"CHURCH OFFICES"

In this devotion we will consider a portion of the offices in the Church given by God’s Holy Spirit.
1) The apostles were the special messengers, the eyewitnesses of Christ’s resurrection(Acts 1:21-22; Luke 6 :13). Men may still be called apostles, in the sense that anyone who is sent is an apostle of the one who sends him. But strictly speaking, the twelve apostles had no successors.
While the office of apostle was temporary, the teachings of the twelve apostles should always be that which directs the church. In one sense, we can say that the church still has apostles, that is, the same ones it had in the beginning.
2) The prophets held another temporary office. These were both forthtellers and fortellers of God and His Words (See Zechariah 13:1-3; I Corinthians 13:8).
3) Preachers such as Timothy, Philip, and others, were called Evangelists (2 Timothy 4:5 ; Acts 21:8). The word evangelist means a bringer of good news. Evangelists may be called ministers (I Timothy 4:6). This office,by its very nature, must be permanent in the church. Evangelists will be needed as long as any person on earth has not heard the good news.
3) The pastors and teachers are those who are elsewhere called elders (presbyters ) or bishops (overseers) (Acts 20:17; Titus 1:5-7). These men are the overseers and teachers of individual congregations, and there should be more than one pastor in each church (Acts 14 :23).
The absence of the article ‘the’ before teachers in the Greek text, plus the fact that it is connected with pastors by a different conjunction than is used to separate the other offices, seems to indicate that the pastors and teachers are the
same office viewed from two different aspects, that is, from the teaching and shepherding aspect.
The common notion that an evangelist is a traveling preacher who holds revivals, and a pastor is a located preacher, has no foundation in the Scripture. Any preacher or minister of the gospel may be called an evangelist, and the elders ought to be called pastors.
Pastors and teachers are also permanent officers in the church. Let’s call Bible things by proper Bible names.