Understanding and Embracing the Fivefold Ministry

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "Western culture, what is church? What's the goal of church? It's a place that's going to meet my needs. Maybe I get some community out of it. Hopefully, it's a really good service. Hopefully, the music. It was just really good. That just, you know, even at one point, just even a tear showed up. And that was, wow, right? And the message, oh, touch my heart. You know, you were speaking to me, Pastor, you know. But you get what I'm saying, right? I'm not diminishing any of that. But what we end up with sometimes is a bunch of fat, lazy Christians. So that's not what the church was supposed to be." [02:03](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "We love, you know, in our own environment, in our own home, in our car, whatever. We love to worship, right? And there'll be a song that'll come on, and it will minister to us, right? It's like, oh, that's exactly the place I'm at in my life, and we relate to it. And in that place, that place of joy, that place of pain, the place of frustration, whatever it is, we're listening to that. And I so relate, and it's the place that I'm drawing on him. It's drawing me closer to him, right? But I would say that's our personal worship. One of the main differences in corporate worship is our worship is directed to him. It is for him and to him, not about us." [14:53](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "You and I were created to do his work, to be his ambassadors in this earth. And God has placed every one of us in positions, in spheres, if you will, to bring the kingdom of heaven. It's going to look different through all of us. But the one thing I can say is that because of the work of the fivefold in the church, we all grow into maturity. We all grow into gifting and an ability to see and to hear and to move and to act and to bring the kingdom of heaven wherever we go. What an incredible privilege that is when we understand that." [22:36](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The goal is not to become one. The goal is to become Jesus, like Jesus, right? Growing in all that he is and, and loving and ministering the way that he did. It's just that he's given us the Holy Spirit, every one of us, right? To help us be, be more like Jesus. And he's placed some gifts and graces within the church to help as well. That's the big thing. It isn't to create some sort of hierarchy, some sort of structure. And so I think with that, when we understand that we can all just relax a little and start to recognize some things." [48:15](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Sometimes you actually need to lean into that. The thing that makes you uncomfortable, the thing that you may not like the most, you're going to have to surrender that part a little bit to say, you know what? I should probably lean into that. Maybe I need to spend some time in the quiet place, growing in that intimate relationship. Maybe sometimes I need to close the book and just be still and quiet. Doesn't mean one's better than the other, right? Maybe if, maybe if the thing that makes you the most comfortable is reaching people, maybe you need to get around some people that carry that passion so that you get part of that." [49:36](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


### Quotes for Members

1. "So we need to understand what's happening so that we can learn to grow and why Jesus put it there. Last week, we were talking a little bit about MMA. And a lot of us, we don't know what that is, but we know boxing. But MMA is this style of fighting. It's quite brutal, quite honestly. But it's a mixture of a lot of different arts, if you will. And there's boxing, there's wrestling, there's judo. Judo, jiu-jitsu, all these other things I probably don't even know how to pronounce. But if you were naturally, these guys probably came from a certain fighting style. And so you have guys that used to be a boxer, and they'll come into that. And if they only know how to box, they're going to be really good at this part. But if they're fighting a guy that's really strong in something else, they're susceptible, right? And so they start to train in all the different ones. And boxing may still be their strong suit, but they've learned how to fight with the others." [00:59](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "What we did is we put it into a circle, and we had five people representing the five ministries. And if one feels that they are the most important, they're going to pull the church their direction, and the church might grow that direction, and that might be a good thing, but it's going to be missing some of these other things. And so what does it look like when all five are doing their work in helping the body to grow and mature? The church becomes healthy. It's healthy and balanced and growing and mature. Each one doing its part. Now, I would say that that's been tried. It sometimes maybe takes a little more work. There's a tension. What's the thing that holds it all together in that tension? It's, I think, honor and humility." [05:18](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And so each one of these, I think, address an essential part of our identity and our purpose in the church, and they have their own focus and motivation. But without all five represented, we become a little bit unbalanced. And so Danny Silk, in his book, The Culture of Honor, he has this little demonstration. He says, here's what it would look like if the fivefold were to show up on a car accident. Here's what happens. So they show up to this scene of a car accident. The pastor is the first one out of the car. He scrambles to assess the situation. Say that three times. To assess the situation. And begins a triage, approaching, in applying first aid to injured victims. He gathers blankets, jackets, water, and anything else he can find to try to comfort them. He surveys the situation to see if anything is threatening the safety, both of those who are receiving care, and those who are receiving care. And those who have been drawn to the scene of the accident. He talks with each person to find out his or her name, their marital status, whether they have children. He gathers vital sign information and any available emergency contact information in order to help the emergency response team. He brings a sense of calm to the situation, and each person there feels a genuine feeling of care and connection to the pastor. He wonders whether he should have been a doctor." [18:26](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "So what we have sometimes, again, in the body of Christ is a little bit of this tension. So we either see none of this manifest or some, but rarely, I think, do we see all of this manifest. But can you see how each part doing its work is not there just to do the work, it's raising up others to do the work of ministry. And we talk about the work of ministry, it's not just within the church. You and I were created to do his work, to be his ambassadors in this earth. And God has placed every one of us in positions, in spheres, if you will, to bring the kingdom of heaven. It's going to look different through all of us. But the one thing I can say is that because of the work of the fivefold in the church, we all grow into maturity. We all grow into gifting and an ability to see and to hear and to move and to act and to bring the kingdom of heaven wherever we go. What an incredible privilege that is when we understand that." [22:36](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The goal is not to become one. The goal is to become Jesus, like Jesus, right? Growing in all that he is and, and loving and ministering the way that he did. It's just that he's given us the Holy Spirit, every one of us, right? To help us be, be more like Jesus. And he's placed some gifts and graces within the church to help as well. That's the big thing. It isn't to create some sort of hierarchy, some sort of structure. And so I think with that, when we understand that we can all just relax a little and start to recognize some things. When you're around people and you start to see their tension and their frustration, it might help you go, oh, I know where that's coming from. It's not even coming from a bad, unhealthy place, right? And, and there, their perspective might actually be right. But just understand we, we hold all of this in attention, that there's a place and a need for all of it. And in some seasons, maybe more of one thing is needed and required. Maybe in another, it's something else, but, but hopefully you're witnessing and you're experiencing and growing from all of them over time." [48:15](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)