In Christ - Pastors As Equippers

What if church felt less like a spectator event and more like a training camp? In Christ continues as Neil Silverberg opens Ephesians 4:7–12 and shows how the ascended Jesus gives people as gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers—to equip every believer for real ministry. Unity doesn’t erase difference; it thrives on it. Grace meets diversity, and the church matures, stabilizes, and moves with purpose.

Neil lingers on the often-overlooked power of the ascension. Drawing from Psalm 68 and Psalm 110 and Peter’s words in Acts 2:33, he frames Jesus as the triumphant King who ascended and then distributed gifts to his people. He clarifies Paul’s “descent/ascent” parenthesis, not as a post-cross torment but as the movement from incarnation and humiliation to exaltation, so that Christ might fill all things. This keeps the conversation grounded: leadership is not self-invented expertise; it is a stewardship derived from the risen Lord.

From there he unpacks the fivefold ministry as Jesus’ design for growth, not a leadership ladder. Apostles lay and extend healthy foundations. Prophets bring a present word that is weighed, not worshiped. Evangelists make the gospel plain and stir a heart for the lost. Shepherds care as a team—plural elders who lead by teaching. Teachers ground us in truth. The aim is equipping, not dependence, so that people become apostolic in mission, prophetic in discernment, evangelistic in witness, pastoral in care, and rooted in teaching.

“Pastors As Equippers” challenges common models that keep congregations passive and leaders exhausted. Neil contrasts three philosophies of ministry—the museum curator, the short-order cook, and the wise master builder—and urges leaders to move from needs triage to blueprint-building on Christ and the written word. Echoing Elton Trueblood, he insists the ministry belongs to all who share Christ’s life, while pastors exist to help them practice it. And with R. Paul Stevens, he reminds leaders that true equipping points people to depend on the Head, not on human personalities.

Neil also explores the rich meaning of equipping (katartismos): mending what is torn, establishing firm foundations, and training like athletes who actually enter the race. The outcome is a therapeutic, formational, and sending church—where disciples heal, are formed on Christ and Scripture, and are released into mission. Watch and share with your team or small group, and let’s build a church that looks like Jesus—united, diverse, and equipped.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage In Ephesians

Neil Silverberg 0:02

Well, I've been given the gift of these verses. We're in the book of Ephesians. If you're new to Trinity, we're preaching through the book of Ephesians. And I am so excited about the verses I get to deal with this morning. I want to encourage you to open your heart. How many know there's a saying that I have that I repeat often. Those who are most bound by tradition are those who don't think they have any. And it's true. Some of you are familiar with one of some of the things we'll be sharing this morning, but for some of you, they may be new and you've never heard it, or you've wondered about it, and maybe this will be an answer to prayer. So turn with me in Ephesians to chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And I want to read a few verses in chapter 4, beginning in verse 7. Would you mind standing before the Lord as we read God's word in his presence? Let's begin in verse 7. Ephesians 4, 7. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of us of the Son of God to mature manhood. Let's stop there. Father, thank you for these verses in Ephesians. Thank you for the truth they convey. We need to hear it, Lord. We pray for open hearts this morning. We pray for the gift of hearing the word of God, untainted by tradition. We thank you, Father, you're going to speak to us through these words. And we pray that as people hear them, you would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Open our hearts to receive the Word of God in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated. Thank you. It was a number of years ago I did a series in a local church I was serving out of state. And I called this series, I love this title. It's my favorite title of any series I've ever done. It was called the Local Church Prison Camp or Training Camp. Question mark. And the burden of that message was to help believers see clearly what God has called pastors to do and why they're so vital to the body of Christ. And it focused not only on pastors, but on the fivefold ministry and how fivefold ministry was necessary to equip the saints. That's what I want to focus on mainly in our text this morning, but I want to spend time in the verses that precede it. I've simply entitled this, Pastors as Equippers. Now we've seen that this letter to the Ephesians has two sections in it. In the first half of this book, chapters one through three, the apostle deals with our identity in Christ. In the entire section, verses chapters one through three, there's not one command or one imperative. The entire section, chapters one through three, is a series of indicative statements comprised of several theological statements, all dealing with what God did in Christ. And that's why we call we're calling this series in Christ. