The Apostle's Parable

There once was man of God who was burdened for the land of Nogos Pel.  He prayed for the people of the land and sought the Lord for help in reaching the lost of the land.  One night in a dream the Lord showed the man of God a vision of twenty five ministers being sent to help him reach the land of Nogos Pel.  It happened that there were twenty five cities in the land so it seemed easy enough to send a minister into each city to become the pastor of the respective cities.  So he sent them and the man of God was declared to be the overseer of the work.

As the ministers worked they began reaching the people of Nogos Pel.  A few times a year the pastors came to gather to vote on who’s who in the land and talk about their efforts and successes.  After a while some of the churches began to grow larger, but some weren’t growing much at all.  The pastors whose congregations had grown larger began to build large buildings and move from their rented store fronts and homes.  They drove nice big cars and were usually the ones elected to the positions of importance. 

But the pastors whose congregations had not grown very much, or in some cases, lost members to the bigger churches began to feel left out.  Some of them stopped going to the few meetings that were held.  They just stayed in their cities trying to do better, wondering what was wrong with them.  Some began to look with envy at the large churches and bitterness began to rise up, especially among those whose members had transferred to the nice, big churches.  And of the largest of the churches there began to arise a spirit of completion. 

It wasn’t long until many of the pastors were not fellowshipping with the rest.  While the man of God watched over the land he seemed helpless to stop the break down that was taking place among the twenty five pastors and their churches.  His heart broke as he watched the progress of evangelism grind to nearly a halt.  Energies of the ministers had become consumed with buildings, the lack of buildings, envy, bitterness, and maybe most of all the loneliness of trying to reach a city by (what they increasingly felt like) themselves.  Each pastor had come to focus on what other pastors were doing and how they compared.  If they were faring better than the others they were lifted up in pride.  If they were doing worse than others they were cast down in discouragement. 

While the twenty five pastors had reached some of the people of Nogos Pel, most of the inhabitants had not yet even heard the message.  After a number of years, the increase of souls stopped… or nearly so.  The man of God who once had a burden for the lost of his land now had a bigger burden for the pastors and their flocks.  It looked to him as he grew older that instead of a thriving, flourishing work of God the effort of reaching Nogos Pel had succumbed to dysfunction.  

One night he was awakened from a deep sleep by the screams of people.  He raced to the window of his house to look out into a night sky that was aglow in reddish orange light that was being reflected by what looked to be billowing clouds.  The screams continued and he could hear them getting louder and closer.  He could see leaping flames reaching into the night as a devastating fire raged through out the land.  With a sadness beyond imagination he watched as the people of the land perished in the fire and beyond the sadness of the loss of the people was the sadness at the loss of the very works of the ministers that were supposed to be there to save the land of Nogos Pel.

Then, as if in a miraculous transformation, the man of God awoke out of his horrendous dream.  As he regained his composure the clear and unmistakable voice of God spoke, “Twenty five ministers are coming, yea and twenty six, and they are called to specific ministries: two will be prophets, eight will be evangelists, eight will be pastors, and seven will be teachers.  These will work together for the sake of my kingdom and my kingdom’s orchestration will be accomplished by the twenty sixth as he hears my voice of direction… He is the Apostle of Nogos Pel.  You, Man of God, are that Apostle… fulfill my will and reach this land!”

Just a thought:  Is it more effective for twenty five ministers to work individually, or as a team?  The five fold ministry is a team effort.