May 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Join us for the Elim Leaders Summit opening session, which sets the scene of our 'Equip The Saints' theme. Watch Elim's General Superintendent, Mark Pugh, unpack how you can find your place in the five-fold ministries.Over three days, we will look into how apostolic vision, prophetic insight, evangelistic passion, pastoral care, and teaching wisdom, should function together so we can reveal the multifaceted nature of Jesus Himself.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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What a wonderful video. Thank you so much, Shereen, for
participating in that. Well, it's wonderful to see you.
It's great to be together. These are special days that
we're in. Something is stirring in the
nation. Something is moving in the heart
of our society. God is moving in his people.
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He is restoring things that havebeen lost.
He is renewing a sense of faith and expectation for what He's
going to do in these days. And I encourage you over these
next few days to be expectant that there will be things the
Lord is going to rekindle in you.
There are going to be gifts the law's going to bestow upon you.
And there are going to be, there's going to be a move of
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the Spirit, I believe among us that is going to reawaken our
Pentecostal roots. And I believe this evening we're
going to see healings, signs andwonders.
We're going to see baptisms in the Spirit.
We're going to see deliverances.And I want you to come expectant
because I believe the Lord has earmarked these few days
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together to be a time when he meets with us.
And so Team Ealing, as we gathertogether, as we spend these
times in these gatherings and inplenary sessions and business
sessions, I pray that there would be within our hearts such
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a desire for more of the Lord. And I pray that as we look at
this opening session now, that the Lord would stir us.
So would you just pray with me, Holy Spirit, we don't want
anyone's agenda. We don't want the GSS agenda,
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the NL TS agenda, or anyone around us.
We want yours. So help us, Lord, as we seek to
dig into Your truth and Your Word and explore some matters
together. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
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Amen. I recently built a flat pack
dining table. I didn't realize when I ordered
it from the showroom that it wasa flat pack, so I was very
enthusiastic about the delivery date that it was arriving, but
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it arrived in cardboard in boxesthat did not look like a dining
table. Everyone else in our home was
out at the time that it arrived and when I opened up the
packaging it stated these words.Construction is a two person job
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but everybody else in my family was unavailable and I was
impatient. So I proceeded to ignore the
guidance and I built successfully the dining room
table single handedly. Take that you Chinese
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instructions. That made no sense.
I did it. It was heavy and I had to make
some adaptations without the other recommended person being
available. It took me longer than it should
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have done, but I did my best andI made it work.
And we have had numerous successful meals at that table
today. But at the end of that hard,
heavy lifting job that was designed for more than one
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person, I ached. We often ache more than we
should when we find that we are trying to do something that is
more than a one person task. But so often we look at our lack
of resources and availability ofthings around us and we just got
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our head down and we do it anyway.
Ministry is not a one person task and many of us in this room
have got our head down and got on with it anyway.
And I want to applaud you for your accomplishments, but
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ministry was never designed to be a one person task.
And we're going to look at our key text together, Ephesians 4.
And as we look at this, we're going to see that ministry is
never designed to be a one person task.
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Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 13 says these words.
I therefore, the prisoner in theLord, beg you to lead a life
worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
I hope you know that you've beencalled by God, not just
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appointed by your denomination, not just given an opportunity in
your churches because there was a need that you met.
I hope you know that you that wethe Elam movement has been
called live your life worthy of this calling with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
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love. That makes it sound like we're
not going to naturally get on, turn to the person next to you,
say I'm going to bear with you this week and I'm just being
biblical. If the person who said that to
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you looked like they enjoyed it too much, turn back to them and
say it says in love verse 3 Making every effort, not most,
but every effort to maintain theunity of the Spirit.
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In the bond of peace there is one body and one Spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all
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and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore, it is said, when he ascended on high, he made
captivity itself a captive. He gave gifts to his people.
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When it says He ascended, what does it mean but that he had
also descended into the lowest parts of the earth?
He who descended is the same onewho ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things.
The gifts he gave were that somewould be apostles, some
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prophets, some evangelists, somepastors and teachers to equip
the Saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the
body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of the faith
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and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the
measure of the full stature of Christ.
This translation references the Saints.
Other translations reference building up the body of Christ.
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The focus is the Church. Everyone who has experienced the
saving knowledge of our gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to
be equipped. They are Saints to be equipped
to be a part of the team. Team Elim is not just those in
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this room. Team Elim is made-up of the
parts of all of the members of the churches across the nation
and across the globe. We're part of the team and we
are called as part of a team to play a part in that team.
But all too often we entertain the team.
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We encourage them towards faithful attendance rather than
equip them for works of service.All too often we've been happy
for people to give of their tithes and offerings in order so
that they may support us doing the work of the ministry.
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But ministry is not a one personjob, it requires A-Team.
The opening verses in Ephesians 4 are an appeal to the whole
church to be this team. Paul's audience was not an
individual, but it was a church community, and his calls for
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unity are a reminder that there would have been things present
which were likely to tempt them to be divided.
His call to the whole church were be humble, be gentle, be
patient, make allowances for oneanother's faults.
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Yes, you have them make every effort to be bound in unity and
peace. Although they were numerous and
diverse, they were one in Christand so are we.
Now we know that there were cultural differences in this
church between the Jews and the Gentiles, but are there any
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specific differences which Paul goes on to identify as he
appeals for this community to bear with each other, to be
patient, to be gentle, to be humble?
Is there something in Paul's sights that he is appealing?