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul never refers to believers one time as Christians, but as men and women who are in Christ. And it's so important to see that. It's either in Christ or in him. Listen to chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose him in him, us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. What does in Christ mean? It means that Jesus is our federal head. And that's a term that may not be familiar to all, but what it means simply is what true, what is true of Jesus is now true of us. What is true of Jesus is now true of us. I remember Watchman Knee in a book I read years ago called A Normal Christian Life. He talked about uh in Christ by giving this the little illustration. It's a little crude, but it works. He says, here's a book and here's a piece of paper. If you drop the book on the pulpit, what happens to the paper? Nothing. If I hand the book to Tyler, what happens to the paper? Nothing. If I mail the book to Mark, what happens to the paper? Nothing. Why? Because the paper and the book have separate histories. They're not united together. What happens to one does not affect the other. But what if I put the paper in the book and I hand the book to Tyler? What happens to the paper? It goes with Tyler. If I hand the book to Mark, what happens to the paper? What the paper's history and the book's history are now one. And that's exactly what Paul's saying when he says we are in Christ. Two weeks ago, Kelly opened up the seventh second section of Ephesians chapter 4 through 6, which deals with the believer's walk. And in this chapter, he introduced us to our calling as believers. He focused on four qualities that are essential to fulfill our calling. He said, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called, with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. And last week Tyler preached verses four through six of chapter four, and the theme of Christian unity. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, three thousand denominations. The great unity of the faith. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. And now, in the five verses which I'll deal with this morning, Paul tells us that Christian unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts. Christian unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts. Though Christians are to live in unity, that doesn't mean believers are mere stereotypes of each other. How many are glad for the variety in the body of Christ? Could you survive if the only jokes you heard were mine? No. Boy, survive, yes, but I went to I went to my psychiatrist. She said, You're crazy. I said, I want a second opinion. He said, You're ugly too. That's it, folks. No more. If I'm gonna stop right now, I can't stop. Those of you new to Trinity, I had a I had a calling which I clearly forsook. I had a calling to be a comic. But I'm just that I'm in full-time misery. Minister. See what happens when you go down that road. The body of Christ is one, but it's diverse in its giftedness. The word grace in chapter 4, verse 7, is an important word. In scripture, it's the Greek word charas, and it's from that Greek word that the word charismatic is formed. All churches should view themselves, therefore, as charismatic, in that we're all received of his grace. And this stresses both the universality of gifting, meaning that every believer has received a gift, and diversity, meaning not all receive the same kind of gift. These verses tell us three things about the gifts. First, they tell us about the giver of these gifts. They tell us, secondly, about their character, and thirdly, they tell us about their purpose. So let's start. Verses 5 through 10 tell us about the giver of these gifts. The giver of spiritual gift, Paul says, is the ascended Christ. Paul quotes Psalm 68, verse 18, to explain this fact. When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Paul cites Psalm 68 to portray the risen Christ as a victorious king who has ascended on high, taken captives, and now gives gifts to his people. And the phrase ascended on high is a prophecy regarding Messiah's ascension. You know, we don't talk about the ascension of Jesus enough, I think. The fact that not only did he die and was buried, but he was raised from the dead and then ascended to the right hand of the Father to take the ultimate seat of glory and power in the universe. That's the ascension of Jesus. And it fulfilled the ancient prophecy of Psalm 110, verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Peter, when preaching on the day of Pentecost, referenced his ascension. He said, Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from him the promise of the Father, of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. That's Acts 2.33. The fact that Peter speaks about his ascension in his preaching on the day of Pentecost is interesting. Did you know that according to Judaism, the Jewish people believe that Pentecost was the day the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai? And on that day, Moses was given the law written on tablets of stone. 