Message: In Ephesians 4 Paul was talking about the unity of the body of Christ and reminds the church (and us) to “walk worthy of the call” and diligently keep the unity. He reminded them that there is one body and one spirit just like there is one hope, one faith and one baptism. I’ve read this plenty of times and it seems so simply spelled out, but this time I speculated to myself why he would throw in that reminder. It only took a minute or so to think about all the people who have self-appointed and tried to start their own ministry. My personal struggle is to get so caught up in my vertical relationship with God that I leave out people. It’s so easy to convince ourselves that our relationship is just ourselves and God. While that’s true of our accountability, it doesn’t work this way because God designed us to need each other and to serve together. This chapter introduces the fivefold ministry of apostle, prophet, pastor teacher and evangelist. These aren’t alternatives to all of the “helps” ministries. They are in addition to them. Ephesians 4 tells us these gifts were intended to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” I think this word “ministry” is often misinterpreted because we tend to believe it’s attached to a church title. The reality is we are all called to ministry and that ministry is not official at all. It is our influence on the people around us on a regular basis. We are all teaching something. We are either influencing people in a positive, empowering direction, or we are leading people with our negative attitude. We can’t turn this on and off as we please. Every moment is a teaching moment. The question is what are we teaching, and are people drawing closer to God because of us or are we repelling them with a toxic lead attitude? As much as I try to be conscious of leading well, I find it so easy to slip into a negative mindset. My challenge to myself is to identify the attitude within myself and make intentional “u-turns” in my attitude when I see it going south.
