The Five-Fold Gifts: Part 04 - How Many Gifts?

One of the biggest contested debates over the Five-fold ministry is that it is actually a Four-fold ministry: That is, there Paul is only speaking of four gifts here and not five. The perception is based on the idea that the pastor (shepherd) and teacher gift are one. But this could not be further from the truth.

While there are lots of arguments made, the mentality is that all pastors (of churches) are [or should be] teachers. They believe this is how the pastor feeds his flock: and to some degree it is. But we do not determine gifts primarily by that gift’s function. The main reason is because there is always overlap between the gifts. For instance, all the gifts teach as a part of their equipping: Therefore, it becomes hard to tell who a teacher “is” and who is not.

The other thing we must realize is that the people who most vocally espouse this view are true Five-fold teachers: Especially those who happen to be in a pastoral role of a church. But there are very many teachers who work in seminaries and are not being pastoral at all. They may hold to the concept, but they are not in a role to fulfill it.

It is also important that there are many very gifted pastors, true shepherds, that cannot teach very well. They may not have a strong teaching gift, but have a powerful way of communicating truth that is not very systematic in nature.

The more we define and describe each gift, the more this will be made quite clear.