[Thursday's Devotional] - Rocket the Pioneer Engine

“Rocket” was the creation of the North Eastern engineer George Stephenson.  In 1830 he used it to successfully win the trials for the Liverpool to Manchester Railway.  It was from this engine and a similar machine called Sans Pareil that the future of steam locomotives took its shape.  Rocket was a true pioneer.  Rocket pushed the frontier of steam locomotives westwards!

I recently preached a sermon on Ephesians 4.  In this chapter, Paul is exhorting the church in Ephesus to remain united.  He talks about the different ministries in the body of Christ and their mutual interdependence.  Paul talks about the ministries of the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Pastor and the Teacher.  Briefly these five ministries can be sorted into two groups: pioneers and settlers.

Pioneers	Settlers
Apostles	Pastor
Evangelists	Teachers
Prophets

I want to look briefly at Pioneers today.

The Apostle is one who is sent out by Christ to plant churches and minister to those new Christian communities.  Paul is clearly identified as an apostle to the New Testament church.

An Evangelist is someone who has a ministry of sharing the good news about King Jesus with others and bringing them into the church community.

A Prophet is someone who hears from God and is able to speak God’s word into situations.  The ministry of prophecy is not so much about foretelling as telling forth: saying what God thinks and working out the outcome to the situation based on knowing God’s character.

So the question for this morning is simply, which one of these are you?  Perhaps you recognise your calling among these ministries very clearly.  Perhaps you don’t really.  Well that’s ok, because we will look at settler ministries tomorrow.  But before you write this list off and decide that you are a settler and can wait until tomorrow to find out more, look at the list again.  You see, both pioneers and settlers will have a main ministry, but will also be involved in other sorts of ministry as the Lord calls.  So look again.  Recognise when God has used you in the pioneer ministries and thank God for those times. Commit yourself anew to pioneer ministries whether it is your main calling or not.

John Martin-Jones