That in the midst of all of these things you still need to
keep united? Then we read in his passage
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about the Ascension gifts, the going away present of Jesus to
the church. These are often referred to as
the fivefold gifts or graces. I'm going to use the term grace
because I think often when we use the word gift, it feels like
when I give someone a gift that it's now theirs.
Whereas grace has a sense that it's constantly being poured out
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by the giver. So the fivefold ministry graces
we're going to look at and we'regoing to use the an acronym
apest, which stands for Apostolic prophetic
evangelistic, they're the apes and then the shepherds and the
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teachers apest. These five apest graces are
given to the church as the goingaway present of Jesus, and they
distinctiveness and they differences are likely to cause
the body to need to make every effort to keep unity.
They require each person to showgentleness and humility towards
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one another. They can wind each other up.
They can see things differently.And the call for unity in this
text, among other reasons, wouldhave been because the
differences in these graces means that they don't
automatically attract to one another.
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But these graces are designed towork together.
Because ministry is not a one person job.
The expression of each of these graces can be very provocative
to the others. Each will understand what
success looks like in a different way.
How a shepherd defines success will be very different to how an
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Apostolic leader defines success, that they all have
different understandings of whatsuccess looks like, and we're
going to be looking at that thisweek.
Each of these graces will likelyhave a preference of how they
should respond in a given situation that might be very
different to the responses of the other graces.
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So if you don't make every effort to unite, you will
separate and turn ministry into a one person job.
And these are given to equip thebody, the Saints, the Church for
works of service, not to equip the Saint, but the Saints.
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And the Saints can only be fullyequipped when each of these
graces is fully active and aliveand at work.
We see these ascension graces atwork perfectly in our Saviour
Jesus. We see that there were times
when he was thoroughly Apostolicin his approach to the
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circumstances around him. We say there were times when he
was thoroughly prophetic in his response to situations.
We see that he was a wonderful evangelist that shared the life
of the good news of the Kingdom with people around him.
We see he's the Good Shepherd that knows how to lay down his
life for the sheep. And we see he was a rabbi, he
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was a teacher. Jesus manifest all of the these
graces, and as he was ascended to heaven, it was like he tore
himself into five parts and said, here you go, church.
But if we just present one of those graces, we don't present
the fullness of Christ. They're at work in us.
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They're a work through us. But all 5 can only fully operate
in the context of humble, gentle, patient unity.
Now there's a problem. When past conversations have
been attempted around this subject that is a very quickly
it feels like the conversation descends into a discussion about
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hierarchy, titles, and offices. This has caused the conversation
many times in the Western churchto fall down when no one can
agree on who's in charge. This has been a stumbling block,
I believe, to releasing something very beautiful in the
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church, namely a flow of these five graces coming together in
humility, gentleness, patience, and unity.
I believe when they come together, it's like the streams
begin to flow into a river and there's a current that comes on
the body of Christ. As all of these five graces
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learn to blend and learn to worktogether, I believe any one of
these graces can take a primary lead role within a church or
within the team, as long as thatgrace and the person stewarding
it recognizes and understands they need for others.
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If they take it and say I'm going to use the grace on my
life to do a job as one person, then it fails or you ache or you
miss the potential of what couldbe.
But when they flow together, there's something powerful that
happens. Now, one of the terminologies
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you hear this week is primary graces.
I believe there's a measure of all of these graces that are
present in every follower and believer in the Lord.
So for example, MY2 top primary graces would be the same as
Shireen, actually Apostolic and prophetic.
I find my instinct leads out of those two graces, but that does
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not give me an escape clause forevangelizing.
It does not give me an escape clause for loving people.
It does not give me an escape clause for teaching.
I'm meant to grow in all of these graces.
So this is not to put you or I into a box and say this is the
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only expression of your ministry.
But what this does, it recognises the primary grace
that may be on your life or graces that may be on your life,
which you know, just dominate the way that your leadership
instinct flows. Understanding these primary
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graces on our lives is so helpful when we come to steward
in them. It helps the stewardship of a
call of God that's on our life, that call that we are invited at
the beginning of this chapter tolive a life worthy of it.
It's helpful in understanding how we function and how people
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around us function so that we can join together.
Of course, we all learn ways of operating in all of these APES
graces and discovering our primary grace doesn't give us
the exemption. But if you try to do all 5 on
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your own, you might make a wobbly table, you might equip
some of the Saints. But I don't believe we will
fulfil the purposes of God through the body of Christ.
While you and I are called to grow in each of these apes
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graces, we function best when werecognize the primary grace that
flows in our lives and when we grow in its in application and
partnership within our life. And we also learned to partner
with those who've got complementary graces.
In advance of this conference, we've asked each of you to
complete a simple online assessment which helps you and
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me to discern what those primarygraces may be at work in each of
our lives. None of these graces have
greater value than any of the other.
They're all graces which come from Christ, None are more or
less important than others. They are all needed.
And if we are to present Christ in all its fullness, they all
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need to be worked at, to excel and to work together in gentle,
humble unity. Pentecostal churches in the UK
have for decades operated with astronger expectation that our
ministers would fulfil a shepherd teacher ministry.
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These are beautiful graces whichare so needed today in the body
of Christ. But over the last 20 years, I
think we've stopped talking about shepherds and teachers.
I think we've talked more about leaders.
And when you've come to conferences like this, we've
said, everybody, you're a leader.
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Now we're going to introduce a leader who's going to come and
share with you. But often the leaders that come
and speak at conferences usuallyhave quite an Apostolic gift and
ministry. They're people that, you know,
they took a church from 2:00 to 20,000 in three days.
