WITHOUT ARMS
There was an ancient Greek statue in our
local museum of a lovely woman without
arms. She was certainly carved with arms
but war, neglect, or violence robbed her
of her arms. She is as lovely as ever
but looked wounded withour her arms.
I've given her image much thought
because she often reminds me of the
Bride of Christ.
The Body was made to function together
with each part having a role; a function
to perform that interrelates with all of
the other parts.
In the Body of Christ, the arms would
(to me) represent the role of the
Evangelist. It is the function of
evangelists - those who carry the
evangel; the good news - to be
the arms of God to reach out to the
world. Imagine trying to wage a
successful military campaign without
arms!
There are 5 basic functions (some call
them offices) in the Body of Christ with
a host of other types of ministries.
They are:
(Ephesians 4)
The Apostle, the Prophet, the
Evangelist, the Pastor, and the Teacher.
Some teach that Pastor and Teacher are
two sides of the same office but (I
believe) a careful study of the Greek
refutes this.
All of the offices except the Evangelist
are given as grace
gifts primarily to the church
except the Evangelist which is
given as a grace gift to the
world.
And God
still so loves the world... It
is this very different bent that is the
source of trouble and perpetual
misunderstanding.
How like God to put dissimilar things
together and force us into humility to
make us work as one. Most evangelistic
ministries are set up outside the local
church which is the seat of God's
government on earth.
The reason for this is that the other
four offices don't quite know what to
make of these apparently wild-eyed
people who are more concerned with
ministering to lost people than the
precious souls already in the kingdom of
God.
Evangelists clearly see the harvest
while the other offices see the crushing
needs of caring for what has already
been harvested.
I once spoke to a pastor in a small town
about doing some evangelistic work with
his church and he rolled his eyes and
said, "As if I didn't have enough to
care for already!"
I quietly reminded him that there were
people in his city who would not wake up
in the morning and if they didn't know
Jesus, it would be too late for them.
He sobered up and said, "Well, yes, I
know that, too, but we're involved in.."
and he deftly side stepped the issue,
suggesting that I should go forth and
God be with me.
In other words, if that was my "personal
vision," then go for it. No help, no
support, no assistance of any kind. Just
be sure to bring the new converts to his
church.
This is the very common reaction and
experience of many with an evangelistic
mantle. It then causes a divide between
the catchers and the cleaners and
creates an ungodly friction and
competition among the leadership of
the Church!
Do pastors care about the lost? Of
course they do! But they get busy with
caring for the flock and there are just
so many hours in the days...
Why, you'd think there needed to be
someone who would devote their full time
energies to winning souls. Hummm.......
In the temple furnishings, there was a
lamp stand made of one piece of beaten
gold. This lovely item was made to
represent a unified testimony of the
Light of the world. There were no parts
added to it. It was made of one solid
piece of gold.
The church often treats
the evangelistic office like an add-on,
something that needs to function outside
the local church because it is a
"specialized" ministry. What
happens is
that evangelists then are cut off from
fellowship and input in the local
church. They do not have the privilege
to help in the government of the local
assembly or have ready access to needed
financial offerings and are thus reduced
to spending much of their waking hours
begging from pastors; with whom God
made them functional equals; and their
efforts are taken away from the harvest.
Many solo evangelists can get very
weird. Many evangelists I know secretly
"hate" pastors over this unbiblical,
ungodly, and sadly inefficient way of
conducting kingdom business. It's not
really hatred, but frustration.
Many evangelists start calling
themselves "pastor" and try to flow in
that office, often doing a miserable job
of it, so that they can at least have
people to work with, finances to pay the
bills, and a place to work from, and it
is the Body of Christ who then suffers.
The world suffers, too, because there is
no one there to bear witness of Jesus to
them. Perhaps, given the late hour we
are all facing, it's time for the five
grace gifts to lock arms and work
together.
Perhaps we all need to re-think our
place in the kingdom and remember that
Jesus is the head of the church and
these diversity of gifts were his idea.
Ephesians 4: 11-13, "And he gave some
for the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ: Till we
all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ."
He is coming for a lovely Bride without
spot or wrinkle - with her arms
attached.
© 2000 Bryan Hupperts
SheepTrax Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 270256
St. Louis, MO 63126
SheepTrax Ministries, Inc.
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Email: denimandlace_21@yahoo.
