Jesus’ vision for his church is a beautiful thing. A body of people from every imaginable background, tribe, and walk of life. His Body here on earth, reflecting his light and glory. Loving like He loves, serving like He serves, speaking like He speaks.
But, honestly, how much do we actually look like Jesus?
This is a question that I’m thinking about a lot at the moment as I observe how we, the church, are responding to a broken world and a toxic political climate. A question that I’ve heard coming from a number of wise prophetic people. A question that opens the door to sanctified discernment – and boy, do we need plenty of that right now.
Surely our number one goal as the Body of Christ should be to imitate Jesus as closely as we possibly can. We’re His hands and feet; we’re His voice and touch. When the world has gone crazy we should be the ones radiating His compassion and healing presence.
One of the most urgent questions for God’s people to be asking in these turbulent and polarised times is to what extent our churches and ministries truly look like Jesus. Do our words, attitudes and actions mirror those of Christ? Are we speaking as He would speak and acting as He would act? When the world looks at us, do they see an accurate representation of the Good Shepherd and friend of sinners? Do they see Jesus in our midst? Christ will always be the only true measure of our authenticity, and if we are not faithfully representing Him, can we genuinely call ourselves His church?
We are Christ’s Body here on earth. He has designed His church to be the tangible expression of His glory and beauty, and as His church we carry His spiritual DNA. Our only role is to be exactly like Jesus: He wants a Jesus-shaped church!
For a brilliant perspective on what a Christ-like church should look like we can turn to the concept of the fivefold ministries that we find in Ephesians 4*. The gifts in verse 11 describe five different facets of Christ’s ministry. These gifts are for everyone and Jesus has given these five roles to the church so that we can be all that He has called us to be, fully representing Him in the world. As we engage with the five roles we are given the means by which to participate in His work. The beautiful thing about the fivefold ministries is that together they represent the ministry of Christ. Each one reflects a key element of the ministry of Jesus; in fact Jesus is the fullest representation and demonstration of all five roles.
It’s not just about individual calling though: it’s important to move beyond seeing the fivefold as just describing individual believers and get the bigger picture. We can understand the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding and teaching as functions of the church itself, implicit purposes embedded in the church’s identity and culture. The church itself is called to be a mature expression of the fivefold callings.
We can use fivefold thinking to give us a benchmark of all Christian ministry and church culture: the ministry of Jesus Christ Himself. We can ask this question of any church: do we observe a healthy and mature expression of each of the fivefold functions?
Do we see the mature apostolic church, engaged in the mission of God and looking like Jesus the ultimate ‘Sent One’?
Do we see the mature prophetic church, listening and responding to God and looking like Jesus the perfect Prophet?
Do we see the mature evangelistic church, proclaiming hope and the good news of God and looking like Jesus the greatest Evangelist?
Do we see the mature shepherding church, cultivating God’s loving and healing community and looking like Jesus the Good Shepherd?
Do we see the mature teaching church, illuminating God’s truth and looking like Jesus the master Teacher?
To get to this place – to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13) – we need to hear afresh the invitation of Jesus to come and learn from Him; to walk alongside Him and see the world through His eyes.
We need to lean a little closer to our Servant King and be defined less by what we believe and more by what we do.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love… Ephesians 5:1
*I’m giving a very brief overview here – for a much more in-depth approach to APEST and fivefold thinking I highly recommend the books ‘5Q’ by Alan Hirsch and ‘Primal Fire’ by Neil Cole
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