You know, those sort of miracle stories, they were slightly late
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turn up because they just raiseda few people from the dead on
the way in and, and you're a leader.
They're a leader and they tell you how to lead better.
And you think I, I'm, I'm inspired by them.
I feel inspired by their story. I want to be like them.
In fact, if I want to be a more successful leader, I need to
begin to move in what they're moving in and we go away
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inspired. But if you're a shepherd and a
teacher, after a few months, youusually feel a bit of a failure
because the grace is different. Now.
We can be sharpened by their enthusiasm to break up and plow
up the ground, the fallow ground.
We can be inspired by that. But I want you to hear this
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really clearly. Shepherds in the room, we love
you and we need you. And you're going to hear voices
in this conference of shepherds speaking to shepherds teachers
in the room. And interesting in the feedback
from all of the apest assessments that you did, the
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predominant grace that that the one that is the runaway winner
of the graces that are present in our leadership and in this
room is the teaching grace. And we need the teaching grace
to be fully functioning life. But when we've used this term
leader, we've bundled it all together and it's not always
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enabled us to have a full appreciation of what God is
doing and wants to do through each of our lives.
You know, there is there's a possibility that all of these
graces through the story of the Church feel neglected in some
way. Certainly, I think in our
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inability or our reluctance to use the language of the
Apostolic and our caution aroundthe prophetic means that we have
not always enabled people who have those graces on their life
to feel like they're celebrated.We need everybody, Team Elim, we
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need you. There have been a number of
people who have written to me over the past few weeks and they
said, Mark, we're really sorry we can't come to Els this year.
And all really understandable reasons and I've written a
letter to thank them for lettingme know.
But I've usually included this line in there.
I do I really, we're going to miss you because you are like a
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piece of the Elim jigsaw. And I've not built many jigsaws
in my time, although I'm gettingto the age where we begin to
take them on holiday with us now.
But I'm not paying full price for jigsaws.
We get them from charity shops. It's always a bit risky, isn't
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it? It's the nearest danger we get
at our age now, isn't it? I will all the pieces be there?
But I know that when you've put together 999 pieces and you're
looking for that one, you look under the table, you're shaking
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the empty box, and in a way you don't really need it because you
can see on the front of the box what the complete picture looks
like. It's not like you're thinking, I
wonder what's in that space. But we're not happy with 999
pieces. We need them all.
Team Elim, you're needed. You have a unique shape and a
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unique piece. If we're going to see the
Kingdom of God advance in the years ahead, like I suspect the
Lord wants to advance through our churches and through our
ministries, we're going to need every piece fitted, connected,
and playing their part. There's no opt out clause here.
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There's no back row. There's no hiddenness to the
ministry on your life. We need you to know your shape,
we need you to know that you celebrate the shape.
We need you to know that we wantto connect with that shape, and
we need you to join together to see the purposes of God.
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So this week, we want to help you.
We want to help you understand the features of these graces and
how they work their way out in each of our lives.
We want to help you discern the primary graces at work in one
another. As you gain a more of an
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understanding of what these graces look like, then it will
help you know how you fit. We want to help you explore how
you can sharpen the stewardship of your graces.
Just because it says through an assessment that your primary
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grace is, for example, shepherd,doesn't mean to say you're a
Good Shepherd. It just means you've got a heart
of a shepherd. You might actually be a little
socially awkward. Your heart might be to go and
bless that person in the hospital bed and they might be
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thinking I'm glad he's gone. Because these graces need
stewarding. They need sharpening.
If you think I scored as an Apostolic leader, come on, give
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me these conference stages. None of you misunderstand it.
It's not that this grace is called high in your life.
It's like, how are you stewarding it?
How are you living a life worthyof the call?
That's on you. And we need to sharpen our
swords. We need to learn.
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I know some of you have found the assessment difficult because
you say I've been in ministry for years, I know what my life's
about. I have to confront you and say,
have you learned everything? Are you the complete picture?
Is there nothing else anybody can teach you?
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If, if that's true, then make sure the next few days you come
and repent at the front because I need to learn.
You need to learn. We all need to grow.
So let's become better at the graces, the primary graces in
our lives. Let's sharpen those things that
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the Lord has entrusted to us Now.
Also, I've observed that graces can be seasonal.
As I've mentioned, my 2 primary graces are Apostolic and
prophetic, and they've been fairly consistent throughout my
journey. But a number of years ago,
Nietzsche and I moved to a church that had been through a
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significant period of trauma. And the Lord spoke to me and he
said I don't want you to talk vision to this church for two
years. I just want you to love the
people. And it was like God put a cloak
of the shepherd grace around my life.
In fact, somebody came up to Nita after I'd been there about
a year and a half and said, yourhusband's not much of a
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visioner, is he? Like Nita was like, oh, you way
you way too. And and I was, I was chuffed
because I knew I'd obey the Lord, but he had graced me for
that season. So there can be some seasons.
And like all good football players, there have to be times
you play out of position. But it should not take you away
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from understanding the shape that God has called you to.
And we will explore how these graces can sharpen who we are
and also impact how we connect to those around us.
Because ministry is not a one person job, the manifestation of
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each grace. We need pioneering and
innovation, entrepreneurship, envisioning and breakthrough
that the Apostolic brings. We need that annealing.
We need the revealing of God's heart, the sensitivity to his
presence and His voice, and the call to intimacy that the
prophetic brings. We need that annealing.