2,000 years ago, on another day of Pentecost, Jesus received the Spirit and gave him to his people to write his laws on our heart. And that's why three, and by the way, 3,000 died on the Pentecost that Moses celebrated because of idolatry, but 3,000 were added to the church. And this Pentecost that occurred 2,000 years ago. And Paul adds a parenthesis in verses 9 through 10. In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. He is saying in that if Psalm 68 is dealing with the fact that he ascended, it means by implication that he first descended into the lower regions of the earth. The King James states it that he descended into lower parts of the earth. The early church fathers, many of them, understood this as a reference to his descent into hell. There's a teaching based on this verse and others that Jesus, after he died, descended into hell where he had to be tormented for the salvation of man. I do not believe Jesus descended to hell to be tormented, because when he died, he said it is finished. Shortly after his death, Jesus' human soul went to the realm of scripture calls Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead, but not to the place of fiery, eternal punishment. In paradise. Today you'll be with me in paradise. That's not what this verse is teaching, that he went to hell. Rather, it's simply saying that his ascension followed his incarnation. This fits well, by the way, with Philippians 2, 5 through 11, where dying on a cross describes his deepest humiliation, followed by his supreme exaltation. Jesus gave specific ministry roles to his church as gifts for its growth and maturity. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. This is known as the five-fold ministry. And we believe in it because it's scriptural. God gave to the church five roles or gift of people to the church for its equipping. And these verse tell us about the gifts Jesus given. To be more exact, they describe not gifts given to people as we read in 1 Corinthians 12, but gifts of people given to the church. And it starts with apostles or sent ones. By the way, these men members of the fivefold ministry were appointed after Jesus ascended, not before, because many would say there's no apostles today. Well, this is not a reference just to the twelve, it's a reference to the fact that there's still apostolic people in the earth. Fivefold ministry were appointed after Jesus ascended. And this is important to recognize. Now there's a group of apostles that will never be added to. We call them capital A, big A, and no one will be added to the group. If you are sitting under teaching where someone says, I'm part, I'm an apostle, meaning I'm one of the apostles of the Lamb, take up your stakes and go. Because that is not true. Jesus gave 12 apostles of the Lamb, He handpicked them, and they were directly appointed by Jesus and sent by Him. They will serve as foundation stones in the New Jerusalem. Did you know that? And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And all toll, there's 28 people called apostles in the New Testament. And again, that includes the 12, but there's others, or 16 others. This these apostles we would give a small A to. They're not apostles of the Lamb, chosen directly by Jesus, but they're apostles of the churches. In fact, they're mentioned in 2 Corinthians 8 23. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. As for our brothers, they are messengers. The Greek word there is apostolos. They are apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ. And these apostles of the churches were sent out from churches. There's apostles for the churches at Trinity. And Yuri and Olga, Mark and Amy, even Rob and Chris, and also y'all and myself. They're apostles of the churches. Then he gave also some as prophets. Did you know that prophets are alive and well in the body of Christ? These are people who stand in the council of the Lord, bringing a current word, a fresh word from the Lord. The New Testament clearly teaches that prophets had an important role in the body of Christ. For example, Paul describes a New Testament gathering this way. We see that prophets had a prominent role. He said, Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said. Paul says about, and notice he says, two or three prophets, which means these were recognized prophets in the local church there. And they were to speak, and the others were to weigh what was being said. Prophets work with teachers. Here's a miracle: prophets and teachers work together without killing each other. Luke describes in chapter 13 of Acts how these prophets and teachers work together. He says, Now there was in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers. It is a challenge for them to work together because prophets love to soar in the spirit, but not spend time studying the word of God. That's a generalization, but it's true. And teachers love the word of God, but they don't have too much time for prophets. But folks, it's not an either-or. We need both. God has called us to embrace the prophetic, He's called us to embrace teaching, and we need both. Evangelists. He gave some as evangelists. This word evangelist occurs three times in the New Testament. Here in Ephesians 4:11, in Acts 21:8, Philip was called the evangelist. And 2 Timothy 4.5, Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. It may refer to the gift of uh evangelistic preaching or of making the gospel particularly plain and relevant. And let me say, I failed to say earlier, the purpose of these gifts is to equip the saints. We'll