Ephesians 4:11-12: Great Commission Quadrality for Shepherds

Ephesians 4:11-12.. "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ."

In a blog post a while back, we looked at the "quadrality" of the Great Commission. I proposed to you that the Great Commission had four commands or "parts" that we all ought to follow: Go, Make, Baptize, and Teach. Today, let us dive into this idea more, as well as understand what it looks like for shephers, that is, the pastors and elders in the church.

Firstly, let us dive into this quadrality more by dividing the four commands into two groups. I would like to propose that the first three commands (Go, Make, and Baptize) are the evangelistic parts of the Great Commission, and that the last command (Teach) is the educational part of the Great Commission [and, if you were wondering.. YES! The book on this is coming. If you'd like to reserve a copy, let me know]. That is, as we go, make, and baptize disciples, we are bringing them to Christ, but as we teach disciples, we are growing them in Christ. Remember, all four of these commands are commanded of all Christians. However, what does this look like specifacly for the shepherds of God's church? What are the pastors' and elders' responsibilities in the fulfillment of the Great Commission? Is their responsibility the same or different than those that are not formal pastors or elders?

In Ephesians 4:11-12, we find that the responsibility of the shepherds of God's flock (and all of the other categories listed that we would summarize in the word "shepherd") is to "equip the sains for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." In other words, it is the pastor's duty to enable his church to do ministry. In this verse, it is clearly found that it is not just the pastor who is doing the ministry, but the church members as well. However, the church members must be equipped by the pastors and elders to do the work of that ministry. But how does the pastor equip them?

The question of how the shepherds of the church equip their members for ministry is a question that I do not want to fully dive into in this post, but I would like to point something out: If pastors are supposed to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, that is, the Great Commission, how will the pastors ever be able to equip the saints if they have not fulfilled the Great Commission themselves, in all of its various aspects? Indeed, they cannot, or at least they cannot effectively. Therefore, I find it of great importance for pastors to not only be experienced in how to fulfill the educational aspect of the Great Commission (Teaching) but also the evangelistic aspect of the Great Commission (Going, Making, Baptizing) in order that they might know how to equip the saints to go and fulfill the Great Commission themselves.

In short, I find it of great importance for every pastor to have experience in teaching disciples as well as going, making, and baptizing disciples so that they may teach their congregations to do the same. How can you teach someone to go and make a disciiple unless one has done it himself?

P.S. I would love pushbacks and comments on this. Feel free to comment below.