The Fivefold Ministry Gifts — Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher

When people hear the term ‘minister’ they naturally think of a pastor, a minister who oversees a local assembly, but pastoring is only one of the five ministerial gifts in the body of Christ. This can be observed in this passage:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

While these five ministry gifts are distinguished, they have the same general purpose:

To equip or prepare people for works of ministry
To build up the body of Christ and the members thereof (not tear them down)
To facilitate a spirit of unity in the faith and knowledge of the Lord (as opposed to a spirit of rigid sectarianism)
To help believers grow spiritually, not stagnate and become lifeless legalists
To help believers attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (as opposed to a quarter measure or half measure)

Needless to say, every servant-leader — whether apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher — needs to make sure they’re fulfilling these purposes and not doing the opposite.

To accomplish their mission, all fivefold ministers naturally need to (1) know and walk with the LORD and (2) know God’s Word, not to mention be able to teach or preach it. Teaching is careful instruction whereas preaching is proclamation in an exhortative sense (you can read details here).

It goes without saying that (1) knowing God and (2) knowing God’s Word are both mandatory for servant-leaders in the body of Christ for obvious reasons (Luke 13:24-27, Matthew 7:15-23 & 1 Corinthians 4:6). Speaking of servant-leaders…

**Fivefold Ministers Are to Be Servant-Leaders, Not Domineering Authoritarians**

Believers with one or more of the fivefold ministry gifts are called to be servant-leaders in the body of Christ. They’re leaders, no doubt, but their style of leadership is servant-oriented rather than authoritarian. The Lord made this clear:

Jesus called them [the disciples] together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:25-28

The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:11-12

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Mark 9:33-35

The word ‘minister’ literally means “servant” and so fivefold ministers are to minister with a servant’s heart. This isn’t to say, of course, that ministers have to be perpetually sugary sweet as there’s a time and place for tough love, like when Paul openly corrected Peter for his legalism (Galatians 2:11-14) or when Jesus boldly cleared the temple of fools (Mark 11:15-18) or when Peter powerfully reprimanded a sorcerer in Samaria (Acts 8:9-24).

Fivefold Ministers Are to Build Believers Up, Not Tear Down

We saw above that fivefold ministers are “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-13). In other words, genuine ministers (and believers in general) are to overflow with life, not death. Why? Because we’re children of God and the LORD is the Fountain of Life (Psalm 36:9). This explains Christ’s prime directive: to give people life and life to the full, not death (John 10:10).

This isn’t to suggest, of course, that there’s no place for denouncing sins and encouraging repentance when ministering. Skilled ministers who are led of the Spirit will bring about a spirit of repentance through the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:1-4), but will also remove the burden of guilt, instill the Lord’s peace and motivate individuals onward. In other words, even though they denounce sin and spur repentance, their ministry is encouraging and inspiring. This is the minister’s job.

A good example of this can be seen in Jesus after his resurrection. Christ appeared to two of the disciples who were understandably discouraged because of his unjust crucifixion. The Messiah met up with them as they were walking along the road and they talked for a bit, but they were somehow prevented from recognizing him. After the Messiah departed, the two disciples reflected on the encounter: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

This is the effect Christ-like ministers should have on believers. You know you’re at a healthy assembly when you leave a service with your heart burning with inspiration and you see things in God’s Word you never saw before. By contrast, if you leave a fellowship feeling beat up, burdened and condemned it’s not a good sign. It indicates that the minister officiating that particular service has fallen prey to a form of legalism and has become spiritually toxic. This spirit of condo is at odds with the true ministerial spirit, which Paul summed up when he spoke of the authority ministers have for building believers up and not tearing them down (2 Corinthians 10:8 & 13:10).

You can read more about the arrogant spirit of condemnation & authoritarianism here.

So what distinguishes these five ministerial gifts — apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher? Let’s look at each one in general terms (a Scripture-based book could easily be written about each one):

Apostle

The word ‘apostle’ is apostolos (ah-POS-tol-os) in the original Greek, which means “one sent on a mission with a message.” Of course all disciples of Christ have this mission as the Lord instructed his disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). But apostles like Paul and John had an anointing to go out and start assemblies, as well as oversee them. In order to start fellowships, an apostle obviously has to have the gift of pastoring.

