Call to Discipleship - Juan Carlos Ortiz

Call to Discipleship 

From Milk to Meat

Why did Jesus put ministers in the Church?

And He gave some apostles: and some prophets: and some Evangelists: and some pastors and teachers; For perfecting maturing of the saints , for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ(Eph 4:11-12)

Herein lies part of the answer. the purpose of the preaching oand teaching in the church is to perfect (bring to maturity) the saints for the work of the ministry. The one learning today is to become a teach tomorrow. The pastors are not to entertain or maintain the believers, but to mature them. In other words, shepherds are not placed in the flock to give milk to the sheep. God provides milk to every mother to give her child. Ministers must take the sheep into maturity. 

God gave the church ministers to equip and perfect the saints. Yet most of the activities we have in the church are to maintain the saints rather than equip them. 

. . . 

Our Ministry is to equip them, to perfect them, to make out of them teachers that they may teach others. That meant I as a pastor needed to have a clear vision of the objective of my existence. What does God wish me to make of the believers? Each pastor must ask himself, " why did God put me in the ministry? what is my work? To what should I dedicate myself?" The answer to this question is always, To perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, that Christians might be properly equipped for their service" (Phillips).

. . . 

Paul tells the Hebrews they should already have been teachers, which means that the Christian is really progressing when he can teach and guide someone else to be a Christian. "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again" (Heb. 5:12 RSV). Phillips, translating the same passage, says, "At a time when you should be teaching others, you need teachers yourselves to repeat to you the ABCs of God's revelation to men." This means we should graduate sometime, for if we do not advance we are slipping back.  We should pass from the first grade of the rudiments to the second grade of the pure milk, and on to the third grade of solid food.

Call to discipleship

Juan Carlos Ortiz

Logos International, Plainfield, New Jersey

1975

- Christian Growth, Maturity