Recently God has been bringing to my attention what is often called the “Five-Fold Ministry”. For the past few months, I have not been able to get away from Ephesians 4:1-16. The gist of it is that when Christ ascended, he took possession of a group of people and gave out a specific set of gifts. In particular, they are the apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists. And the reason he gave them? To equip the saints for ministry, so that His body can be built up—not just the existing body, but those that will join into Him through conversion. Elsewhere we read about other “spiritual gifts”, but these five have something special to do with Christ’s ascension; that is, with making sure He’s being recognized as King.

When David Bryant spoke at the ARC conference two years ago, he spoke of the ascension as the enthronement of Christ, and thus the event that sealed His supremacy. If we are praying for “revival” (a church- and culture-wide awakening to the supremacy of Christ), then those with one or more of those “ascension gifts” have an important part to play, and their most important role is to equip the saints—you and me—those of us with the other giftings found in Scripture. In this model, there are no sideliners—we each get to help each other bring Christ more glory. So imagine if, instead of building their own kingdoms, those with apostolic gifts (the planters and starters) teamed up with those with gifts of healing and really equipped them for ministry; or if the evangelists teamed up with those with mercy and hospitality gifts! How exciting—how we could shift the Kingdom of God into overdrive!

So what does this have to do with the arts, or with artists within the church? Artists and musicians are no different from others in the Kingdom, and we need to remember that. The “artistic gift” is not the spiritual gift—it’s the vehicle for it. (So when we say that someone is “gifted”, it doesn’t mean that the rest of the church is not—in fact, just the opposite.) There is a great opportunity for those in the arts, who may well have one or more of those “ascension gifts”, to equip the saints. (For more fun reading, go to Psalm 68, which is the passage to which Ephesians 4 refers—singers and musicians will find they have a lot to do with this!) Whether by participating in musical worship (which is largely prophetic), creating a visual atmosphere in the sanctuary that is conducive to worship (this could be considered an element of pastoral care, believe it or not), or even creating clear, communicative signage throughout a church campus (which contains an element of teaching), those of us in the arts can really be about the business of making it easier for our brethren to launch out in their own work of making Christ known as supreme.

If you are an artist, or you are involved in the care and feeding of one, take a good look at these “ascension gifts” and the places where you or they might already intersect with one of them. Really ask the Lord to strategize with you about how to focus your craft on bringing Jesus’ supremacy to bear. I’m not talking about pigeonholing; rather knowing the “why” behind the “what” of creating.

Here is an example in my own life. Last year, when our family visited IHOP (International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO), I believe I received from the Lord a fine-tuned personal mission statement. These were things I had known all along, but He simplified it for me:

“To know Jesus Christ and make Him known:
To know Him through intimacy with Him by the first commandment;
To make Him known through showing His truth and beauty, through my music, art and a holy life.”

Now as far as “ascension gifts”, my heart’s desire, what really gets me fired up, is evangelism. From the very beginning of my salvation, I’ve asked the Lord to show me exactly where I fit into His strategy for winning the lost—because I want to serve Him and the church with the most efficiency and skill I can possess. This mission statement has become my hat-peg when I get confused or don’t know where I fit—a common plague among artists. It has helped me to care more about improving my artistic skill as well as my skill in relating personally to my clients as people I really care about and to whom I can show Christ. I’m currently being mentored in business practices by a brother who has a great gift in evangelism. He is helping equip me for ministry.

Imagine that the will of God is a spherical puzzle, and each of us is a piece of that puzzle. In this life, we only get our one little piece. We can’t be someone else, and no one can be us. If we aren’t faithful to our own little slice—that is, our calling—the integrity of the whole is somewhat compromised. I want to be a sharp arrow in the bow of the Lord, that He can aim where He pleases, and that hits the mark for His glory. It’s not that we won’t ever miss the mark, mess up, guess wrong, or have seasons of wilderness—but if we ask God for a guiding principle in our lives, it’s something we can come back to and hang our hat on in the hard times.

What I really want to communicate in all of this is my belief that each one of us can ask God to show us what our gifts are, and even to give us a personal mission statement. Praying and striving toward this kind of focus matters greatly to me, because, as I see it, we only get one life to make a difference for the Kingdom. And the good news is, because He is intensely focused on His glory, it’s His delight to make it clear to us, if we will only ask. Like my grandparents did with me, we can assess our gifts, and strategize and hone them to take them out of the esoteric and into the practical.

Vesper Stamper