The Vision of the Teacher
“Without Vision The People Perish”
One of the major premises of my study of the five fold ministry in the Church is that the five fold is not necessarily offices, but passions, or points of view. What passion drives a person in his love in and for the Church? Through what glasses does the believer see things? What is his vision?
The sermon has often been the standard of teaching throughout Church history. The “hearing of the Word of God”, the reading aloud of the Holy Scriptures, has been pivotal in most church services throughout the ages. Often though, the way and method of teaching the Word, the Bible, in the Church has become “legal” rather than “living”. Legalism divides the Church; a Living Word unites the Church.
Today’s Church needs their teachers to break from the Westernization of an “academic” gospel to a more Jewish, Lamad, approach of living out gospel. The passion of a five fold teacher is to help a believer in Jesus Christ “walk out” his faith journey in his practical life, rather than becoming a Biblical academic scholar. Jesus never founded a “seminary”, nor a “Christian Bible College”, nor formed “conferences” in hotels during a week or weekend where his 12 disciples or the many new followers gathered to hear His faith message. Jesus walked by their side, in practical living, teaching practical Kingdom of God principles from practical everyday experiences. People knew how a sower sowed seeds, a harvest was gathered, how to draw water from a well, etc., and Jesus took those experiences to teach His believers kingdom truthes.
The teacher sees the written Word, the Bible, as not only a written document, but a “living” document to be walked out in each believer’s life. Westernization has taught us Christians how to “talk the talk”, (defend the Bible, refute untruth, debate its meaning through our interpretations, and divide the Church through doctrine), but the Lamad, or Jewish mindset, is to “walk the walk”.
The five fold teacher “sees” what is needed to teach the “walk” that is founded on the “talk”. If the Word is not a daily practicality in a believer’s life, it becomes mundane theology of only academic value, open for academic debate, that produces division, not unity in the body of Christ. The early teachings were based the “Apostolic Teachings” which were simplistic and brought unity in the body.
Acts 15 displays the division of “legalistic” teaching of the Pharisees in this new movement of God, verses the “living” teachings that both Peter and Paul witnessed in the living out of this new faith in questioning if Gentiles could be believers and should they be circumcised in this new movement. Peter and Paul had to share testimonies of the spiritual “visions” they had seen over the question, and the practical “living” that the Gentiles were experiencing, the same faith journey as they had witness in their own personal lives. The issue was settled in unity through the living Holy Spirit. “Legalism” fell to “Life”!
The five fold teacher “sees” how to teach “life lessons” that exemplify the Truth of the Written Word, the Bible, the anchor of one’s faith in a practical daily walk. John I states, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word became a living Gospel when Jesus came to earth. He taught us how to walk out this Word in his daily life which is recorded in the Written Word, but the Father sent the Holy Spirit to teach us how to “live out” the Word in each individual believer’s life.
The five fold teacher has to teach individual believers how to walk this walk through the leading of the Holy Spirit. He has to teach the individual believer to trust the Holy Spirit who was sent to teach him or her all truth. The believer can then go the to Word, the Bible, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach him/her truth, and how to “live it out”. The goal of a teacher should be to develope the believer to become independent of their teacher, and dependent on the Holy Spirit to develop him/her into the maturity and fullness of Jesus Christ through their personal reading of the Word, the Bible. Then the Church will see staggering results in maturity of its believers.
The evangelist sees the “needs” of the lost; the pastor/shepherd sees the “needs” of the newborn; and the teacher sees the “need” to make the written Word, the Bible, a Living Rhema Word in every believer’s daily life.