talk about that in a minute, which means when apostles function in the New Testament church, we become an apostolic people. When the prophets function, we become a prophetic people. When evangelists function, the body of Christ becomes equipped to do evangelism. It isn't just that we have these gifts and we get excited and glory in the fact that we have these gifts. We have them because they equip us. And I'll talk about that in a moment in a moment more. Evangelists think of one thing: souls. That's all they eat and breathe and sleep souls. And we need this gift in the body of Christ. There are people in our midst who are evangelists and who go after the souls. And everybody should pray for the grace of ability to do evangelism. Because it's not just evangelists who are called to do evangelistic work. Everybody should have a heart to be an evangelist. That's why Paul told Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Timothy was not an evangelist, but Jesus, Paul said, do the work of an evangelist. Pray that God would let you do the work of an evangelist. And to do that, you have to open your mouth and speak. There's a great need for gifted evangelists today who can pioneer new ways of exercising and developing the evangelistic gift. And then probably the most known of the five-fold ministry are the following ones. He gave some as shepherds and teachers. Now you'll notice the definite article is not repeated in the expression. If it was, it would read, he gave some as shepherds, quote, some uh some teachers, but it doesn't. It says uh he gave some shepherds and teachers, and that means that shepherds who are called to tend the flock, they do so by teaching. That's an important way that shepherds feed the flock. Every pastor must be a teacher, but not every teacher is a pastor. Shepherds is a description of what elders do, and never is it appear, there's never a single shepherd in the New Testament church. It's always shepherds plural, which is why we have a team of shepherds or elders at Trinity that are pastoring the church. And we have a lead pastor. Tyler functions as a lead pastor, but we all shepherd the church. Uh every pastor shepherds the church, is why we have not only multiple elders, but we have a shared pulpit. Shepherds is a description of what elders do. Paul, when speaking to the elders, At Ephesus said, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I exhort the elders among you, Peter says, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock, is 1 Peter 5, 1 through 3. So the fivefold ministry gifts are given for the equipping of the saints. It takes the entire fivefold ministry to equip a church. It's one of the reasons local churches import ministry gifts. They are lacking to minister to the church, because they understand it takes the whole five-fold ministry. Having saying that, let's look at the roles pastors play specifically in equipping the saints, because that is a low local church function. One of the things which determines whether or not a local church will function as a training camp or a prison camp is whether or not the pastoral staff of that church has an accurate understanding of their role biblically and functions accordingly. That about churches and pastors and who pastors are and what they do that is clearly not biblical. The mindset, this mindset has kept pastors functioning as God intended, and that he has had a direct effect on the function or non-function of the members of the body of Christ. The best description of the relationship between who pastors are and how it relates to the body of Christ, I found, is by a man named Elton Trueblood. Listen to his description of the relationship between pastors and how it relates to the body of Christ. He says the ministry is for all those who share Christ's life. The pastorate is for those who possess the peculiar gift of being able to help others practice any ministry to which they are called. Isn't that tremendous? I love that quote because it sets clearly forth the biblical reality of who pastors are, who the people of God are, and how the two are related. True Blood starts with a statement about who is in the ministry. We would expect it to say pastors are in the ministry, but it's a shocking statement. He says the ministry is for all those who share Christ's life. Did you know when you got saved, you entered the ministry? And don't panic, you don't have to quit your job and get a mailing list. If you have the life of Christ, God has given you a ministry. All Christians are in the ministry. You know, the lack of understanding that has caused great harm in the body of Christ, especially to leaders. As I travel the nation, I find tired leaders. And guess why they're tired? They're doing the ministry for the majority who are functioning in a ministry gift that's in wasn't in the New Testament. It's called spectator. And they're spectators. They sit on the fence because they they believe that ministry is not open to them. That's why they're tired. It's like a Valves football game. 100,000 people in their stands, desperately needing exercise, 11 on the field, desperately needing rest. He says the pastorate is for those who have the gift of helping others practice their ministry. That's what pastors do among many things. They train and equip God's people for ministry. In other words, pastors