5 Smooth Stones

are elders and overseers. Then he tells them to shepherd the fl ock, a verb meaning to see that they are gathered and fed and cared for. He explains that they should do this by being examples to the people. This is one of the most important aspects of leadership, to show an example of mature Christian character to the people. Let’s assume that among the leaders of this church there were representatives of all fi ve ascension gift ministries. Then the prophet would show forth the example of a New Testament prophet to the people and shepherd them accordingly. The evangelist would show the example of a New Testament evangelist and shepherd them in the same way, the same would be true for the New Testament apostle, teacher and shepherd. Unless we can break ourselves away from the stronghold of limiting all eldership and oversight in the church to the gift of a shepherd, and from releasing the gift of the shepherd outside of church leadership, we will continue to frustrate the release of all the fi ve ministries to some extent in the church and the kingdom. This cannot be over emphasized. The term pastor is so ingrained in the world wide Christian church, and at the same time used as a church o ffi ce rather than a gift related to the kingdom, that it is di ffi cult to both remove the e ff ects of limiting the church to this one gift, or dominating the leadership by it. And at the same time, releasing those with the gift of shepherd (pastor) to the body, regardless of leadership position, has been stymied by the incorrect usage and understanding of the word pastor in the Christian church. Only when we can truly separate the positions of leadership from the gifts to the church will we truly be able to have the gifts functioning within the leadership of the church, as well as within the congregation and in the kingdom, including the secular workplace. Previously mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, each of the common English versions of the New Testament has only one use of the word pastors in its plural form. This is found in the very signi fi cant verse containing the ascension gifts ministries.Ephesians 4:11 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” It is unfortunate that the one place in scripture where the fi ve ascension gift ministries are clearly listed is also the only place where the Greek word for shepherd, poimen, is translated as the word “pastors.” This word is more commonly and culturally (not biblically) meant to signify a position in a church, than as a gifted individual serving people through that gift of God through their service. If we are going to see reformation in the 40