A good modern example of an apostle is this powerful minister in my area who started a very successful fellowship, which then sprouted satellite fellowships all over the area. He eventually stopped pastoring the main assembly and now has the position of “bishop” and oversees all of these assemblies (we’ll look at the term bishop in a little bit). This certainly sounds like operating in the gift of an apostle, doesn’t it?

Paul also said that a true apostle is marked by “signs, wonders and miracles” (2 Corinthians 12:12). But this might be hard to come by in these days of gross unbelief, although I’ve seen modern apostles minister in this capacity; they’re out there.

If there are “true apostles” there are also “false apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). I once met a joyless, stern believer who insisted on being addressed as “Apostle Harrad” at all times even though he wasn’t remotely an apostle in any biblical sense.

How much of the above has to be relevant for a believer to be considered a true apostle? They’d have to:

Have a drive for reaching people and starting new fellowships,
Oversee several assemblies (at least more than one),
Have an anointing with the laying on of hands. (If you’re not familiar with the doctrine of laying on of hands, see this article and scroll down to the section, The Laying on of Hands, which is the 4^th doctrine of Christianity).

Prophet

‘Prophet’ in the Greek is prophétés (prah-FAY-tus) which means “an interpreter or forth-teller of the divine will.” Please don’t confuse this wonderful gift with that of an occultist fortune teller.

The prophetic word is encouraging and is able to touch believers in that specific area where they need ministered. For example, Acts 15:32 says, “Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.” This is the purpose of the prophetic gift in the Church and reveals why it is so necessary — it encourages and strengthens believers. The original Greek word for ‘encourage’ in this passage means “to cause to move forward.” In other words, a prophetic word will inspire believers and provoke them to go forward and fulfill God’s call on their lives. This shows that prophets are more preachers than teachers. They see things in the spirit realm and proclaim God’s will that’s applicable to the situation or person, but they don’t go into scriptural details on doctrine, like a teacher would.

Have you ever been in the spiritual doldrums where you’re not necessarily walking in sin, but you just seem to lack that spiritual drive and passion for the Lord and your calling? The gift of prophecy has the ability to wake believers from such doldrums and spark them onward! It’s an awesome gift and a needed gift. As such, the office of the prophet should be valued and esteemed in the Church. Unfortunately, too many assemblies and sects are ignorant of it or, for various reasons, the gift lies dormant, which we’ll address later.

I’d like to offer a recent example of how a Spirit-anointed prophetic word can encourage the believer: I was discouraged about what was happening in the political realm recently after reading the Eeyore-like commentaries of a couple of ministers who, while certainly respectable and gifted as teachers, lack prophetic insight. Listening to them produced the vibe of “Woe are we as a nation; our sins have brought doom despite the millions upon millions of sincere, fruit-bearing saints in Christ and their many prayers.” I then exposed myself to four mighty men & women of God who flowed in the prophetic word. Unlike the other two downbeat ministers, these prophets inspired and encouraged. This isn’t to say, by the way, that there isn’t a time & place for a sobering prophetic correction from the Lord, like Christ did with the Laodicean assembly (Revelation 3:17).

While the word of prophecy is important and necessary in the Church this does not condone the abuse of this gift/office where people are made to feel like they’re in bondage to a prophetic word that may be off or even completely wrong. Nor does it condone the dictatorial antics of prophets who think their prophecies are the inerrant Word of God which must be blindly accepted and obeyed to the letter. The origin of this abusive error is this: confusing the New Testament prophet with the Old Testament prophet. These two types of biblical prophets are very different. The primary purpose of the Old Testament prophet was to lead and guide Israel through the Word of the LORD and, in fact, a lot of their words became Holy Scripture and are included in what we know today as the Old Testament. Jesus Christ was the last person to operate in the anointing of an Old Testament prophet (Hebrews 1:1-2) and, in fact, he was The Prophet that the Hebrews were waiting for almost 1500 years (Deuteronomy 18:15, John 6:14 & 7:40).

The New Testament prophet is different. The gift of prophecy was not given to the body of Christ for the purpose of leading and guiding God’s people, as was the case in the Old Testament, because believers are born-again spiritually and have the Holy Spirit within them for this very purpose. As Jesus said, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John16:13). Since it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to guide believers in the New Testament era, we don’t need the gift of prophecy for this function. So when a prophet prophesies over you and says you’re to do this or that or go here or there, don’t receive it unless the Spirit has already been leading you in this direction. In other words, prophecies in the New Testament are to confirm what the Holy Spirit has already been leading you to do. You could say it’s an external source to confirm or compliment the believer’s internal source of direction from God. This explains why Paul instructed believers to test prophecies and “hold on to the good,” which means to eat the meat and spit out the bones (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). Nowhere are we instructed to blindly accept a prophecy spoken over us. For important details see this article.

Evangelist

‘Evangelist’ in the Greek is euaggelistés (yoo-ang-ghel-is-TAYS), which means “a bringer of good news.” Like prophets, they’re preachers and not teachers. They proclaim by unction the truths of the gospel and the Word of God in general, but they’re not effective at detail-oriented teaching. Many hardcore missionaries would be examples of fivefold evangelists (by ‘hardcore’ I mean those believers who function as missionaries in a vocational sense as opposed to those who flirt with missionary work for relatively short periods of time). While euaggelistés only appears three times in the Greek scriptures, the verb form, euaggelizó (yoo-ang-ghel-ID-zoh), appears 54 times.

Evangelists can certainly minister to believers at revivals and what have you, but their drive & focus is reaching the lost with the life-changing Good News of the message of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

I knew a pastor who simultaneously had the gift of an evangelist, which was also the case with Timothy (2 Timothy 4:5). This particular pastor wasn’t good at teaching, although — as a pastor — he was gifted at overseeing an assembly and could preach. But I saw him at an evangelical service and he was exceptional at preaching the gospel and inspiring people to turn to the Lord in repentance and faith (Acts 20:21). This shows that fivefold ministers can have more than one of the fivefold gifts. A good example from Scripture is Paul, who was both a teacher and an apostle (2 Timothy 1:11).

Like apostles and prophets, evangelists in the New Testament were known to flow in the gifts of the Spirit, such as Philip (Acts 8:4-7, 8:26-40 & 21:8).

Pastor

The word ‘pastor’ comes from the Greek poimén (poy-MAYN) meaning “shepherd,” whether literally in reference to a shepherd of sheep (Luke 2:8) or figuratively in the sense of someone overseeing a flock of people. In the latter sense, Christ is the “Good Shepherd” of the Church (John 10:11,14,27) while fivefold ministers with the gift of pastoring are under-shepherds, as observed in this passage:

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ²Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; ³not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

1 Peter 5:1-4

Peter is an elder and an apostle and he is addressing elders here, but specifically pastors, as shown in verse 2 (the word ‘shepherds’ in the original Greek is the verb form of poimén). In verse 4 he notes the Chief Shepherd, Christ, which shows that pastors are under-shepherds, accountable to the Lord.

Verses 2-3 convey Peter’s six instructions to pastors:

“Shepherd God’s flock that is under your care,” which is phrased in the KJV as “Feed the flock of God” (1 Peter 5:2) and this corresponds to what Christ instructed Peter (John 21:15-17). Making sure the believers under their care are spiritually fed is the number one duty of pastors, which includes exposing them to the ministry of other fivefold ministers now & then so that they’ll be “fully equipped for every good work” (Ephesians 4:12). Feeding believers the word of God is called “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:1-4). Notice, by the way, that those believers under the pastor’s care are called “God’s flock.” In other words, believers in the worldwide Church are God’s sheep, not the pastor’s sheep. The pastor merely shepherds certain believers for the period of time they are under that pastor’s care, which isn’t determined by the pastor, but by the believer (hopefully led of the Holy Spirit).
“Watch over” those believers that are under your care, which means oversee. This means to supervise or manage the believers under the pastor’s care, but it doesn’t mean to tyrannically dominate them in an authoritarian sense. The passage says that pastors are to serve as “overseers” and not lord it over believers, which are “God’s flock.” In light of this, whatever else ‘oversee’ means, we can be sure that it does not mean to lord it over people (more on this momentarily).
Don’t pursue dishonest gain, which means don’t be greedy.
Be eager to serve rather than begrudgingly serve. If a fivefold minister cannot pastor people with gratefulness and enthusiasm he should do something else in God’s service.
Don’t “lord it over” those entrusted to you, which means don’t be a pompous authoritarian. Pastors who lord it over those in their assemblies try to control or subjugate them in the sense of being the ultimate authority (except that they aren’t the ultimate authority, God is). If you’re a pastor, please don’t do this; serve with a loving, humble servant’s heart. Anyone functioning in the office of pastor who cannot do this needs to find another way to serve the LORD.
Be examples to “the flock” in all you say and do. This shows that ministry isn’t just about “the ministry of the Word of God” (Acts 6:1-4), but also actually walking with the Lord and walking in newness of life. In short, it’s not just talking the talk, it’s walking the walk. Talk is cheap.

When the elders of the church of Ephesus met Paul in Miletus, he instructed them to “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds [pastors] of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). This shows that elders (presbuteros), overseers (episkopos) and pastors (poimén) are synonymous in the New Testament. In other words, they refer to the same office, although “elder” could refer to another fivefold minister; for instance, the apostle John was nicknamed “the elder” when he was mature in years (2 John 1:1 & 3 John 1:1). (A nickname is a nickname, not a title; for instance, one pastor I knew was called Butch, even though his name was Bob). Also, an overseer could refer to an apostle since apostles start out as pastors and eventually oversee several churches. Even prophets, evangelists and teachers are overseers of the inner circle of their ministries.

Ideally, those effective elders in the Church who preach and teach should be paid (1 Timothy 5:17). Although fivefold ministers might have to take up secular work to pay the bills, which is what Paul occasionally did with tentmaking (Acts 18:3-5).

As noted earlier, all fivefold ministers must know the Word of God and be able to teach or preach so that the body of Christ is fed & exhorted spiritually at services. Pastors also have to have a gift to oversee an assembly of believers (apostles too, obviously). I’ve been to some assemblies where the pastors are outstanding at teaching God’s Word, which means carefully explaining topics in an insightful, inspiring manner. However, I’ve been to other fellowships where the pastors aren’t good at teaching, although they can preach and, like all genuine pastors, are good at overseeing a group of believers.

Obviously pastors who are also exceptional at teaching God’s Word have the fivefold gift of a teacher. Pastors who aren’t gifted at teaching are obviously going to have to enlist the services of fivefold teachers at their assemblies in order to effectively feed God’s sheep in their midst. Speaking of teachers…

Teacher

‘Teacher’ in the Greek is didaskalos (di-DAS-kal-os), which simply means “instructor.” Fivefold teachers have the anointing to carefully explain the Holy Scriptures in an understandable, enlightening way. They make the Scriptures come alive for their hearers/readers and help them to see things in God’s Word they’ve never seen before. They give structure to knowledge and their potent insights often result in believers thinking, “I’ve never heard this, but it makes total sense. Where did the minister get this?!” This is the reaction people had to Christ when he taught (Mark 6:2). It is teaching from the Scriptures that feeds people spiritually (Matthew 4:4).

Fivefold teachers differ from pastors (and apostles) in that they don’t have the gift to oversee people. I’m a fivefold teacher. I have the gift to teach believers, but not oversee them. To be an effective pastor you have to want to watch over people. I have no such desire. I operate in the ministry of the word (Acts 6:1-4) and pray for my hearers/readers and then it’s in the Spirit’s hands, as well as the hands of their local pastor.

