Biblical Church Ministries
Divine gifts ministered through and to the Church: Scriptures instruct us that these nine gifts are to be ministered by the individuals without any divine requirement of credentials, for the profit of all. It is God that grants these gifts to those that are willing to submit to God and have the love for others to serve them through Christ. When we, the church gather, all these gifts should be present.
1 Corinthians 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8. for to one is given the (1)word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the (2) word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9. to (3) another faith by the same Spirit, to another (4) gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10. to another the (5) working of miracles, to (6) another prophecy, to (7) another discerning of spirits, to another (8) different kinds of tongues, to (9) another the interpretation of tongues. 11. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
God's Individual Appointments: Scripture is very clear that the gifts of God are given to the church individually, and are to be ministered to each other in the grace and love of God. But the truth is that anyone that would be given any of these gifts would be met with enormous resistance because of the traditional requirements of credentials. Credentials are clearly one of the tools that Satan uses to squelch the acknowledgment of the presence of the Lord within the body of Christ. God's credentials are revealed by the heart and not with paper proving one's personal accomplishments of man.
1 Corinthians 12:27. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
ad-min-is-tra-tion (²d-m¹n"¹-str³"sh...n) n. Abbr. admin., adm. 1. Management, especially of business affairs.
Individual members: 1 Peter 4:10. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Equipping for Ministry: Ephesians 4:11. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12. for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13. till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14. that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive,15. but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ 16. from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Scriptures show that the equipping for the ministry is proof that the whole body of Christ, the church are to be involved in ministering to each other, all growing in the knowledge of the Son of God, being united in faith, speaking and living by the truths that are revealed by God through His Holy Spirit. There is strength, security and confidence in the church, the body of Christ, when all do their share in defending against the deceptive trickery of men.
When we consider the behavior of the church in the book of Acts, and if our tradition of corporate worship of today was not so similar to the carnal, spoken by the apostle Paul, then maybe God would be doing more of the above in our denominational corporate worship. I think we have missed a lot of God's blessing and gifts due to our corporate division and the falling away from the righteousness of God.