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We need the outward focus, the prioritising of getting the
message of redemption out to those outside of the Christian
community. We need the evangelists.
We need the healing, the care and the peace and the life and
the well-being that the shepherds bring.
We need the clarity, the insight, the structure, the
transferable wisdom that the teachers bring.
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Each grace is needed, but each grace may be worked out in
different ways. For example, I met with someone
recently and they said the assessment said that I'm a
teacher, but I'm not a teacher. OK, let's unpack this together.
And by the way, the grace assessment is not the Bible.
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So if you disagree with it, whatis fun, just celebrate that it's
given you an opportunity to havea conversation to explore.
All right, you can disagree withit over the next few days.
You can go to streams for thingsthat are different to the
primary grace if you disagree with it.
So please don't feel intimidatedby what that assessment said.
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But on the whole, I find it pretty accurate.
But this person said, I'm a teacher, but I'm not a teacher.
So I asked him a question. I said, can you tell me what you
do for a living? He said.
I coach people on how to use IT.It's interesting.
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So am I right in thinking that you sit with someone who doesn't
know what they need to know about IT, you know what they
need to know, and so you teach them.
He goes, yeah, that's what I do.Do you think that you might be a
teacher? He said.
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I can't imagine ever standing atthe front of a church and doing
a Bible study. That's another expression of
teaching. Do you know, I'm so glad that
when I learned to drive, I wasn't in a class with 50 people
with a guy sat at the front teaching us how to drive.
I'm so glad he was sat. She was sat next to me in the
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car, coaching me, developing. There are many ways of teaching,
and we need them all. And there are various ways of
expressing all of these graces and gifts, and we need them all
this week. Not that the conversation is
wrong, but you won't hear us talking about titles or offices.
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We're concentrating on function,not title.
I don't mind what title I have, but I do mind whether I'm able
to flow in the function. The issue of titles have been a
stumbling block for years. So let's get over the stumbling
block and let's get to the real business.
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I believe this helps us develop a language, a language that can
be a significant help in the years that are ahead when we see
and understand the implication of these graces and how they
function and relate to each other.
A number of years ago we invitedan Apostolic leader.
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We often in the flow of our church will invite various
graces to come and minister and stir the church up because they
all bring something different. We don't just think, who do we
like to come and speak? We think, OK, they're Apostolic,
they're prophetic, they're evangelist, they shepherd their
teacher. Let's bring them in to stir up
the church. And we on this occasion brought
an Apostolic ministry in and it really brought an enormous
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blessing and encouragement, faith lift to the church.
Something of an awakening began to stir through his visit, which
was beautiful. Maybe the worship team want to
come and join me on the stage, if that's OK as well.
And I, I loved it because there was a resonance of the grace on
my life. But he said one thing that
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caused a little bit of controversy, and I don't want
you to hear what I'm about to say and say this is a principle.
I'm using it as an illustration to show something.
That's the next part of what I'mabout to share.
He said the Holy Spirit revealedto him that 30% of people who
died could be resurrected if someone had prayed with them.
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Now, as an Apostolic grace on mylife, I hear that and I'm
feeling challenged. I'm thinking, when was the last
time I prayed for someone who had died?
The prophetic people in our teamwas sat there thinking, I wish I
could hear God as crystal clear as that.
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The evangelist, they've done themorgue praying for people
already. They've gone.
They're out of the building. The shepherd, the shepherds,
they thinking about the six people sat behind us in the
congregation. You've lost loved ones in the
last six months and the guilt and the processing pain that
they're having over that. And the teachers are like, show
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me in here where it says 30%. Our team meeting was really
interesting that week because webuilt a culture of humility,
gentleness and bearing with one another.
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We all spoke about our reactionsto that and other moments over
the weekend. You see, I was right to feel
challenged about my faith of whoI'm praying for.
The prophetic were right to sense the stir of God within
them. The evangelists were right to
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get excited. The shepherds are right to be
grieved and mourn, and the teachers were right to say show
me the truth. And somewhere in that
conversation, we found each other and we found Jesus.
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Elim I know we've all got different styles, different
graces, different ways that we operate, but I really believe we
need each other. This, this movement doesn't need
an Apostolic leader. This movement needs the five
foot ministry functioning together with humility, grace
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and gentleness. That's what this movement needs.
And if we can, if we can appreciate the streams and come
together and present the fullness of Christ to this
world, I believe the current of that will cause a discipleship
revolution in our churches. I believe we'll look out at our
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congregations and we'll stop seeing them as people who can
get on rotors, and we'll start seeing them as people we can
release to the nations. I believe that we'll empower
ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
But it all starts with us recognizing that we're not in
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this to be superheroes. We're in this to raise up
heroes. Let's pray together.
As we join together this week toaffirm one another, I pray
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there'll be much patience, humility, and grace in our
conversations. I pray that we'll all be
strengthened in the graces at work in our lives.
Let's be creative in how we can create the flow of grace one to
another. Some of you leading as shepherds
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will notice that your church might feel a little stagnant.
It's not because you've failed. It's because you've done your,
you've carried out your ministryreally well.
But it's stagnant because you need others because this is not
a one person job. Now I know you're not going to
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be able to employ others on yourteam, and that's not what I'm
talking of. But maybe an Elim colleague 20
miles away has an Apostolic racethat could come and spend the
morning with you and your eldersand stir you up.
Maybe the prophetic leader leading the church where it all
feels a little vulnerable. Maybe they can bring a shepherd
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in to spend some time with theirelders to look on how to create
safe, loving, compassionate environments.