service others so that they are equipped to function in what God has called them to do. Now I realize this is backwards again from what people usually think. Pastors are, they think pastors are in the ministry, and we support them. But this clearly reflects the biblical picture of why God gives pastors to the body. True blood statement in reality simply reflects what scripture teaches. Paul doesn't give, in listing the five-fold ministry in Ephesians 4.11, Paul doesn't give a detailed description of who these gifted people are. The emphasis is clearly on what they do for the body. They equip people more than an understanding of who they are. He tells us a little about who they are, but mainly his focus is on what they do, and that is they equip people for the work of the ministry. That means when pastor teachers function properly, the result is people are empowered so that they begin to function in their God-appointed spheres. The purpose of pastors, therefore, is to empower the body so they become ministers. Unfortunately, if you've been around the body of Christ for any length of time, you know this is not the prevailing view that most people hold regarding who and what pastors do. It was certainly not the way I thought in my second pastorate over 45 years ago. I was burning out and I took a year off to learn what ministry really was. And it was during that time that I learned the importance of recognizing my philosophy of ministry. You know what I mean by talk about a philosophy of ministry? It's an understanding not only of what ministry is, but why we do what we do. I actually had a philosophy of ministry, but it was the wrong one. In fact, I soon learned that as a pastor, I could have one of three philosophies of ministry. I could be a museum curator, I could be a short-order cook, or I could be a wise master builder. Now I had no problem with being a museum curator. You know what a museum curator, his job is to take care of old relics and make sure they never become new. He wants old and decrepit things. You don't go to a museum to see new things. Now, certain aspect of that is good because we're called to handle the ancient word of God and safeguard it from changing. But uh, you know, museum curators are those who fight hard to maintain traditions. And I didn't have that problem when I got saved, coming out of Judaism right into the body of Christ. I had no problem being, I was not battling being a museum curator, but I took the second uh philosophy of ministry. I was a short-order cook. My philosophy was no philosophy at all. It's to fill orders. That's all I did. A short-order cook does not think about yesterday or tomorrow. His only task is to fill the next order. This is the concept of pastoring who sees ministry as nothing more than meeting needs. I stood before my congregation and said, I'm here to meet all your needs, and they took me up on it. They brought their cousins and uncles and aunts. This is the concept of pastoring that most people love. Pastor gives me womb-to-tomb service. Someone asked me one, what do pastors do? I said, they dedicate babies, they marry people, they bury people, they hatch them, match them, and dispatch them. That was a new one. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. You have a short-term memory. Now there's several things, shorter to cook as a philosophy, there's several things about it that are wrong, not the least of which it puts incredible demands on one person to meet everyone's needs. I think that's a biblical principle. A pastor's job is not to meet everyone's needs, but to make sure everyone's needs are met. Jerry Cook, in his groundbreaking book, Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness, tells a story of a woman in his church who was hospitalized for 17 days. And the pastor never went to visit her in the hospital. She was very mad. And he heard that 17 people had visited her, and he called her up and she said, Why haven't you come and visit me? He said, I heard 17 people from the church came and visited you. She said, Yes, that's right, but you didn't. He said, Let me get this straight. Jesus Christ visited you 17 times, and you didn't receive it because you'll only receive him in one form. Good answer. But the third uh philosophy of ministry is the one we strive at. It's called wise master builder. And in 1 Corinthians 3 10, Paul uses the word architect non, from which we get our English word what? Architect. He says, I am an architect. And he calls himself that. And that meant that Paul saw blueprints for the house and knew what God wanted to build. He was a wise master builder, which by inference means there's foolish master builders. There's people who build weakness into the body of Christ rather than strength. The most important thing Paul's saying when he calls himself a wise master builder is he's an architect. He saw the plans of the house. And in this regard, he's much like Moses, who God gave the plans for the tabernacle. When we think about pastors being set in the body to equip people, it's not just a good idea. It's the way that God has built his house. Wise master builders know how to build people solidly upon the only foundation. So let me end by taking you through three applications of the word equipping that is translated in Ephesians 4, 12. To understand this properly, I want to take a