Apostles Today?

 "And He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers," Ephesians 4:11

In the early church we read references of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers. All were active, all were important, and all were involved in the work of ministering to God's people.

In our Fellowship we have pastors, evangelists, and missionaries. We tend to label all ministry as first, pastors, and second, evangelists. Even missionaries are sent to be pastors in foreign lands.

Just because we do not use titles, I wonder if we have ministry operating that fulfills the qualifications set forth in Ephesians.

The word apostle simply means sent. Men who were trained and then sent. It by logical expansion implies sending. I wonder if a pastor who disciples men and then sends couples to start churches is actually an apostle? I always felt that pastor Mitchell was an apostle. I think that a pastors of pastors is an apostle too.

We get nervous about titles. But there is no limit to apostolic ministry in the New Testament. There were the 12 apostles, and there are others called apostles who were not of the twelve.

So we do not call someone an apostle or a prophet, but there are men in the ministry today who fulfill these and other legitimate ministries in our churches.