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3, NIV).

Biblical Basis for the Role of Prophet

Prophets are the next NT team position to be considered. Many of the NT references to teachers also includes prophets. If warnings about false teachers are not counted, over half the times that the KJV New Testament mentions teachers it is in relationship to prophets or other leadership positions. The ESV New Testament has 155 references to prophets, while the KJV and NIV have 157, far exceeding the references for evangelists, pastors, and teachers combined. Although the New Testament never says that the position of prophets ended, many religious leaders have argued for centuries that prophets are “not for today.” People who argue that there are no more prophets frequently maintain that prophets ended soon after the Old Testament or during the time period of the early church. Thus, many Christian leaders today are very skeptical of the position of New Testament prophets. Yet if one takes this skeptical approach toward prophets in the NT and subtracts all the verses discussing Old Testament prophets, there are still 45 NT references that are unaccounted for. The New Testamentsays that Jesus is a prophet (Matt. 13:57, Matt. 21:11, Luke 24:19, etc., ESV), and the only NT reference to pastors listsprophets first in Ephesians 4:11. How does the belief that prophets are not for today fit with verses like “And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets,” (Acts 15:32a, ESV) and “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers?” (1 Cor. 12:28a, ESV)? How does this perspective explain Titus 1:12a “One of the Cretans, aprophet of their own?” How does this argument explain the two prophets who are yet to come in Revelation 11:1–12? Is the position that prophets are not for these days tenable in light of so many verses?

A search for the term “prophecy” adds even more verses to the list of verses on prophets. Jesus is the greatest prophet of them all, and the church needs to make herself ready for His return by following the NT pattern of leadership. There is an overwhelming list of NT passages on the need for prophetic leadership. Christians from all backgrounds should reflect on how we have deviated from how the Bible says the church should be led to the current leadership paradigm. Followers of Christ need to consider how to transform the church to make it what the Scriptures maintain it should be.

Biblical Basis for the Role of Apostle

The last leadership position to be addressed is apostles. Depending on the translation, there are 80 to 90 NT references for apostles. Church traditions have held for many centuries that apostles are not relevant today. Since some believe the Twelve were the only apostles and the citations in the four Gospels are about the twelve apostles, out of deference to these skeptics this writer will not count the Gospel verses about the twelve apostles. There are also a significant number of verses in which Paul calls himself an apostle, and these are also subtracted, as some skeptics have considered Paul to be the last apostle. However, after making these adjustments to the verses on apostles, there are still 16 NT passages onapostles. This is more NT Scriptures on apostles than there are on pastors, evangelists, and teachers combined in the King James Version! Followers of Christ should pragmatically consider what the Scriptures reveal.

How do skeptics about apostles account for verses like “Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them apostles and prophets’” (Luke 11:49a, ESV), “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets” (1 Corinthians 12:28a, ESV), and “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own,” (Titus 1:12a, ESV)? It is true that it is easier for someone to argue that there are no longer apostles than it is for them to assert that prophets are not for today because there is such an abundance of NT Scriptures on prophets. However, Hebrews 3:1b states, “Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession” (ESV). Since Jesus is an apostle, there clearly are more than 12 apostles. How do skeptics explain the list in Ephesians 4:11 beginning with apostles, Ephesians 2:20a stating, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (ESV), and Revelation 18:20a saying, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles” (ESV). The skepticism about apostles and other parts of the five-fold ministry team that has been the predominant religious tradition does not hold up under an examination of the New Testament Scriptures.

Additional Biblical Support for Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers

With that foundation established on each of the five-fold team leadership positions, there is some important information to add to a couple of the positions. Although there are only three references for evangelists, evangelism is supported by the Great Commission command to go, be witnesses, and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28:19–20, Mark 16:15–16, Luke 24:47, and Acts 1:8 are just a few of the NT verses that demonstrate the importance of evangelism and the mission to reach the whole world with the Gospel message. There is a great deal of biblical support for evangelism in addition to the three verses that directly reference evangelists.

A similar principle applies to pastors. An investigation of NT passages that include the word “shepherd” reveals about 100 verses in the NIV and over 20 verses in the ESV. Although some of the verses are about shepherds watching sheep, like the passage in Luke 2, there are many verses that describe pastors as shepherds over the church, like “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight” (1 Peter 5:2a, ESV). Acts 20:28 and Matthew 9:36 are two other New Testament verses that reference the importance of shepherds. In addition, a large variety of Old Testament verses demonstrate that pastors are shepherds of God’s flock. There are also NT passages like Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3:1–13 that describe pastors/shepherds as overseeing a local congregation. Besides this, there are passages in which pastors are described as being elders (e.g., Titus 1:5–16). 

