12. Evangelism and Missions – Paul M. Williams

Ephesians 4:11

There is a plague today that is infesting the Western Evangelical Church and greatly harming the Ekklesia.  It’s this notion of individualism — that I can be a dismembered member of Christ’s Body and still somehow function in ministry.  You’ll search the pages of the New Testament in vain to find such a pattern!  In every place you see ministry, you will see members connected to the Body!!   The gifts are given to the BODY — a local assembly of committed individuals/believers.  Different gifts are given to different members within that local assembly for the profit of the whole BODY.  This whole idea that one can be dismembered from a local assembly and yet be serving in “ministry” is a farce, and nowhere is this travesty more seen than in the field of evangelism!!