Ephesians 4:12-13 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Recently, in one of my classes, the professor relayed that he had heard Jack Hayford speak at a seminar about Ephesians 4:12. In the seminar, Pastor Jack taught about the Greek meaning of the word “equipping” in this verse. Two of the meanings of the word are: (1) the word that is the setting of the broken bone; and (2) the realignment or a placing of a limb back in the socket.
Whenever I have been taught about this verse or when I have read it, I have always thought it meant the pastor or teacher was training and teaching people so they could take that knowledge to do the work of the ministry. However, with the context and meaning of the word “equip,” the teaching should focus on mending the brokenness of people, instead of focusing solely on a method that they use to do the work. God has gifted each us with individual gifts and abilities that we can use to do the work of the ministry.
I am not saying that there should never be training in discipleship. There absolutely should be discipleship training. However, I am saying that people will be better able to minister with their own sets of gifts and abilities if we help them with their brokenness first. We are not called to give them what we have, we are called to mend their brokenness, so they can “become mature and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”