Fivefold Ministry is a Christian belief that the five offices of Apostle (ἀπόστολος / apostolos), Prophet (προφήτης / prophētēs), Evangelist (εὐαγγελιστής / euaggelistēs), Pastor (ποιμήν / poimēn) and Teacher (διδάσκαλος / didaskalos) referred to in Ephesians 4:11 remain active and valid offices in the contemporary Christian church.
Adherents of this ecclesiology also commonly affirm the continuation of the charismatic gifts in the modern church, while opponents commonly hold to cessationist beliefs.
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Ephesians 4:11 refers to fives offices in the church: apostles (ἀπόστολος / apostolos), prophets (προφήτης / prophētēs), evangelists (εὐαγγελιστής / euaggelistēs), pastors (ποιμήν / poimēn) and Teachers (διδάσκαλος / didaskalos). Other passages also refer to these things as spiritual gifts. Romans 12:4-8, for example, includes teaching and prophesying as spiritual gifts, and 1Corinthians 12 lists apostles, prophets and teachers in the context of spiritual gifts. 1Corinthians 14 provides instructions on the proper use of prophecy in church meetings.
Paul refers to the "signs" of an apostle in 2Corinthians 12:11-12, and notes that he performed these "with signs and wonders and mighty works" (NIV). Some argue that in 1Corinthians 9:1, Paul suggests that having seen Jesus is a qualification of being an apostle while opponents to this belief argue that he is merely defending his authority to make the statements from the previous chapter regarding sin and grace. Paul also notes in 1Corinthians 9:2 that the Corinthians are the "seal" of his apostleship.
The qualifications of pastors are listed in 1Timothy 3:2-7 and Titus 1:6-9. These are mainly moral, with the additional qualification of being "able to teach".
A number of people in the New Testament are said to hold one or more of these offices:
Apostles: The Twelve (Luke 6:13-16), Matthias (Acts 1:24-26), Paul (Galatians 1:1), Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Andronicus and Junia (Romans 16:7)
Prophets: The company from Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-28), Agabus (Acts 21:10-11), Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul Acts 13:1-3, Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32), the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9)
Teachers: Apollos (Acts 18:25), Paul (2Timothy 1:11)
Evangelists: Philip (Acts 21:9)
In addition to this, Acts 13:1-3 lists some "prophets and teachers" in Antioch.
After the close of the Apostolic Age, Christian writers still referred to the existence of prophets. For example, Irenaeus, wrote of second century believers with the gift of prophecy,[1] while Tertullian, writing of the church meetings of the Montanists (to whom he belonged), described in detail the practice of prophecy in the second century church.[2] It is, however, the teaching of Edward Irving and advent of the Catholic Apostolic Church in 1832 that marks the earliest known movement of what could be properly labeled as fivefold ministry. The church ordained twelve apostles and had specific understandings of the roles of prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
This trend picked up steam in 1948 with the Latter Rain Movement giving renewed emphasis to fivefold ministry, and soon after with the Charismatic Movement and Third Wave movements, led by figures such as John Wimber and C. Peter Wagner. Wagner is now the leading figure in what is known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which emphasizes the specific need for apostolic leadership in the Church, among the other fivefold anointings.
Along with Wagner, Alan Hirsch (a considerably more mainstream evangelical missiologist who, along with Michael Frost coined the acronym APEPT to refer to Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers[3]), Bill Johnson (a Charismatic pastor) and Wayne Grudem (a theologian) remain some of the most influential advocates for the continued practice of fivefold ministry in the Church today.