Four spiritual enablings or gifts are listed separately from other ministries in the church. Their role is to equip (“to make someone completely adequate or sufficient for something”). Paul rewords this as “building up of the body of Christ.” These gifts are like the machinery used to construct a building. Their purpose is not for their own glory and benefit; the glory belongs to the Church, the bride of Christ, which reflects the glory of Christ.

The first two, as we mentioned before, are foundational and no longer in immediate operation today now that the cannon of Scripture is closed (see comments on Ephesians 2:20). However, we benefit from the equipping ministry of the apostles and prophets in that they built up the first century church directly, and their disciples built up the next generation, and so on through the ages to the present day. Also, we are being equipped today by the writings of those apostles and first century prophets as recorded in the Word.

The third equipping gift, the evangelist, builds up the church in two ways. First, he adds to the church numerically through bringing people to salvation. Second, he teaches, trains and prompts people in evangelism. What would our outreach efforts be like without evangelists who are constantly prodding the rest of us to reach out? They are not the “paid salesman” for a product called “Christianity,” but they are those who lead the way and bring others along.

The last gift, though it may look on the surface as two gifts, is really one, namely, the pastor-teacher. The Greek grammatical structure makes a distinction in listing the last two words “pastors” and “teachers” differently than the first three. The various English translations try to account for this by the use of “the” (NIV, NLT, ESV) or “some” (NASB, NET) in front of the first four terms but not in front of “teachers.” The word “teachers” goes together with the term “pastors,” thus pastor-teachers. This gift combines two abilities for equipping believers. It is a teaching ministry that has as its primary goal to shepherd along other believers toward maturity and service.

Pastor-teachers are not offices of the church, like elders or deacons. This gift does not refer to the presiding clergy or “Pastor” of the church. It is simply a spiritual gift. Certainly an elder may be a pastor-teacher and a woman may be a pastor-teacher over other women and children. Praise God for those who give themselves to training, discipling, and mentoring others toward godly maturity.