Why did God give the church evangelists, pastors, and teachers?
God gave evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the perfecting and maturing of the saints, moving believers from spiritual infancy and carnality to meat-eating maturity, for the work of ministry, and for edifying the Body of Christ, so church members can be fed and become soul winners.
Les explains that these are the three basic gifts the Church needs today: evangelists who preach salvation, pastors, and teachers. They are given not to exalt the leaders themselves but for the perfecting and maturing of the saints, to bring them from infancy, carnality, and milk-bottle feeding up to meat-eating believers. Their purpose is the work of the ministry and the edifying of the Body of Christ. Les also maintains that the primary purpose of the local church is to feed its members so they can go out and become soul winners in the world where they move, as the early church did.
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: