Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. The Urgent Need for Diverse Church Leadership Gifts
3. Consequences for Neglecting the Teacher Gift
4. Notes

Introduction

Our aim should always be to grow in our ability to hear the voice of the Lord through Scripture and through the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is gaining momentum along with the fastest growing Christian movement in the world, which is charismatic/pentecostal. More conservative churches tend to emphasize knowledge of Scripture more than prophecy, or don’t believe that prophecy is for today (which is against the teaching of Scripture!) or that we don’t need it.

There is a spiritual battle over the gift of prophecy, and it shouldn’t surprise us. It is arguably the most important spiritual gift, as we will see in the next article in this series. But prophecy is not an end in itself, but rather is meant to cultivate relationship with the Lord. Scripture provides the foundation for walking in the gift of prophecy, but most of the time churches do not properly balance Scripture and the supernatural gifts, and therefore God’s authority in the life of the church is limited. The Lord deeply desires to be heard accurately through Scripture and prophecy. We are in spiritual danger if we do not honor God’s word, and we also forfeit wonderful gifts and spiritual life from the Lord. The purpose of these articles is to describe the proper balance in both charismatic churches (who tend to emphasize the gift of prophecy) and more conservative christian churches (who tend to emphasize Scripture and/or tradition). Even those who have attempted a proper balance may say they have a proper balance, but usually it is not the case.

The Urgent Need for Diverse Church Leadership Gifts

In my American context, most evangelical charismatic Christians have come out of churches that define spiritual maturity in terms of intellectual knowledge of the Bible; if you go to seminary and get a degree, usually you are automatically qualified to be a pastor. The charismatic movement in America has often begun in these types of churches bringing powerful renewal, which has been indispensable for the call to disciple nations.

After being in the charismatic movement in different parts of the world for many years, I have begun to notice an overreaction to intellectual head knowledge, but this is to be expected. Most churches that experience renewal might have been steeped in environments that define maturity as primarily brain-based knowledge of Scripture, and the reaction is also against a poisonous religious pride that can attach itself to dogmatic churches. An overreaction to intellectual rigor may not be obvious at first in charismatic churches, but it is most noticeable when people ask tough theological questions, and in organizational leadership decisions. For example, many mainline charismatic churches do not stress the importance of the teaching gift. It is often the more apostolic, prophetic, or evangelistic gifts that are given the most focus. This might seem like a negative indictment, but I actually see this trajectory as an indispensable shift towards maturity. We will discuss the different church leadership gifts later, but the Scriptures show us that apostolic and prophetic leaders are the foundation of the church and new works for God, and also help purify existing spiritual structures. In fact, there is not one “pastor” named in the NT, but only apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers (see also Eph. 4:11).

While the apostolic/prophetic shift is indispensable, shifts toward maturity tend to unintentionally leave important things behind in order to move forward, and this is a common aspect of growing in Christ. When the Lord corrects or refines us sometimes we leave behind good things, only to pick them up later with a new and sanctified perspective. The Lord will lead us to the middle of the path of life, but there are usually two ditches on either side. Sometimes we will swing from one side to the other as we grow. But so far, I’m not sure the charismatic movement has decided to pick back up the role of “teacher” that it has in some ways left behind. I believe the result of this is an inhibited ability to hear the voice of the Lord, slowing down the movement, and making the “sharpness” of the sword blunted. Iron sharpens iron, but the less iron you have to work with, the the slower you will be able to sharpen your sword.

Paul mentioned that the Lord gave specific leadership gifts to the church: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers…” (Eph. 4:11, ESV). In most churches, rarely are all 5 of these gifts functioning. They are almost always present, however. As we will see later, the Scriptural tradition connects the “teacher” gift to the “scribe” or “expert in the law”; the modern day equivalent would be the biblical scholar and/or theologian, but probably more so the biblical scholar. ¹ Insofar as the charismatic movement leaves this gift behind, there will be blind spots and handicaps that hinder forward movement. I also think that each of these leadership gifts (apostle, prophet, etc.) are not really a single spiritual gift, but rather describing a set of gifts, strengths, and perspectives. So I think the danger of leaving one gift behind is that it’s also leaving behind valuable strengths and perspectives that can propel the mission of the church forward.

Consequences for Neglecting the Teacher Gift

People who need intellectually gifted teachers will be left behind. The most influential people in our culture today are usually intellectuals. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, and entrepreneurs often have advanced critical thinking skills. Some of these people need to be witnessed to with intellectual arguments in addition to the power of the gospel. If we are to become all things to all people as Paul was, and reach every sector of society for Christ, we will need to get on their level, which requires leveling up critical thinking skills and paying attention to apologetics and intellectual arguments.

Some charismatics might object that signs and wonders should be enough; we don’t need intellectual arguments. I’m largely in agreement here, because I would prefer to demonstrate signs and wonders to someone first rather than try to convince them of a logical argument. But signs and wonders are not always enough. I know of one gifted apostolic leader whose faith in Christ was saved because of a theologian’s apologetics ministry, ² even though this leader had already had profound supernatural experiences with God and seen signs and wonders happen. There are contexts where even signs and wonders are not enough for people to be convinced. ³ Ultimately, Jesus said that the world would come to believe in him because of our love, and the two tools of signs and wonders and intellectual arguments are ultimately tools for demonstrating love. We should focus on whatever it takes to love people into the kingdom. Teachers provide the grace needed for growing intellectually. Critical thinking skills and apologetics training will always deeply strengthen the faith of all types of people.

Teaching and prophetic anointing can remain limited at best, false prophecies and teaching go unchallenged at worst. There is rarely a culture set of open and honest communication for prophetic words or teaching to be challenged. One example of this particularly in the charismatic movement is speaking in tongues at church. Paul explicitly taught that if a gathering of believers may have non-believers present, everybody should not be speaking in tongues. But I have been in numerous charismatic/pentecostal churches where speaking in tongues corporately is a normal practice! I have rarely seen this practice challenged on the grounds that it goes against Scripture. In more conservative churches, teachers might insulate themselves from being challenged by their organizational setup or something else (although this admittedly can happen in any church context).

Modern unaccountable “prophets” have foretold events that never come to pass, which non-believers and believers scorn. Imagine if every charismatic church actually followed what Paul taught about prophecies, to “…test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess. 5:20-21, NRSVUE). Because there is not a strong “testing” culture and an environment that encourages and invites feedback, prophetic anointing becomes limited. The more people prophesy wrongly and weirdly, it makes it hard for people to “…not despise prophecies”! (1 Thess. 5:20, ESV).⁴ That is, the more people give sloppy prophecy, the more people become jaded and dismissive of it, both inside and outside the Church. This is playing directly into the hand of the enemy. The antidote would be to respect Paul’s advice to “test everything”. Prophetic leaders should intentionally create an environment where their words are tested, and those they teach to do the same. In fact, every person giving a prophetic word should test their own prophetic words! The more we can test prophetic words, the more we can grow in the gift, and also maintain a positive reputation for the gospel.

Neglecting one gift may produce limited understanding of identity and maturity. Each of the 4 “gifts of Christ” from Ephesians 4:11 are meant for every believer to be equipped for service. But Paul doesn’t stop there, he gives the Lord’s intended purpose for each of these gifts: “…so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.” (Eph. 4:12-13, emphasis mine). Each leadership type is absolutely necessary. But what might be often overlooked is how each leadership type actually brings maturity. For example, someone with a prophetic leadership call might have a call to bring God’s justice to the poor and afflicted of the world. Apostolic leaders don’t just plant churches, but they are usually evangelistic, and have strategic vision for forward movement. Shepherds might have a unique grace from God to walk people through difficult situations, and demonstrate a heightened ability to empathize with others. Evangelists aren’t just good at sharing the gospel, they also are usually filled with a high level of compassion for people who don’t know Jesus, and are better at loving them than others. Each gift manifests the love of God.

But these gifts are all meant for us all so that we all become mature so that we become like Christ “to the whole measure”! Everyone should be apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teacher-oriented. This flies in the face of the common organizational leadership culture in the business world that suggests everyone should just focus on their strengths. We are not called to become the full potential of our strengths, we are called to become like Christ, who Scripture calls an apostle (Heb. 3:1), prophet (Mk. 6:4), shepherd (Jn. 10:11), ⁵ and teacher (Jn. 13:13). While never called an “evangelist” explicitly, the core of Jesus’ ministry was proclaiming the good news and he understood his identity this way (Lk. 4:16-21). Every believer is called to become like Christ in each of these ways. Individual strengths are not the focus, becoming like Christ is. Even when Paul recognizes that every person does have unique gifts, he commands them still to desire the “greater gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31). Our gift set is not meant to be understood as unchanging and set in stone, but as tools for loving God and neighbor. We will see later how Scripture does not view these gifts as permanent identities, but as tools.