moment to talk about the meaning of this powerful word, equipping. It's the powerful Greek word katartismos. In the New Testament, that word is used in three distinct ways. As we understand these ways, we are used, we are, they begin to help us to know how pastors are called to equip. The first way that word was used was in a medical or medicinal fashion. It was translated by the word mending. Remember when Jesus called Andrew and Simon? They were in the boat. Remember what they were doing when Jesus called them? It says they were in the boat mending the nets. And that word mending is a medical term. And it's used here, translating catartismos. It's the idea of restoration and healing. What it conveys is as pastors, teachers function, they bring mending to lives. I've for the years I've been in ministry, I've gone through, you know, I've seen so many people come into the church and they're racked with uh unhealthiness and things of this nature. And I saw the five-fold ministry, especially pastors as a function, bring healing and restoration. The result is the entire church is immersed in grace. It becomes the therapeutic community. The love of God in a healthy church is a healing agent, mending broken lives. And again, I've watched people come in whose lives were utterly shattered and saw the word of God and loving pastors minister to them and healing occur. It's a powerful thing. When a church is healthy, it exercises a mending ministry, a restorative ministry. God can bring both broken lives into that church so they can be healed. The second way this term catarisms was used. It was used in the world of construction for establishing or laying foundation. The most important aspect of building is laying the foundation. Foundation is the building is only as strong as its foundation. New Testament reveals that Jesus is both our foundation and our equipper. And that brings up an important question. How can pastors be both uh you know equippers? Uh how can pastors in Jesus Christ, that is, be equippers and uh pastors at the same time. Our Paul Stevens in his book, Liberating the Laity, supplies an answer. This is my favorite definition of leadership. The human equipper's major function is not to make people dependent upon the leaders, but dependent upon the head. This is the highest possible calling. It requires the strongest possible leadership in the church to lead people in such a way that they do not become dependent on human leaders. Equipping, directing people to find their life and future in Christ Himself makes the highest claim on leadership. True leaders are always pointing people to the all-sufficient Christ to whom each member is connected. Folks, believe it or not, Jesus Christ is really the head of the church. He's the head of the church, not the retired founder. Along with Jesus Christ is our foundation, the written word is fundamentally connected to laying foundation in our lives. It's not pastors' personalities or their winsomeness or their ability to tell jokes that brings completeness to lies, but the ever-living, abiding word of God that makes people whole. This tells us the main job of pastors is to be pointing people to Jesus Christ through the written word. By the way, the word of God not only informs, it performs. And then finally, training. The word was used, catertismos, in the training of athletes. It is sometimes translated by the English word discipline. When pastors function the way they ought, the local church becomes a training camp where people are trained for life and ministry. Paul understood this training for athletes because the Olympic Games were created in his backyard. Some of us have been watching the Olympics this week. How many know the athletes don't train just to train, but that they might compete in the Games? By the way, has anybody figured out that sport of curling? I don't get it. Shelley loves it. She gets it. It's bowling on steroids. But an athlete doesn't train just to train, but that he or she might compete in the games. And there's two extremes in the body of Christ. Some try to jump into Olympics without training. You know, I sit on my couch watching the Olympics, and I say, I could do that. But second, some are training forever and never get to compete. So two things are happening at TCC, especially with our emphasis on discipleship. People are being trained through teaching, mentoring, discipling, through leadership intenses and other ways. And trained people are being sent. Sent for what? Sent as a trained army to push back the gates of hell and advance the kingdom throughout this region. That's our calling. That's what the Fivefold Ministry does. That's why church life is so important that we be part of the body of Christ. And that's why our present emphasis on discipleship is so important to what God wants to do. He is raising people up to by training. And as training goes on, more and more people function in ministry. Stand with me. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful way you created the body of Christ to function. Thank you, Father, for you gave us an ability to multiply ourselves. Father, we pray for Trinity and this present emphasis on discipleship. Lord, give us new disciples. Give us people that the Fivefold Ministry can function and train and bring life. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.