Teaching Ministry?

I always assume that Eph 4 describes a fourfold ministry, whereas most teachers refer to five fold ministries. The extra one is the ministry of the “teacher”. My view is that the ministry of the teacher does not exist in the New Testament.

Ephesians 4:11 is fairly clear on this one. It has definite structure using the phrase “men de” in Greek, or “some to be” in English.

some to be apostles
some to be prophets
some to be evangelists
some to be pastors and teachers.

If Paul considered the teacher to be a distinct ministry, he would have written:

some to be pastors
and some to be teachers.

Because Paul did not write this, I have to assume that pastor and teacher is a single ministry.

Some Christians make the case for Teachers, by referring to a person like Derek Prince. I have learnt a lot from Derek Prince. God maybe raised him up for his time, because the church had lost so much truth. However, this does not mean that the Bible has a teaching ministry.

Paul is fairly clear that teaching by itself is dangerous. The reason is that knowledge puffs up.

We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Cor 8:1).

This is a serious problem with the so-called teaching ministry. Teaching just imparts knowledge, and knowledge puffs up. I know that many Christians have had their lives changed by listening to good teaching. However, I am sure that many more just listen and think to themselves that what they had read or heard was good. But then do nothing with it. I suspect that good teaching may have puffed up more Christians than it actually built up. That is what happens with knowledge is imparted apart from love.

I have done a lot of teaching over the years, but I am very realistic about the impact. I am always told that it is good teaching. However, it has rarely changed lives. In those times when my teaching did produce a change, it is because it was prophetic to the person listening.

A ministry that teaches and pastors (in the same way as Jesus discipled the twelve) combines truth with love, so it builds up. That is the biblical ideal.

Pastor-Teacher

A correspondent asked me why I refer to pastor-teachers in my book Being Church Where We Live? He said that he had experienced many pastors (true shepherd hearts) who are absolutely hopeless teachers, and many excellent teachers who are abysmal at looking after people. My answer was as follows.

The reason that I treat pastor and teacher as one ministry is that this is the way it is treated in Eph 4:11. Paul says that Jesus made "some to be pastors and teachers". He did not say "some to be pastors and some to be teachers". Paul seems to have been quite deliberate in the way that he worded this, although this is ignored by most commentators. (I suspect that they they see themselves as teachers, but are not good pastors, so they want to find a place for themselves.)

It would be nice for someone like me to have the teacher as a separate ministry, but I cannot see how we can do this and be true to Eph 4:11. I think the key is that teaching in NT times was the same as making disciples. It was about teaching people how to live, mostly by them following a mentor's example. If teaching is seen in this way, it merges with the pastoral task. Teaching, in the sense of giving a logical lecture, decorated with some good examples and some funny stories, is not what Paul was talking about.

I agree that there are many pastors who are hopeless teachers. However, the idea that a pastor should preach a sermon to his disciples every week is totally foreign to the New Testament. It is a terrible method of teaching people to follow Jesus.

I think the so-called teaching ministry has been bad for the church. This role has been to the fore ever since the Reformation and its generally tended to intellectualise our faith. On the whole this has been damaging for the church. I am more intellectual than most people (that’s why I write a blog), and I really love to study the scripture, but I am acutely aware that being a Christian is about having a relationship with Jesus, and other Christians. When Chritianity becomes agreement with a set of intellectual ideas, it quickly gets sterile. We need theology, but it is a tool we use to build our relationship with God, not the goal of our life.

The ascendancy of the ministry of the teacher has allowed the intellectuals to control the Church for nearly 400 years. Fortunately that shackle is now being thrown off.

I also agree that there is a place for public communication and proclamation of Christian truth. Evangelists should do this frequently. Prophetic people will do it from time to time. Others may do it as well, but we should not see it as one of the ascension ministries.

I have explained all this a bit more here.