Why I Would Want The Five Fold In My Church – Part II
….. because it makes the priesthood of believers, the laity, us, accountable.
Why would a church be open to the five fold? One reason would be that it makes the parishioners, the believers in Jesus Christ accountable and not just passive. To encourage the people of the local church to do works of service, to evangelize, to nurture, care, and shepherd, to study the Word of God and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit for themselves, and network different giftings for the good of the group would be a revolutionary change in the way we think about doing church and being the Church. No longer could you just apathetically attend.
Ephesians 4:14-15 outlines how the five fold makes each believer accountable for their faith walk in Jesus individually, and corporately, “15 Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Embracing the five fold would challenge individual believer to “grow up”, take responsibility, and support the other members of the body while doing their part. That is a radical change from just being a pew sitter.
“Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” (I Cor. 6:19) If every believer has the Holy Spirit in them, then the gifts of the spirit are also within them. The key is to release those gifts, then equip that believer for works of service that would result in releasing life back into our churches. Anticipation brings excitement.
Sunday mornings corporate gatherings could be times when that excitement could be shared corporately. Instead of being told when to sit, stand, kneel, pray, sing, financially give, greet one another, and exit the premise, believers would now want to share what the Holy Spirit is doing in their midst. They would change from being passive, to engaging, to becoming aggressive. The life that existed in the book of Acts would again become evident.
With the five fold would come an accountability to peer believers with diverse gifts. One’s strength could bolster the weakness of another, and your strength could build others up in Christ. Accountability would be reciprocal, not conditional on office, rank, or title. Accountability would be built on peer relationships, not a pyramidal structure of offices. What is important is who leads you so you can follow, or who is behind you covering your back, or who is willing to walk beside you as a brother or sister in the Lord as an equal, not who is over you who demands you submit to them.
No longer would accountability be toting the line as dictated by leadership “over” you, but accepting and giving service and grace to those who walk their faith journeys in Jesus together, side-by-side. Acceptance of one another as equals because of relationships enhances accountability rather than submitting to authority because it is required.
It is a revolutionary way of thinking for the current church, but a way enabled passivity could be diminished in today’s local church. Let’s enter the cocoon of revival and allow the Holy Spirit to take away our apathy and reconstruct it into activity, a butterfly, soaring in service to one another.