As we have covered, God lit the fires on the altars of His dwelling places in the Old Testament, but He commanded the priests to keep the fires going. In the new covenant, all of God’s people are priests, so we all have the job to keep the fires burning that the Lord ignites.
We may think that is the pastor’s job, or the job of those who are “in ministry” as it is now perceived to be, but that’s an old covenant concept. The church models we are given in the New Testament promote every believer being a priest and functioning in ministry.
The model of church that was institutionalized reverted back to the old covenant model of a few professionals doing all of the ministry and the rest of the church body watching. This now dominates the modern church. This model is not found anywhere in Scripture, and it is one of the main reasons the church in our time is so anemic and only a shadow of what the church in the New Testament was.
Not only does the model of church given to us in Scripture require every member to know and function in ministry, but there must be the “proper functioning of every part” (see Ephesians 4:16). Every Christian has a ministry, a function without which the body is lacking, as a representation of the Lord’s body. Every member should be doing their part—and well.
In our polling of the thousands of people that came to our conferences, representing perhaps every nation and major denomination, less than 5% even knew their own ministry in the body, and less than 2% acknowledged functioning in it! Conference goers tend to be the hungriest and most zealous believers. What would these percentages be if we polled all Christians? How well would you do if only 2% of your body was working? Is that not the present condition of the body of Christ?
We read this in Ephesians 4:11-13: “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
Is there any church body on the earth today that measures up to the stature of Christ? Is there one fulfilling this basic purpose of the church to equip all of their people in ministry? There may be some, but I do not know of any, and I have traveled much of the world. Everywhere I’ve gone, I looked for and inquired about where I might find such a church and have not found it. Why? Every church should be doing this, and every true church soon will.
I did find a few congregations that had a vision for the Ephesians 4 model of the church, and some of these were making progress. However, basically every church in the world is like a sheep pen which the leader will visit a couple of times a week to throw the sheep enough food to keep them alive for another week. The best churches are only equipping a few of their people. How will we ever become the awesome army we’re called to be without obeying the Ephesians 4 mandate?
How does the average professing Christian today compare in power and impact with a first century Christian? Even the young believers in the New Testament were full of Christ, full of His truth, and testified of Him with such power and impact that it was said that they were turning the world upside down. When was the last time the church in our time even created a little curiosity about what we’re doing, much less been the city set on a hill?
In truth, the church is bearing about as much fruit as we would expect with less than 5% even knowing their purpose. There are some great things happening, even in the dry times that we are now in, so that enough are coming to Christ that Christianity is still growing faster than any other religion. We’re called to do and to be much more than this. Every Christian is called to be an example of the new creation we are called to be in Christ.
If at this low state of function, what would we be accomplishing if just 10% of His body was functioning as He intended? Our calling is to be 100% equipped and “properly functioning.” What would we accomplish if we discarded the model that men devised and sought to fulfill the Ephesians model of church that equips and releases every Christian into ministry? It seems likely that we would be fulfilling the Great Commission to disciple the nations, and we would be doing a very good job preparing the way for the Lord and His kingdom.
This is going to be done. What are we waiting for? We’re waiting for just a few to start to refuse anything less than that which measures up to the biblical stature of “church,” equipping all believers for their part in the greatest adventure there has ever been, and being the lights of the world we are called to be. Why not us? Why not now?
© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
