What are the three basic gifts the church needs today?
The three basic gifts the Church needs today are evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Evangelists preach salvation and may go from place to place. Pastors are gifted men, though not all of God’s men can be pastors, and not all can be teachers. These gifts serve the maturing of the saints and the edifying of the Body of Christ.
Les explains that these are the three basic gifts explained in Ephesians: evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Evangelists can preach salvation, probably going from place to place. There is also the man gifted to be a pastor, but not all of God’s men can be pastors, and not all can be teachers. God gave the Church these three categories of people for the perfecting and maturing of the saints, to bring them from infancy, carnality, and being fed on the milk bottle up to meat-eating believers. All of these evangelists, pastors, and teachers are for the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for edifying the Body of Christ, not the pastors, teachers, and evangelists themselves. Les further maintains that the primary purpose of the Church is to feed its members so those members can go out and become soul winners in the world in which they move, as they did in the early church.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;