We need each other. So Lord Jesus, I ask that you
will open our hearts. In the name of Jesus we pray and
all God's people said, Amen. Let's stand together as we sing
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our final song.
What a wonderful video. Thank you so much, Shereen, for
participating in that. Well, it's wonderful to see you.
It's great to be together. These are special days that
we're in. Something is stirring in the
nation. Something is moving in the heart
of our society. God is moving in his people.
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He is restoring things that havebeen lost.
He is renewing a sense of faith and expectation for what He's
going to do in these days. And I encourage you over these
next few days to be expectant that there will be things the
Lord is going to rekindle in you.
There are going to be gifts the law's going to bestow upon you.
And there are going to be, there's going to be a move of
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the Spirit, I believe among us that is going to reawaken our
Pentecostal roots. And I believe this evening we're
going to see healings, signs andwonders.
We're going to see baptisms in the Spirit.
We're going to see deliverances.And I want you to come expectant
because I believe the Lord has earmarked these few days
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together to be a time when he meets with us.
And so Team Ealing, as we gathertogether, as we spend these
times in these gatherings and inplenary sessions and business
sessions, I pray that there would be within our hearts such
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a desire for more of the Lord. And I pray that as we look at
this opening session now, that the Lord would stir us.
So would you just pray with me, Holy Spirit, we don't want
anyone's agenda. We don't want the GSS agenda,
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the NL TS agenda, or anyone around us.
We want yours. So help us, Lord, as we seek to
dig into Your truth and Your Word and explore some matters
together. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
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Amen. I recently built a flat pack
dining table. I didn't realize when I ordered
it from the showroom that it wasa flat pack, so I was very
enthusiastic about the delivery date that it was arriving, but
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it arrived in cardboard in boxesthat did not look like a dining
table. Everyone else in our home was
out at the time that it arrived and when I opened up the
packaging it stated these words.Construction is a two person job
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but everybody else in my family was unavailable and I was
impatient. So I proceeded to ignore the
guidance and I built successfully the dining room
table single handedly. Take that you Chinese
(03:20):
instructions. That made no sense.
I did it. It was heavy and I had to make
some adaptations without the other recommended person being
available. It took me longer than it should
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have done, but I did my best andI made it work.
And we have had numerous successful meals at that table
today. But at the end of that hard,
heavy lifting job that was designed for more than one
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person, I ached. We often ache more than we
should when we find that we are trying to do something that is
more than a one person task. But so often we look at our lack
of resources and availability ofthings around us and we just got
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our head down and we do it anyway.
Ministry is not a one person task and many of us in this room
have got our head down and got on with it anyway.
And I want to applaud you for your accomplishments, but
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ministry was never designed to be a one person task.
And we're going to look at our key text together, Ephesians 4.
And as we look at this, we're going to see that ministry is
never designed to be a one person task.
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Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 13 says these words.
I therefore, the prisoner in theLord, beg you to lead a life
worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
I hope you know that you've beencalled by God, not just
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appointed by your denomination, not just given an opportunity in
your churches because there was a need that you met.
I hope you know that you that wethe Elam movement has been
called live your life worthy of this calling with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
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love. That makes it sound like we're
not going to naturally get on, turn to the person next to you,
say I'm going to bear with you this week and I'm just being
biblical. If the person who said that to
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you looked like they enjoyed it too much, turn back to them and
say it says in love verse 3 Making every effort, not most,
but every effort to maintain theunity of the Spirit.
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In the bond of peace there is one body and one Spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all
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and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore, it is said, when he ascended on high, he made
captivity itself a captive. He gave gifts to his people.
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When it says He ascended, what does it mean but that he had
also descended into the lowest parts of the earth?
He who descended is the same onewho ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things.
The gifts he gave were that somewould be apostles, some
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prophets, some evangelists, somepastors and teachers to equip
the Saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the
body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of the faith
(08:21):
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the
measure of the full stature of Christ.
This translation references the Saints.
Other translations reference building up the body of Christ.
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The focus is the Church. Everyone who has experienced the
saving knowledge of our gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to
be equipped. They are Saints to be equipped
to be a part of the team. Team Elim is not just those in
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this room. Team Elim is made-up of the
parts of all of the members of the churches across the nation
and across the globe. We're part of the team and we
are called as part of a team to play a part in that team.
But all too often we entertain the team.
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We encourage them towards faithful attendance rather than
equip them for works of service.All too often we've been happy
for people to give of their tithes and offerings in order so
that they may support us doing the work of the ministry.
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But ministry is not a one personjob, it requires A-Team.
The opening verses in Ephesians 4 are an appeal to the whole
church to be this team. Paul's audience was not an
individual, but it was a church community, and his calls for
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unity are a reminder that there would have been things present
which were likely to tempt them to be divided.
His call to the whole church were be humble, be gentle, be
patient, make allowances for oneanother's faults.
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Yes, you have them make every effort to be bound in unity and
peace. Although they were numerous and
diverse, they were one in Christand so are we.
Now we know that there were cultural differences in this
church between the Jews and the Gentiles, but are there any
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specific differences which Paul goes on to identify as he
appeals for this community to bear with each other, to be
patient, to be gentle, to be humble?
Is there something in Paul's sights that he is appealing?
That in the midst of all of these things you still need to
keep united? Then we read in his passage
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about the Ascension gifts, the going away present of Jesus to
the church. These are often referred to as
the fivefold gifts or graces. I'm going to use the term grace
because I think often when we use the word gift, it feels like
when I give someone a gift that it's now theirs.