However, there is something ironic about this passage for any who reference it but maintain that there are no more apostles and prophets. Titus 1:12a contradicts that argument by stating, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own.” Whenever there is a conflict between the Scriptures and human traditions, followers of Christ should be humble enough to choose what the Bible says over their own beliefs, no matter how deeply held. The Bible also contains more than 800 usages of “priest” or “priesthood,” which is also related to pastors, as NT pastors replaced the Old Testament Hebrew priests. Revelation 7:17 and 1 Peter 5:4 share that Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. Pastors clearly hold an important leadership position.

There are also more NT references to teachers when one searches for the words “teach” or “teaching,” as there are to prophets when one considers “prophecy” or “prophesy.” Clearly there are many NT verses affirming the leadership team of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers that Ephesians 4:11 describes. This investigation of church leadership in the Scriptures has revealed the NT example of five different types of leaders. Unfortunately, for the most part, the Protestant church is not practicing New Testament leadership. After establishing the biblical basis for five-fold team leadership, the remainder of this article combines God’s Word with a variety of sources to consider the benefits of reforming and restoring the church back to team leadership.

Team Leadership Benefits the Church

Many types of organizations benefit from team leadership, including the church. The need for teamwork also includes the church as the Bible describes a five-fold church leadership team: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–12, ESV). Scripture doesnot tell the five-fold team of leaders to conduct the work; it instead asserts that saints must be trained up so that they can do the ministry work. This Christian leadership team is designed to edify the congregation so that they can do the work ofthe ministry (Eph. 4:11–12, ESV). MacMillan (2001) observes that developing a team is not an end goal that leaders should focus on achieving but is instead a means toward the objective of facilitating synergism through teamwork (MacMillan, 2001, pp. 25–27). The five-fold team partially resembles a basketball team since the five types of leaders have different roles just like each basketball player plays their position to the benefit of the overall team. Hirsch and Catchim (2012) criticize what they call “western Christendom’s” reduction of the five-fold ministry to only having shepherds and teachers. They promote the utilization of all five types of leaders, prioritizing the apostolic position.

Although the Bible describes five-fold leadership, the church has been primarily run by two types of leaders for centuries. Warrick (2014) notes that despite leaders encouraging teamwork, research and books extolling the benefits of teamwork, and most people believing in teamwork, a large majority of organizations do little to develop teamwork. Moreover, most leaders receive little, if any, training in fostering teamwork in their organizations (Warrick, 2014, p. 68).

There are Christians who still do not accept apostles, prophets, and, to a lesser extent, evangelists as part of the NTleadership team. The rise in Protestant missions since William Carey and the success of Billy Graham have finally started diminishing this reduced view of evangelists. People who assert that apostolic or prophetic ministry has ended often cite Ephesians 2:20, which says, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (ESV), as if this verse conclusively proves that there are no more apostles and prophets. There are two significant problems with using one passage to determine the extinction of apostles and prophets.

The first issue is that interpreting this verse in the past tense for apostles or prophets does not fit with the rest of the New Testament verses on the five-fold leadership positions. There are many other verses on church leadership that do not blend with this. If the exegesis of Scripture can be compared to trying to fit a piece of a puzzle into a large tesserae mosaic, interpreting Ephesians 2:20 in a final and past-tense fashion blends about as well as forcing the wrong size, shape, and color of a puzzle piece into a large puzzle. It does not fit. In addition, Jesus Christ is alive and will be returning as Messiah and King. There is no doubt that people viewing apostles and prophets as past tense know that Jesus is alive. If people consider this verse to be totally in the past tense, how do they view Jesus? How do people who believe this Scripture is completely in the past tense explain Jesus being in the verse since the Lord Jesus Christ is alive?

The second problem with the exegesis of Ephesians 2:20 as past tense goes beyond comparing this verse to other passages, as 2 Timothy 3:16 describes. This problem is found by examining how the church is faring with the pastor-teacher approach. For many years Barna, Life way, and other Christian researchers/organizations have lamented the decline of the church in American society. Deep-seated problems predate the COVID-19 pandemic. Without getting into specific findings, Thom Ranier, Barna, and others have developed such an encyclopedic list of problems with the church that if the American church were a medical patient, physicians would likely have it on life support in the ICU. Although few are receptive to considering that the pastor-centric approach is not the biblical paradigm, an increasing number of leaders maintain that this issue is at the heart of the problem. Hirsch and Catchim (2012) assert that “it is simply not possible to be the church that Jesus intended if three of the five constitutional ministries are removed” (p. 16). These authors also describe the pastor-teacher model as being akin to the mythological Sisyphus rolling the stone of making disciples of all nations up the hill for approximately 17 centuries, only tohave the stone come rolling back again—it never succeeds.

