Finale: Here's a posting I promised -- The FiveFold Ministry (Part VIII)

After discussing all we did, what are some broad strokes we can take away from this and how does this affect the Outreach?

1. There is no one final biblical pattern about leadership structure (the Bible gives some leeway as to how exactly you structure it), but based on the evidence in Ephesians and in 1 Peter, we at the Outreach believe that ultimately all the 5-fold ministers are elders. By doing so, we are breaking down the "elder/pastor" division, or even the "pastor/prophet/apostle" division. The Bible also shows us that eldership is not about doing admin work and simply sitting in the board of a church. It is a spiritual position, and from its description, the kind of leadership it describes is the kind that most of us would associate with being a minister today.

2. In line with what the Word of God indicates about all the 5-fold as fellow elders, the Outreach is consciously moving away from a "Senior Pastor" kind of system. One reason is because i) No one person has all the giftings, and often in a one-man dominated leadership, the church tends to lopside (or if you want to be positive: SPECIALISE) and be very strong in certain aspects, but very weak in others; ii) every elder should be counted upon as a minister in his own right--able to hear God for himself, to love others, and ultimately to shoulder the responsibility of the church; iii) we noticed that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So many men and women of God have started off fantastically, sincerely before God to live their life for the Lord to the fullest--but along the way, couldn't withstand the temptations and the applause of man (and the pressures of life) that comes with being the senior leader in a church. I believe no one man is strong enough. There is only one man strong enough for such a leadership position: Jesus Christ our Lord. So given that our Lord himself advocated that his disciples work in twos, and subsequent church structures have always revolved around a team one way or the other, we believe that having a team of elders is much stronger than one person:

Two are better than one
For if one falls, the other can pick him up
But pity the man who falls and has no one to pick him up
A cord of three strands is not easily broken.
-- King Solomon

So this is the way Outreach leadership will be functioning:
1. In all things, the elders will meet together and seek the Lord's will. Every elder needs to seek God for himself, hearing the voice of God for himself, and then make a convicted stand about what he hears from the Lord. If some elders have not yet heard anything from the Lord, we will not rush to make a decision--every elder must be convinced in and of himself that this is what the Lord wants (rather than going along simply because someone else said that this is what the Lord says).
2. Instead of having a singular senior pastor (after all, every ministry still needs someone to be the main leader at the end of the day), every elder is the "senior pastor" of the portfolio he is in charge of. E.g. if you have a Prophetic Elder, the Prophetic Elder is the senior leader for all decisions involving the Prophetic or the direction of the church. On the other hand, if the issue being discussed is a Pastoral issue, the Prophetic Elder votes just like any other elder, because the senior elder in this case is the Pastoral Elder.
3. However, in making decisions, it must always be a consensus among the elders. Let's put it this way: if what you received is truly from the Lord, there's no need to fear that others won't get the same message from Him too. So our aim is to be as precise as possible: and let the Lord use all of us to come to a good decision together. After elders have waited on the Lord, they are to vote, and the side with the most votes will be the one that the church should move towards (see earlier posts as to what the elders should do if this turns out to be a wrong decision).
4. What then is the role of being the senior elder in your portfolio? You have a veto vote in case any of the decisions made go against certain Biblical convictions, or if you really cannot in good conscience support the decision that has been made, because of its ramifications on how it affects your ministry. When the veto is used, it simply means we all must go back and pray more, and come back another day to decide. You will also be the facilitator for the discussion: rather than giving your ideas first, it is best to hear what everyone else has to say, put it together, and form a consensus in the Lord.

Another issue: The Order of Service
In light of the role of the 5-fold ministry, we also feel room should be made within the order of service to allow different elders to use the gifts God gave them to bless the people. So in different weeks, we will have different agendas. Here are some possibilities as to how the service can be arranged:

A possible format, let's say, if we are starting at 2.30 p.m.

2:30-2:45 Fellowship
2:45-3:00 Prayer
3:00-3:30 Worship
3:30-3:45 Offering/Holy Communion
3:45-4:30 Ministry Time
4:30 - 5:00 Fellowship/Free & Easy

So when it comes to Ministry Time, it's possible for different weeks to have different things. In the Outreach, tentatively, there are some possibilities:

1) Sermon Time: this is usually taken by the Teaching Elder, or the Pastoral Elder, if he wants to give a message of encouragement.

2) Pastor's Time: this can take the form of a 1-to-1 or 1-to-2 counselling time, just for the pastors to hear what's going on in people's lives, pray for them, and give practical advice. So as many pastors as possible can take part in this, where everyone breaks up into different groups etc. The pastors will sense from the Lord who they should talk to and minister to, and for the rest of us not involved, we can always have a prayer meeting on the spot. :)

3) Evangelistic Service: as the name implies, the sermon for that day can be evangelistic. There can even be a situation where there's no sermon, but just the declaration of the Gospel and ministering healing to the sick. Other evangelistic programmes like drama, musicals, etc are also welcome, so long they declare the gospel faithfully and serve as a form of dramatic presentation of the Gospel. =) At the end of the day, nothing must detract from the Gospel. Heh.

4) Prophetic Time: in our experience, it is better for a prophet not to take the pulpit and preach, but rather just to minister to the people. The exception to this rule would be when the prophet has an extended message from God for the entire church (in which, for purposes of good teaching, the Teaching Elder should be involved in the drafting of the message). So it is possible for the entire time to be a prophetic time: where people deliver messages from the Lord, sing prophetically, minister in signs and wonders (by the way, signs and wonders are welcome anytime, even if it's not prophetic time!), get people filled with the Spirit, etc.

5) Apostolic Address: every once in a while, let's say every 6 months or one year, it would be good for the local apostle to address the congregation(s)--this kind of an occasion would be big enough probably even to gather all the churches who are within the same fellowship for the address. Usually the apostolic address would aim to settle a few issues: i) Theological issues (esp if, God forbid, there is heresy); ii) Encouragement to everyone as to how to practically live their Christian life; iii) Instructions towards Elders; iv) if the occasion calls for it, Church Discipline and Excommunication. It can also be a chance to remind the congregations about God's plan for the churches and how they should continue to move towards the destiny God has for them. So it sort of resembles the PM's National Day Rally or even the US President's "State of the Nation" address.

Yesh. Hope this series on the 5-fold ministry has been helpful for all of you reading. And yes I know the Apostolic section is not complete: doing a bit more research before I come back and finish it off. Pls feel free to give your comments on the comments page--no question is too threatening or too sensitive to be asked. What matters most is that we all come honestly before the Lord, lay down our understanding on the table, and sharpen each other in terms of faith and theology.

And one final thing: I pray that this experiment with letting the 5-fold eldership minister in the church will bring great benefits to all. It's quite innovative and bold, and I know there will be teething problems that need to be solved, but I believe at the end of the day we will all be stronger for it. And for those of you who are elders, I pray you will be blessed and experience the thrill of God's power flowing through you to touch the lives of those you minister to!

Agape!