I should point out that there is such a thing as a body teacher in the Church (Romans 12:6-8). Such believers have a gift to teach in the body of Christ, but they lack the anointing of a fivefold teacher. These may be fivefold teachers in seedling form, although not necessarily. In other words, as they grow spiritually the LORD will eventually lead them into the fivefold ministry. That’s what happened with me.

One pastor I know taught that fivefold teachers usually focus on one topic and teach it wherever they minister. This, of course, enables them to become experts at teaching that particular subject. This is not wholly accurate. Teachers are typically well-studied on myriad of topics — hundreds actually — and can effectively teach them all. However, a teacher may be led by the Spirit to focus on one particular topic and serve people accordingly. For instance, I know a fulltime minister who has about 75 gigs a year and he sticks to one basic topic with four sermons within that context, which means he’d have to be scheduled at the same assembly four times before even considering coming up with something different. Needless to say, if a minister sticks to one topic and four sermons within that topic, they’ll get good at it.

The Fivefold Ministry Offices

So there you have it, the five biblically-based servant-leadership positions in the Church — apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.

In many camps, only the offices of the evangelist, pastor and teacher are active. The other two are pretty much dormant. They might have apostles in some partial form, albeit under a different name and usually minus signs and wonders (2 Corinthians 12:12). Meanwhile they omit the prophet office altogether. Some of these sects justify this due to their adherence to the erroneous doctrine of cessationism, the belief that the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) ceased by the end of the 1^st Century when the last of the original Church apostles passed away, including Paul. If there are no gifts of the Spirit then obviously the apostle cannot function in signs and wonders and the prophet cannot prophesy, which would make these gifts inoperable and irrelevant.

You can search in vain throughout all the above New Testament passages, but you’ll find no statement where the Spirit-led writers of the Scriptures say something like: “However, the positions of the apostle and prophet will only last a little while longer — till the end of this century — then they will cease, along with the nine gifts of the Spirit.” On the contrary, believers are encouraged to “eagerly desire” spiritual gifts, as shown in 1 Corinthians 12:1, 31, 14:1, 39, which would include the gift of personal tongues, otherwise known as glossolalia (gloss-ah-LAY-lee-ah). Paul emphasized eagerly desiring — pursuing — the “greater gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31). What is the greater gift? Simply the specific gift that’s needed at the time!

Think about it, the religious doctrine of cessationism encourages believers to do the precise opposite of what the New Testament Scriptures actually instruct us to do. It encourages believers to eagerly deny spiritual gifts when God’s Word encourages us to eagerly desire them!

That said, while cessationism is a false doctrine, it’s not an issue of eternal salvation. If a believer or sect embraces this doctrine it doesn’t mean that they’re not a fellow believer, loved by the Lord. It just means their faith — their belief level based on the false doctrine of cessationism — won’t allow them to eat everything the gospel of Christ has to offer; in this case, spiritual gifts and the blessings thereof. (Romans 14:1-6). Those of us with fuller understanding are not to look down on those with the lesser because it would be arrogant. Similarly, the one with the lesser revelation must not condemn the one with the fuller. On the contrary, we are to “accept one another… just as Christ accepted [us], in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7). You could insert any non-essential doctrine or issue into this scenario and it would apply.

What’s in a Name?

As suggested earlier, anyone who functions in one of these five ministry positions — apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher — could also be called an elder and, in some cases, an overseer. The Greek word for ‘overseer’ (episkopos) is also translated as ‘bishop’ in some English versions of the Bible, such as the KJV. A bishop in the Church is a fivefold minister who oversees a group of subordinate believers.

During my formative years as a young Christian, the assembly that I was involved with embraced these five biblical terms for the offices of servant-leaders. I think it’s best to stick to biblical terminology since the Holy Scriptures are our basis for doctrinal truth and practice (1 Corinthians 4:6 & 2 Timothy 3:16). However, if a camp/sect/assembly chooses to use a different term for a fivefold minister — whether the minister is called to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher — it would not change the fact that that minister functions within the position of one of these five offices. Are you following? In short, it’s nothing worth arguing about.