Experiences with God can be narrowly defined, which can limit people’s relationship with the Lord. While never said explicitly, the general attitude and teaching in the charismatic world can imply that experience with God is primarily feeling-based; it is almost never defined in intellectual terms. It is as if all experiences with God must involve heightened feelings. Rarely is scholarly study of Scripture seen as an activity of the Spirit, vs. “getting a revelation” or “getting slain”. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been “slain” in the Spirit many times, and it is a wonderful experience that has strengthened and transformed me! I’ve also gotten a lot of “new revelation” through prayer and talking with God. But I’ve also gotten “new revelation” by listening to biblical scholars who are a lot smarter than I am, and have literally given their lives to the study of Scripture.

While most charismatics wouldn’t attempt to limit the gifts of the Spirit, they may be unintentionally doing so in a church culture that does not properly honor biblical scholars and theologians. I know of one charismatic church where some people left it because they didn’t feel any freedom to ask tough questions about the Bible, for example. Every church should welcome challenging questions and see them as opportunities to discover God, not as something scary.

If encounters with God are primarily defined in terms of feelings, people will have an expectation of God to move in specific ways and not others. Encounters with God should not be defined as feeling-based, but Spirit-based, and the Spirit encompasses everything in all of creation; He speaks through deep intellectual thought just as much as through someone being “slain in the Spirit”, and both are meant to produce transformation and growth in Christ. But over-emphasis on feelings (and on knowledge of Scripture, on the other hand) and creates a definition for what an “encounter with God” means. If that definition is narrow, the definition can actually limit how people relate to God. Scholarly study of Scripture has provided invaluable strength to my walk with the Lord, and has actually propelled me into even more experiences with God than I thought possible.

This is not to suggest that feelings are an inferior experience of God, or that they are not needed. They are desperately needed, because God wants to transform the whole person. And the two types of experiences are not mutually exclusive; knowledge of Scripture provides the foundation for holistic encounters with God, and genuine encounters with God will produce a desire for the Scriptures, because God is revealed first in the Scriptures. The gift of prophecy and “prophets” catalyze profound encounters with God. But when there are no teachers working together with prophets, there can be a dangerous imbalance, and vice versa.

Conservative Christians have been blocked from experiencing the power of the Spirit. I have received wonderful teaching and experienced the power of the Spirit by attending conferences and listening to messages by Bethel church; I love and respect that church. But they serve as a good example of how the “teacher” role might be neglected. They have often been criticized by a lot of conservative Christians for their teaching and imprecision. Similar to most popular charismatic churches or leaders, they have usually just settled to ignore criticism (until recently). Of course not every criticism has been given in the right spirit, but there definitely have been criticisms given in the right spirit.

It is certainly true that any church has the right to ignore criticism from another church, but imagine if large influential charismatic churches like Bethel humbly listened to theological criticisms and wrestled with them instead of just ignoring them. What if they saw it as an opportunity to build bridges to these other churches? Their credibility in the Christian community would increase, and their influence could expand amongst more conservative Christians. If the charismatic movement valued Scripture just as much as their more conservative brothers and sisters, I believe the Lord would not only expand the influence of the charismatic movement amongst conservatives, but would even further sharpen and purify the movement itself to move further, faster, and more sustainably. There are also numerous other benefits that a “teacher” type leader brings which will be discussed in detail in part 2 of this series.

The third article in this series will attempt to define more clearly what the “Teacher” role looks like, and how it relates to the role of “Prophets”, and my hope is that readers will see the absolute importance of both types for hearing the voice of the Lord. If we can properly balance these two types, there will be great maturity and synergy that will result, and we will be more equipped to be transformed into the image of Christ, and to fulfill our call to disciple nations.

Part 2: Prophetic Revelation vs. Scripture —>

Notes