Whereas grace has a sense that it's constantly being poured out
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by the giver. So the fivefold ministry graces
we're going to look at and we'regoing to use the an acronym
apest, which stands for Apostolic prophetic
evangelistic, they're the apes and then the shepherds and the
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teachers apest. These five apest graces are
given to the church as the goingaway present of Jesus, and they
distinctiveness and they differences are likely to cause
the body to need to make every effort to keep unity.
They require each person to showgentleness and humility towards
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one another. They can wind each other up.
They can see things differently.And the call for unity in this
text, among other reasons, wouldhave been because the
differences in these graces means that they don't
automatically attract to one another.
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But these graces are designed towork together.
Because ministry is not a one person job.
The expression of each of these graces can be very provocative
to the others. Each will understand what
success looks like in a different way.
How a shepherd defines success will be very different to how an
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Apostolic leader defines success, that they all have
different understandings of whatsuccess looks like, and we're
going to be looking at that thisweek.
Each of these graces will likelyhave a preference of how they
should respond in a given situation that might be very
different to the responses of the other graces.
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So if you don't make every effort to unite, you will
separate and turn ministry into a one person job.
And these are given to equip thebody, the Saints, the Church for
works of service, not to equip the Saint, but the Saints.
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And the Saints can only be fullyequipped when each of these
graces is fully active and aliveand at work.
We see these ascension graces atwork perfectly in our Saviour
Jesus. We see that there were times
when he was thoroughly Apostolicin his approach to the
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circumstances around him. We say there were times when he
was thoroughly prophetic in his response to situations.
We see that he was a wonderful evangelist that shared the life
of the good news of the Kingdom with people around him.
We see he's the Good Shepherd that knows how to lay down his
life for the sheep. And we see he was a rabbi, he
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was a teacher. Jesus manifest all of the these
graces, and as he was ascended to heaven, it was like he tore
himself into five parts and said, here you go, church.
But if we just present one of those graces, we don't present
the fullness of Christ. They're at work in us.
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They're a work through us. But all 5 can only fully operate
in the context of humble, gentle, patient unity.
Now there's a problem. When past conversations have
been attempted around this subject that is a very quickly
it feels like the conversation descends into a discussion about
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hierarchy, titles, and offices. This has caused the conversation
many times in the Western churchto fall down when no one can
agree on who's in charge. This has been a stumbling block,
I believe, to releasing something very beautiful in the
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church, namely a flow of these five graces coming together in
humility, gentleness, patience, and unity.
I believe when they come together, it's like the streams
begin to flow into a river and there's a current that comes on
the body of Christ. As all of these five graces
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learn to blend and learn to worktogether, I believe any one of
these graces can take a primary lead role within a church or
within the team, as long as thatgrace and the person stewarding
it recognizes and understands they need for others.
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If they take it and say I'm going to use the grace on my
life to do a job as one person, then it fails or you ache or you
miss the potential of what couldbe.
But when they flow together, there's something powerful that
happens. Now, one of the terminologies
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you hear this week is primary graces.
I believe there's a measure of all of these graces that are
present in every follower and believer in the Lord.
So for example, MY2 top primary graces would be the same as
Shireen, actually Apostolic and prophetic.
I find my instinct leads out of those two graces, but that does
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not give me an escape clause forevangelizing.
It does not give me an escape clause for loving people.
It does not give me an escape clause for teaching.
I'm meant to grow in all of these graces.
So this is not to put you or I into a box and say this is the
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only expression of your ministry.
But what this does, it recognises the primary grace
that may be on your life or graces that may be on your life,
which you know, just dominate the way that your leadership
instinct flows. Understanding these primary
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graces on our lives is so helpful when we come to steward
in them. It helps the stewardship of a
call of God that's on our life, that call that we are invited at
the beginning of this chapter tolive a life worthy of it.
It's helpful in understanding how we function and how people
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around us function so that we can join together.
Of course, we all learn ways of operating in all of these APES
graces and discovering our primary grace doesn't give us
the exemption. But if you try to do all 5 on
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your own, you might make a wobbly table, you might equip
some of the Saints. But I don't believe we will
fulfil the purposes of God through the body of Christ.
While you and I are called to grow in each of these apes
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graces, we function best when werecognize the primary grace that
flows in our lives and when we grow in its in application and
partnership within our life. And we also learned to partner
with those who've got complementary graces.
In advance of this conference, we've asked each of you to
complete a simple online assessment which helps you and
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me to discern what those primarygraces may be at work in each of
our lives. None of these graces have
greater value than any of the other.
They're all graces which come from Christ, None are more or
less important than others. They are all needed.
And if we are to present Christ in all its fullness, they all
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need to be worked at, to excel and to work together in gentle,
humble unity. Pentecostal churches in the UK
have for decades operated with astronger expectation that our
ministers would fulfil a shepherd teacher ministry.
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These are beautiful graces whichare so needed today in the body
of Christ. But over the last 20 years, I
think we've stopped talking about shepherds and teachers.
I think we've talked more about leaders.
And when you've come to conferences like this, we've
said, everybody, you're a leader.
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Now we're going to introduce a leader who's going to come and
share with you. But often the leaders that come
and speak at conferences usuallyhave quite an Apostolic gift and
ministry. They're people that, you know,
they took a church from 2:00 to 20,000 in three days.
You know, those sort of miracle stories, they were slightly late
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turn up because they just raiseda few people from the dead on
the way in and, and you're a leader.
