5 Fold Church

Strong and Courageous

Jan. 4, 2019

We often hear within charismatic circles about the 5 fold giftings of church leadership, but we don’t hear much about the 5 fold aspects of the church itself.

I recently have reread for the second time the book titled Center Church by Tim Keller. Tim is a well-respected church planter in Manhattan and an extraordinary voice for the Christian movement in America. I consider this book to be the magnum opus of his life’s work and calling. This read has been both inspirational and challenging to me personally. It has helped to broaden my understanding of focus, direction and responsibility that we need in order to be a balanced church.

The book lays out road signs or markers as to what a healthy, balanced, and centered church should look like. It is difficult to fully describe all the aspects involved here. However, Keller does lay out 5 major categories that are found in the new testament which give us a road map to the Kingdom business that the church is to be doing. He further develops the notion that all 5 ingredients are necessary to be working together. Many churches only emphasize one or two of these areas, which creates an imbalance in their thinking. At the end of day, Keller describes the health or success in a local church depends on all 5 elements working together in harmony.

These five ingredients are:

Worship

Preaching

Evangelism/Outreach

Discipleship

Providing Care to the Poor

This list may seem self-evident and not too impressive; however, there is a profound synergism present when all five are fully functioning. Being intentional about discovering and developing each one of these key ingredients imparts vision and focus as we follow Jesus and are “all in.”

I do not want to lay out all of the details of each one of these things in a single post, as it would be too lengthy. So I would like in future installments, to go into more detail about what the expectations and hopes are for our church functioning within these dynamics. I will say however in conclusion, that this involves more than just coming to church on Sunday mornings and think that we can accomplish all. Sunday services really primarily focus only on items 1 and 2.