A Review of and Challenge from Primal Fire

I recently read a book called Primal Fire.

This is an epic non-fiction Christian book. Starting with the Holy Spirit, it studies the gifts that Jesus gave the church in Ephesians 4.

The author makes the claim that apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (pastors), and teachers were given by Jesus to equip believers and to grow the church to the fullness of Christ.

Using the acronym APEST, they look at each of the gifts individually and jointly. Each gift has its own unique strengths that build up the church and equip believers to do likewise, but each gift has a dark side that when unchecked, it can cause damage throughout the body of Christ. Furthermore, there are false versions of the gifts when people masquerade in an APEST role and claim the authority and honor associated with it.

But don't take my word for it, read Ephesians 4 in every translation you can get your hands on. Then read this book. Then send me a note telling me what you learned in it.

As you read this book, you may identify with some of the positive traits associated with an APEST role...or like me, you may sheepishly grimace as traits of the dark side lurk at little too close to home.

I had two big take aways from this book.

1. Jesus gave these APEST roles to the Church in the New Testament. They are mentioned in Revelations as being present in the end times. From the end of the New Testament, until the end times finish, these gifts are and will still be present in the churches. We may call them by different, safer names, but I recognized their fruit and their people in our churches still.

2. The goal of the APEST roles are not just to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (pastors), and teachers in and of themselves. But rather their full goal is to equip others to do the same, whether that is carrying the Gospel to new places, hearing God's voice/message, loving the lost/unreached, uniting the body & caring for it, or teaching good doctrine and Biblical truths.

God has done great things through the early church and up until the present day. Will we continue to join Him and equip the body of Christ to do so as well?