Seth Hedman

Our Rejection of the Five-Fold Gifts of Ephesians 4 Has Created A Crisis in Church Leadership When it comes to the Ephesians 4 model of church leadership I have laid out in previous posts, my understanding is relatively impercise. I am not going so far as to argue for the exact details and systematic structure of a local church, or greater church denomination, ought to implement. In fact, that is actually more of what the spiritual gift of managing described in 1 Corinthians 12 is for. I am arguing that whatever structure is built, it must have different people in high ranking leadership with all of these gifts or else the leadership will suffer tremendously, as history bears out.

Why do we only focus on pastor and teacher? The answer is found in church history, bad theology, and fear. In my last post, I introduced the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and the 5 spiritual gifts: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. Clearly these are all Biblical terms and gifts that compliment each other well in church leadership. Clearly, we can see many of these gifts and characteristics in ourselves and others around us. So why is the apostle, prophet, and evangelist so uncommon in the local church? Why do we drive by churches that advertise their "Head Pastor" but not their "Head Evangelist?" I would love to see an ad in the church bulletin looking for a "Youth Prophet." The answer is found in the history and development of the church.

How Ephesians 4 Changes How We See The Church Several weeks ago, I went on all-too-common twitter rant, lamenting the pain and suffering in the world and wondering if I'm not wasting my time leading worship or working on a college campus.  A mentor saw the rant and pointed me in the direction of a sermon series over the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and, in particular, the role of the prophet. I am not much of one for "personality tests" and whatnot, but I was floored by how well this biblical model described me and, as I have researched and thought about it more, how our ignorance of this model has led so many problems the church is experiencing today.  My research inspired me to write a lot over this topic. I argue that the church's historical disregard for the Ephesians 4 model of leadership has led to a crisis in Church leadership, a systematic injustice which amputates the Body of Christ  and handicaps the Church's ability to fully and properly...

Wow! April was a really fun month.  I got to see a lot of fruit on campus, have great interactions with students, and really start to settle into my role as a staff and raising partners.  The month was not without challenges though, including a nose surgery that sidelined me for a full week.  Two major highlights stick out with a couple minor points. Free Relays Taxi!!!! In response to reading the book Radical by David Platt, our InterVarsity leadership group got together last Spring and discussed how we might live out that book by radically serving our campus.  We came up with the idea to give free taxi rides home to students during Drake Relays, a big party week on campus.  We were a little worried about logistics and how students would respond... but it went amazing! We gave over 500 rides over three days and had nothing but ecstatic responses!