Fivefold Ministers, Great and Small

Fivefold ministers can be great or small and it doesn’t change the fact that they are indeed a fivefold minister, whether an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. For instance, there are pastors in the body of Christ who shepherd a dozen believers and there are pastors who shepherd hundreds or thousands, but they’re both pastors.

‘Official’ Ministers and Independent Ministers

It should be pointed out that there are official and independent fivefold ministers in the body of Christ. Official ministers are those who function within the structure of a particular camp/sect/denomination. These ministers receive their credentials through schools in these groups and largely function within their camp. In most cases they only function within their camp. To one degree or another, their allegiance is to their sect and their human overseers thereof, but hopefully to God & the Holy Scriptures first and foremost.

Independent ministers, by contrast, function outside of sectarian tags even if they might get their human credentials through a particular group or via a school that serves Christians from several sects that operate under the banner of, say, Evangelicals. Of course, some genuine independent ministers don’t have proper public credentials at all, but neither did Christ or the original apostles; the latter simply walked with the Lord and were anointed of God.

Official ministers are generally reliable sources of Christian ministry, depending on how biblically-based their sect is, but they’re naturally prone to the flaws of their camp, whatever those might be. In cases where the Scriptures clearly don’t agree with a particular doctrine or practice of their sect, they’ll likely side with their group above the Scriptures since it’s convenient and that’s where they get their bread & butter, so to speak, not to mention their position/recognition. Few official ministers are willing to risk losing these things, although Martin Luther did so when he boldly posted the 95 theses on the Wittenberg Door and eventually split from the Catholic sect.

Another downside of ministers functioning solely within the framework of a particular sect is that they can become spiritually inbred with the corresponding rigid sectarianism. Their ministry — e.g. their sermons — are prone to cop a “same old, same old” vibe with little freshness. As a result, they can become uninspiring.

The strength of independent ministers is that they’re less interested in the official doctrines/practices of a particular sect and more interested in what the God-breathed Scriptures actually teach. They can shake things up for believers in a positive way. It goes without saying that receiving from independent ministers can be refreshing and invigorating. Actually, the Word of God and anointed ministers should always shake us up in a positive manner (I’m obviously not talking about abusive non-ministry tactics, like a wicked spirit of condemnation, which sucks the life out of believers). The potential weakness of such ministers is that their quirks and lack of strong governing structure can lead them astray into dubious doctrines/practices. However, any minister that simply sticks to the rightly-divided Word of God will avoid this pitfall.

You can read more about official ministers and independent ministers here.

The Fivefold Ministry Gifts Are God-Given Gifts or Positions/Offices, Not Titles

One last should be emphasized: The five ministry gifts are just that, gifts. They’re God-given talents which enable members of the Church to fulfill the leadership position/office in question, small or great. However, they are not personal titles since there is no indication in the Scriptures of any fivefold minister being referred to with such a title, like Apostle Jones or Pastor Jim.

For instance, Paul continually acknowledged his office of apostle (Romans 1:1, 1 Corinthians 1:1, 2 Corinthians 1:1, Ephesians 1:1, 1 Timothy 1:1, etc.), but he was simply addressed as Paul or “brother Paul” (2 Peter 3:15). Meanwhile Peter was called Peter, John was called John and so on (Galatians 2:6-9). This is the example set for us in the blueprint of Holy Scripture and is in line with what the Lord instructed regarding titles (Matthew 23:7-11).

In short, the fivefold ministry gifts are not and never were meant to be titles in the Church for ministers. If Paul & the other great fivefold ministers in the New Testament are secure enough in their relationship with God and their calling to be addressed simply by name, so can ministers since that time, including today.

The reason I bring this topic up is because the “title syndrome” can get pretty eye-rolling and it smacks of the flesh since it’s obviously centered around ego. For instance, I was at a church dinner where the pastor corrected his own mother for not addressing him with the title of Pastor. Seriously?

That said, if a fivefold minister wants to insist on a title, particularly for those under them in the Lord, that’s their call. What’s it to me? However, they should not expect believers who know what the Scriptures plainly teach on this topic to do so.

If you desire more scriptural proof on the irrelevance of personal titles in the Church, see this article.