They're a leader and they tell you how to lead better.
And you think I, I'm, I'm inspired by them.
I feel inspired by their story. I want to be like them.
In fact, if I want to be a more successful leader, I need to
begin to move in what they're moving in and we go away
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inspired. But if you're a shepherd and a
teacher, after a few months, youusually feel a bit of a failure
because the grace is different. Now.
We can be sharpened by their enthusiasm to break up and plow
up the ground, the fallow ground.
We can be inspired by that. But I want you to hear this
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really clearly. Shepherds in the room, we love
you and we need you. And you're going to hear voices
in this conference of shepherds speaking to shepherds teachers
in the room. And interesting in the feedback
from all of the apest assessments that you did, the
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predominant grace that that the one that is the runaway winner
of the graces that are present in our leadership and in this
room is the teaching grace. And we need the teaching grace
to be fully functioning life. But when we've used this term
leader, we've bundled it all together and it's not always
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enabled us to have a full appreciation of what God is
doing and wants to do through each of our lives.
You know, there is there's a possibility that all of these
graces through the story of the Church feel neglected in some
way. Certainly, I think in our
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inability or our reluctance to use the language of the
Apostolic and our caution aroundthe prophetic means that we have
not always enabled people who have those graces on their life
to feel like they're celebrated.We need everybody, Team Elim, we
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need you. There have been a number of
people who have written to me over the past few weeks and they
said, Mark, we're really sorry we can't come to Els this year.
And all really understandable reasons and I've written a
letter to thank them for lettingme know.
But I've usually included this line in there.
I do I really, we're going to miss you because you are like a
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piece of the Elim jigsaw. And I've not built many jigsaws
in my time, although I'm gettingto the age where we begin to
take them on holiday with us now.
But I'm not paying full price for jigsaws.
We get them from charity shops. It's always a bit risky, isn't
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it? It's the nearest danger we get
at our age now, isn't it? I will all the pieces be there?
But I know that when you've put together 999 pieces and you're
looking for that one, you look under the table, you're shaking
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the empty box, and in a way you don't really need it because you
can see on the front of the box what the complete picture looks
like. It's not like you're thinking, I
wonder what's in that space. But we're not happy with 999
pieces. We need them all.
Team Elim, you're needed. You have a unique shape and a
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unique piece. If we're going to see the
Kingdom of God advance in the years ahead, like I suspect the
Lord wants to advance through our churches and through our
ministries, we're going to need every piece fitted, connected,
and playing their part. There's no opt out clause here.
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There's no back row. There's no hiddenness to the
ministry on your life. We need you to know your shape,
we need you to know that you celebrate the shape.
We need you to know that we wantto connect with that shape, and
we need you to join together to see the purposes of God.
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So this week, we want to help you.
We want to help you understand the features of these graces and
how they work their way out in each of our lives.
We want to help you discern the primary graces at work in one
another. As you gain a more of an
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understanding of what these graces look like, then it will
help you know how you fit. We want to help you explore how
you can sharpen the stewardship of your graces.
Just because it says through an assessment that your primary
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grace is, for example, shepherd,doesn't mean to say you're a
Good Shepherd. It just means you've got a heart
of a shepherd. You might actually be a little
socially awkward. Your heart might be to go and
bless that person in the hospital bed and they might be
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thinking I'm glad he's gone. Because these graces need
stewarding. They need sharpening.
If you think I scored as an Apostolic leader, come on, give
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me these conference stages. None of you misunderstand it.
It's not that this grace is called high in your life.
It's like, how are you stewarding it?
How are you living a life worthyof the call?
That's on you. And we need to sharpen our
swords. We need to learn.
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I know some of you have found the assessment difficult because
you say I've been in ministry for years, I know what my life's
about. I have to confront you and say,
have you learned everything? Are you the complete picture?
Is there nothing else anybody can teach you?
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If, if that's true, then make sure the next few days you come
and repent at the front because I need to learn.
You need to learn. We all need to grow.
So let's become better at the graces, the primary graces in
our lives. Let's sharpen those things that
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the Lord has entrusted to us Now.
Also, I've observed that graces can be seasonal.
As I've mentioned, my 2 primary graces are Apostolic and
prophetic, and they've been fairly consistent throughout my
journey. But a number of years ago,
Nietzsche and I moved to a church that had been through a
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significant period of trauma. And the Lord spoke to me and he
said I don't want you to talk vision to this church for two
years. I just want you to love the
people. And it was like God put a cloak
of the shepherd grace around my life.
In fact, somebody came up to Nita after I'd been there about
a year and a half and said, yourhusband's not much of a
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visioner, is he? Like Nita was like, oh, you way
you way too. And and I was, I was chuffed
because I knew I'd obey the Lord, but he had graced me for
that season. So there can be some seasons.
And like all good football players, there have to be times
you play out of position. But it should not take you away
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from understanding the shape that God has called you to.
And we will explore how these graces can sharpen who we are
and also impact how we connect to those around us.
Because ministry is not a one person job, the manifestation of
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each grace. We need pioneering and
innovation, entrepreneurship, envisioning and breakthrough
that the Apostolic brings. We need that annealing.
We need the revealing of God's heart, the sensitivity to his
presence and His voice, and the call to intimacy that the
prophetic brings. We need that annealing.
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We need the outward focus, the prioritising of getting the
message of redemption out to those outside of the Christian
community. We need the evangelists.
We need the healing, the care and the peace and the life and
the well-being that the shepherds bring.
