How the Body Works

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers…

Ephesians 4:11

These four categories — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers — are among of the gifts which the risen Lord has imparted to human beings. These gifts relate to the whole body of Christ, much as the major body systems relate to the physical body. There are, within the human body, four major systems upon which the body is dependent for proper functioning: the skeletal and muscular framework, the nerve system, the digestive system, and the circulatory systems. In a most remarkable way they correspond to the four support ministries within the body of Christ:

First, there is the basic structural system of bones and muscles. This corresponds to the apostles and their function in the body of Christ. Their work was foundational, skeletal. They formed the basic structure which made the body of Christ assume the form it has. The foundation of the church is Jesus Christ, and the work of an apostle was to declare the whole body of truth concerning him.

Linked with the skeletal system in the human body is the nervous system. It is the means by which the bones and muscles are stimulated to activity. It is linked directly to the head, and from there it conveys messages to every part of the body. This system corresponds to the work of prophets in the body of Christ. A prophet is a person who speaks for God. In the early church, before the New Testament was written down, prophets spoke directly by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uttering the truths that are now recorded in the New Testament. They unfolded what God taught, and thus the body was galvanized into activity.

The third support ministry within the body of Christ is the evangelist. Evangelists are men and women with a special gift of communicating the Gospel in relevant terms to those who are not yet Christians. Since the evangelist is primarily responsible for the numerical growth of the body of Christ, the ministry of the evangelist corresponds to the digestive system within the human body, taking food which is quite unlike flesh and transforming it into flesh and bones, making it a living part of the body. All Christians are expected to evangelize, but not all have the gift of an evangelist.

The fourth physical system which the body depends upon for life is the circulatory system — the veins and arteries linked to the heart and lungs, which distribute food and oxygen to every part of the body. This corresponds to the work of teaching pastors within the body of Christ, who are there to maintain the life of the body by feeding it and cleansing it and preserving its life. The entire body has received gifts from the Spirit, and it is the task of those in the pastoral ministry to encourage the entire body to discover and use those gifts. When we have given all Christians in the body their God-given role as ministers, then the entire body comes alive with resurrection power. Lives are changed. Ministries explode. Communities are touched and healed. The church becomes healthy and vital and exciting again.

How exciting, Lord, that we are all given ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs it! Keep us doing your work in each of our capacities.