Can a person have all the five fold ministry?

[David Chong]

Hi there,i have a friend of mine saying that a person can have all the five fold ministry,from whati know the only person that has all is Jesus Christ.
So can a person have all the 5 fold ministry?If the person whohas all five fold would not be he equal to Jesus Christ?
Please help to naswer this question ASAP
Thanks

 

[BryanW92]

Spiritual gifts are along way from being equal to Christ. Spiritual gifts are tools to be used in the building of the Kingdom. A person can have an awesome set of tools and no lumber and he won't be building anything.

 

[ByTheSpirit]

No a person can not have all 5 of the ministry gifts as given by Jesus in Ephesians 4. Paul said in 1 Cor 12 that we are the body of Christ and individual members of it. Well if a person was an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor and teacher then what need would they have of others around them? Some people may be confused and say well an apostle can prophecy so surely he must have both. That is an error in thinking as those gifts given in Ephesians 4 are giftings for an office. So it may very well be that a pastor may prophecy, may win people to Christ, and will inevitably teach others, but that does not make the Pastor a prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, no more than a Frenchman visiting the USA makes that person an American.

 

[Norah63]

I would be wary of any one that thought they had all five of those callings.
Having even one would be a blessing.

 

[mottie]

Did Paul have all 5?

 

[Alithis]

Did Paul have all 5?

perhaps ..but im not sure he pastored in the sense that we consider to be pastoring in the modern day

but in the modern day there are many pastors who did it for a career and were never called of God to do so .

Dr Samuel Doctarian (not sure howto spell his name ) said no man calls himself an apostle .. the church calls him that .

he himself was referred to as an apostle to syrian and eastern churches .
but never sought such title nor promoted himself as such - as far as I know

another apostle in the modern age would be Brother Yunn (ref:the heavenly man ) used by God to build the now 70 million strong house churches in china from when there were none .

 

[mottie]

perhaps ..but im not sure he pastored in the sense that we consider to be pastoring in the modern day

He pastored in the sense we consider to be biblical pastoring. Whether that is done by some so called pastors today, well thats another issue!

 

[Alithis]

He pastored in the sense we consider to be biblical pastoring. Whether that is done by some so called pastors today, well thats another issue!

haha i guess that is a better way to put it

 

[tturt]

Excellent question about Paul.

Paul started several of the early churches on his missionary trips. (Some of this is impacted by how you define these offices). Some refer to them as his pastoral letters but to me his letters to them was one way he served them as their apostle. He prophesied such as Jesus' second coming 1 Thess 4:15-17. A pastor has to do more than preach though Paul did (such as Acts 9:18-20). He would have gotten to know the people and there were periods of time when he was n the same place for years. He had a pastor's heart such as in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. As far as teaching, he laid the groundwork for Christianity.

But Eph 4 and I Cor 12 (as BryanN84 pointed out) states that "some" are apostles, "some" are pastors, etc. We are the body and we serve in whatever capacity that Yahweh needs us at that particular time though it may be the only time.