We need the clarity, the insight, the structure, the
transferable wisdom that the teachers bring.
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Each grace is needed, but each grace may be worked out in
different ways. For example, I met with someone
recently and they said the assessment said that I'm a
teacher, but I'm not a teacher. OK, let's unpack this together.
And by the way, the grace assessment is not the Bible.
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So if you disagree with it, whatis fun, just celebrate that it's
given you an opportunity to havea conversation to explore.
All right, you can disagree withit over the next few days.
You can go to streams for thingsthat are different to the
primary grace if you disagree with it.
So please don't feel intimidatedby what that assessment said.
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But on the whole, I find it pretty accurate.
But this person said, I'm a teacher, but I'm not a teacher.
So I asked him a question. I said, can you tell me what you
do for a living? He said.
I coach people on how to use IT.It's interesting.
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So am I right in thinking that you sit with someone who doesn't
know what they need to know about IT, you know what they
need to know, and so you teach them.
He goes, yeah, that's what I do.Do you think that you might be a
teacher? He said.
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I can't imagine ever standing atthe front of a church and doing
a Bible study. That's another expression of
teaching. Do you know, I'm so glad that
when I learned to drive, I wasn't in a class with 50 people
with a guy sat at the front teaching us how to drive.
I'm so glad he was sat. She was sat next to me in the
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car, coaching me, developing. There are many ways of teaching,
and we need them all. And there are various ways of
expressing all of these graces and gifts, and we need them all
this week. Not that the conversation is
wrong, but you won't hear us talking about titles or offices.
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We're concentrating on function,not title.
I don't mind what title I have, but I do mind whether I'm able
to flow in the function. The issue of titles have been a
stumbling block for years. So let's get over the stumbling
block and let's get to the real business.
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I believe this helps us develop a language, a language that can
be a significant help in the years that are ahead when we see
and understand the implication of these graces and how they
function and relate to each other.
A number of years ago we invitedan Apostolic leader.
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We often in the flow of our church will invite various
graces to come and minister and stir the church up because they
all bring something different. We don't just think, who do we
like to come and speak? We think, OK, they're Apostolic,
they're prophetic, they're evangelist, they shepherd their
teacher. Let's bring them in to stir up
the church. And we on this occasion brought
an Apostolic ministry in and it really brought an enormous
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blessing and encouragement, faith lift to the church.
Something of an awakening began to stir through his visit, which
was beautiful. Maybe the worship team want to
come and join me on the stage, if that's OK as well.
And I, I loved it because there was a resonance of the grace on
my life. But he said one thing that
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caused a little bit of controversy, and I don't want
you to hear what I'm about to say and say this is a principle.
I'm using it as an illustration to show something.
That's the next part of what I'mabout to share.
He said the Holy Spirit revealedto him that 30% of people who
died could be resurrected if someone had prayed with them.
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Now, as an Apostolic grace on mylife, I hear that and I'm
feeling challenged. I'm thinking, when was the last
time I prayed for someone who had died?
The prophetic people in our teamwas sat there thinking, I wish I
could hear God as crystal clear as that.
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The evangelist, they've done themorgue praying for people
already. They've gone.
They're out of the building. The shepherd, the shepherds,
they thinking about the six people sat behind us in the
congregation. You've lost loved ones in the
last six months and the guilt and the processing pain that
they're having over that. And the teachers are like, show
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me in here where it says 30%. Our team meeting was really
interesting that week because webuilt a culture of humility,
gentleness and bearing with one another.
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We all spoke about our reactionsto that and other moments over
the weekend. You see, I was right to feel
challenged about my faith of whoI'm praying for.
The prophetic were right to sense the stir of God within
them. The evangelists were right to
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get excited. The shepherds are right to be
grieved and mourn, and the teachers were right to say show
me the truth. And somewhere in that
conversation, we found each other and we found Jesus.
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Elim I know we've all got different styles, different
graces, different ways that we operate, but I really believe we
need each other. This, this movement doesn't need
an Apostolic leader. This movement needs the five
foot ministry functioning together with humility, grace
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and gentleness. That's what this movement needs.
And if we can, if we can appreciate the streams and come
together and present the fullness of Christ to this
world, I believe the current of that will cause a discipleship
revolution in our churches. I believe we'll look out at our
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congregations and we'll stop seeing them as people who can
get on rotors, and we'll start seeing them as people we can
release to the nations. I believe that we'll empower
ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
But it all starts with us recognizing that we're not in
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this to be superheroes. We're in this to raise up
heroes. Let's pray together.
As we join together this week toaffirm one another, I pray
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there'll be much patience, humility, and grace in our
conversations. I pray that we'll all be
strengthened in the graces at work in our lives.
Let's be creative in how we can create the flow of grace one to
another. Some of you leading as shepherds
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will notice that your church might feel a little stagnant.
It's not because you've failed. It's because you've done your,
you've carried out your ministryreally well.
But it's stagnant because you need others because this is not
a one person job. Now I know you're not going to
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be able to employ others on yourteam, and that's not what I'm
talking of. But maybe an Elim colleague 20
miles away has an Apostolic racethat could come and spend the
morning with you and your eldersand stir you up.
Maybe the prophetic leader leading the church where it all
feels a little vulnerable. Maybe they can bring a shepherd
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in to spend some time with theirelders to look on how to create
safe, loving, compassionate environments.
We need each other. So Lord Jesus, I ask that you
will open our hearts. In the name of Jesus we pray and
all God's people said, Amen. Let's stand together as we sing
(39:22):
our final song.
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