After His ascension, Jesus began giving precious gifts to his church, as expressions of his grace – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:7-11). As we have written elsewhere, these ‘fivefold’ gifts equip the church for its ministry and are essential if the church is to be built-up and to reach unity, maturity and fulness (Ephesians 4:12-13).

But there is a unique and particular pairing between apostles and prophets: they are foundations upon which the church is built (Ephesians 2:20), being distinguished from the other gifts by their particular revelation (Ephesians 3:5), hence we refer to them as ‘revelatory gifts’. The Chief Apostle and Prophet continues to manifest himself by giving apostles and prophets to his Body.

This downloadable paper considers the role and function of these important foundational ministries and the context in which they might function most fruitfully. It includes a range of questions that eldership and leadership teams may find helpful in evaluating their own relationships with apostles and prophets