In September whilst on holiday in France I used to go each morning to collect our croissants for breakfast. It was about a ten minute walk each way and each day I listened to the Bible on my iPhone. This year I decided to listen to Ephesians, and over the two weeks listened to the whole book a number of times.

Various passages stood out for me. One of those was Eph 2:19-20: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

This raised in my mind the question of what is the foundation that the church is built on today?

In the time of the early church the foundation was the Apostles and Prophets. The Apostles who were missionary evangelists commissioned by God. They went and were sent to new places, new cultures and new communities. They were there with a purpose, to pioneer with the Gospel so that new people came to know the love and life of Jesus for themselves and to establish new expressions of the community of faith, which came to be called the church. They also had a role in supporting established communities of faith and challenging em to remain true to the Gospel and to continue to share the Gospel with new people. The prophets where those who spoke the living word of God into lives, hearts and minds. They didn’t so much ‘foretell’ what was to come as ‘forth tell’ God’s living word to individuals and communities. The Apostles and the Prophets worked well together (at least most of the time). The Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers then built on the foundation that had me laid by the Apostles and Prophets.

So what about the church today? My reflection is that for the past centuries the foundation of the church hasn’t been Apostolic and Prophetic but has been the foundation of the Pastors and Teachers. So much so that the title that many church leaders are called The Pastor. Pastors are gentle people who offer support and promote unity and loyalty.