Developing a Five-fold Ministry Team for Equipping the Church

Let us now consider the Ephesians 4:11–12 five-fold ministry team. This shift back into five-fold leadership is like a basketball team that has only played two types of guards for years, and suddenly it is challenged with the reintroduction of centers, power forwards, and small forwards. This would require the coaching staff and both types of guards to make consequential changes to acclimate to all five types of positions. The same is true of churches that have historically only utilized pastors and teachers. 

Figure 1

Five-Fold Ministry of the Church

Welton (2017) describes progress being made toward renewing the five-fold leadership team with a renewed visionfor five-fold ministry. Baudler (2016) notes that some have distorted Luther’s record to imply that he wanted churchhierarchy and ordination of priests, but he asserts that Luther wanted to restore the priesthood of all believers. This Lutheran pastor describes how some Lutheran church leaders have worked with the Roman Catholic church to foster these misunderstandings, and he wrote this book to set the record straight. Baudler (2016) also shares that this is incorrect, as Luther deeply desired the priesthood of all believers to be restored (pp. 2–35).

One way of relating to apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers as leadership is by looking at the example ofthe Star Trek series. Their leadership team has a Captain, First Officer, Doctor, Lieutenant Commander, and Lieutenant.Imagine if the first three positions of Captain, First Officer, and Doctor were traveling across the universe on a mission for a very long time. While these leaders were away, the Lieutenant Commander and Lieutenant were in charge of their ship; these two leaders would quickly become accustomed to running the ship.

After a long time, when the Star Trek Captain, First Officer, and Doctor returned, the Lieutenant Commander and Lieutenant would have become so acclimated to being in charge that they would want to maintain the status quo. The Captain could give orders, and if these Lieutenants resisted, First Officer Spock might support the Captain, and this could create great friction.

This is an imperfect illustration, but it somewhat parallels the return of apostles, prophets, and evangelists after manycenturies. Womack (2015) posits that evangelists came back during the 1800s, prophets returned during the 1980s, and apostles came back in the 1990s. It is necessary for pastors and teachers to seek the Lord for humility in reevaluating their relationships with the rest of the leadership team and Jesus Christ Himself, as the Lord continues to systematically restore five-fold leadership to the church. Such team collaboration requires humility. These overlooked leadership positions should go the extra mile in practicing humility to try and make the restoration of NT leadership a smoother and simpler process.

Hirsch and Catchim (2012) decry the church’s deviations from five-fold leadership as egregious disobedience. These authors maintain that, although western Christendom views this as abnormal, hundreds of millions of believers worldwide practice this and that utilizing all five positions is almost akin to a silver bullet for the church (pp. 4–5). Costner (2017) observes a major change among lay leaders in churches that were able to be rejuvenated from spiritual decline, as lay leaders became much more focused on obeying God’s Word and assisting pastors. He asserts that pastors remain the leader in churches and that pastors need to make a minor adjustment to work with lay leaders (pp. 139–140). Costner has good intentions to revive dying churches, but this comes off as too small a change since the separation of clergy and laity still casts toolong a shadow over Protestant churches.

Conclusion

Humility and vision are required to recognize that the western church more closely resembles the religious hierarchy that Jesus encountered when He was on earth than many would like to consider. A transformation is needed to restore thefive-fold leadership team that trains the saints to do the work. Martin Luther wanted the gap between clerics and laypeople to be eliminated. Despite small linear progress, this remains a largely unfulfilled dream. Some may believe that an awakening is needed, while others may argue for a revival that can restore the church to New Testament Christianity.

Jim Marshall, EdD, MA, is a perspectives coordinator and instructor, as well as a Compassion International volunteer, in Harrisburg, PA.

References

Baudler, K. T. (2016). Martin Luther’s priesthood of all believers in an age of modern myth.

Oxen Press.

Costner, M. J. (2017). Defining characteristics of laity among turnaround churches in the Carolinas (Order No. 10271423) [Doctoral dissertation]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Hirsch, A., & Catchim, T. (2012). The permanent revolution: Apostolic imagination and practice for the 21st century church. Jossey-Bass.

MacMillan, P. (2001). The performance factor: Unlocking the secrets of teamwork. Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Warrick, D. D. (2014). What leaders can learn about teamwork and developing high performance teams from organization development practitioners. OD Practitioner, 46(3), 68–75.

Welton, J. (2017). Equipping the equippers: The handbook for raising up apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Welton Academy.

Womack, I. R. (2015). Fivefold ministry basic training: Understanding the distinct roles and functions of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Alpha Book Publishing.