The Difference Between Office and Charisma⤒🔗

Among the gifts of the Spirit, which we normally call charismata, there are also gifts that we call offices. This word does not occur in the New Testament. In the entire Bible we do not find anywhere a definition of office. Yes, we do read of task descriptions that we are used to calling offices. We could therefore speak of “services” or “ministries” instead of “offices.” What we term an office is a task or a function in the Bible. In any case, we know what we mean when we use the word “office.”

In Ephesians 4:8 Paul speaks about the gifts (Greek: donata) that Christ, after his ascension, distributes to his church in rich diversity. But when the apostle subsequently begins to describe these gifts, he speaks of persons: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). These men become the bearers of what we ordinarily call the offices.

An office can be described as a task that Christ assigns to particular people. They should stand in the service of the church in his Name. It is Christ (Eph. 4:11) who, by means of his Spirit (Acts 20:28), assigns people to the office.

A kind of authority is coupled with the command to fulfill a special task within the church. The office-bearers are authorized representatives of Christ, therefore they have authority. This authority does not rest in the person of the office-bearer or in the qualities that he may possess, but in the command that he has received. The command is both determined and restricted by the Word. For all office work the dependence on the Holy Spirit is indispensable. No one will be able to fulfill a church office solely on the basis of human capacities. Versteeg puts it this way: the work of an office bearer must carry the stamp of the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit lies the source, the strength and the benchmark of his work.

This brings us to the important question of whether there is a difference between charisma and office.

There are various scholars who make a distinction between charisma and office. According to some, the early period of the church in the New Testament should even be distinguished as two periods.

At first there would be in the church of the New Testament a fully charismatic period with a great degree of mobility with regards to her concrete functioning. However, she would have grown to become a well-defined, structured community with office-bearers in place, in which the practical life of the church developed along well-defined lines and where the dynamic-charismatic gradually took on a more static-official form. The charismatic period would then have been the original and correct, whereas the institutional (or official) period needs to be regarded as a deflection of the right course. It is interesting to ask when or where this deflection of the correct, charismatic line would have started. On this point the scholars disagree. Some allege that the deflection started in the second century after Christ, while others see this deflection of the original charismatic line as early as in the time of the New Testament itself.

When we look at the New Testament it is impossible — as Ridderbos convincingly shows — to discover a contrast between a charismatic and an official period.

We will not deny that in the various listings of gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, Paul puts charismatic rather than institutional gifts on the foreground. There is no mention of presbyters, bishops or deacons, but of the charisma to provide leadership, to help and to show mercy. However, it cannot be denied that the content or substance of the offices are already apparent there.

After all, in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11 Paul calls his own apostolic office a charisma.

Official Recognition for the Sake of Order←⤒🔗

We find in the New Testament that those who have received the gift to provide leadership are called to serve as elders in the church. In the New Testament church we see that a certain charisma receives a public recognition for the sake of order in the church.

On the one hand it is true that the office comes forth from the church. It is in and through the church that elders are chosen (Acts 14:23). Yet on the other hand, the office is given by God. Time and time again it is strongly emphasized: it is God, it is Christ, it is the Spirit who appoints, gives, allots, and entrusts apostles, prophets and teachers in the church (1 Cor. 12:24; Rom. 12:6, 9; Eph. 4:7; Gal. 2:7). In this ordination or allotment the church is not excluded, but much rather included.

This does not take away the fact that it is ultimately God who sets persons in offices. The task of the church is that it will notice and, where necessary, give official recognition to a specific charisma. This should happen under the direction of the Holy Spirit — something that should be prayed for.

In the Old Testament we find the well-known example of the young Samuel. He has received the gift of prophecy from God. Then follows the recognition of the entire people of Israel that he is a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. 3:20).

The acknowledgement of the gift by the church, and the calling to an office, does not imply an increase in status for the person involved. We see this clearly in the example of Joseph. He receives a leading role in Potiphar’s house, yet he remains a slave. Later on, his capacities are rediscovered in prison. Again he may provide leadership, yet he remains a prisoner.

In the familiar parable of the faithful slave (Luke 12:42-46) one of the slaves who was found to be faithful and wise receives a managerial task from the master of the household. He needs to take care of the food portions of the other slaves. He becomes the steward (Greek: oikonomos, economist), yet he remains a slave.

The Charisma Is the Foundation for the Office←⤒🔗

In the New Testament it appears clearly that the charisma constitutes the basis for the office. According to the New Testament, the office is inconceivable without the basis of the charisma. Where the charisma of the Spirit is lacking in somebody, and yet he is installed in office, we find a completely secularized office that is not even worthy of the name “office.” Then we have office-bearers who, like the slave in the aforementioned parable, starts to eat and drink and to become drunk, and begins to beat the other servants (Luke 12:45). Over the course of the centuries the church has suffered immensely under such circumstances.

When a person has received a charisma from the Spirit, he can be ordained to an office by the church, and in that office the church needs to recognize and to honor the authority of Christ.

Of course, this does not mean at all that other charismata, which Christ gave to his church and which have not received official recognition, now have a non-active status. On the contrary, the office is there exactly to mobilize these charismata and to incorporate them into the whole spectrum of mutual service for the edification of the church. There are also charismata in the church that do not receive official recognition. This is not because these charismata are inferior. On the contrary, with the gift he or she has received, each member can provide a service to the church and assist in the upbuilding of the body of Christ. Not all charismatically gifted persons can simply occupy an office. A church cannot only consist of ministers, elders, and deacons, can it? Paul would say, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” (1 Cor. 12:17).

The Purpose of the Office←⤒🔗

The offices or ministries are given to the church as resources to help the church function as body of Christ in its totality (Eph. 4:12-16).

The Old Testament model, as it is pictured for us in Numbers 11:16 and 11:24, teaches us that it is necessary to be gifted with the Spirit in order to be able to carry out the task of an elder.

This biblical perspective of the relationship between charisma and the office can be found also in the beautiful form for the ordination of elders and deacons. At the end we find this prayer, “We thank you that you give us men who are endowed with your Holy Spirit. Grant them more and more the gifts they need—wisdom, courage, discretion, and mercy—so that each of them may fulfill his office as it is pleasing to you. Give your grace to both elders and deacons that they may persevere in faithful service”.

These words clearly express that the office needs the charisma in order to function well.

We need to be on guard that we do not play off the special office against the office of all believers. We can put so much stress on the special office that the office of the believer gets compromised. It can happen that ministers and elders are working hard in the church and the members just sit back and watch. There are even ministers who like to have things that way. They would prefer to keep the members immature. In that way they can maintain their own position better.

Someone once commented that the church sometimes looks very similar to a passenger ship. Ministers and elders are the captain and the helmsmen aboard. They are overloaded with official work. And the members of the church regard themselves as the passengers. Many of them are gifted as well, but they lounge peacefully on the decks.

According to the biblical model the church should look more like a warship where everyone has a task: the commanding officer, the stoker, the sailor, the bombardier.

It is even the case that tasks that have to be carried out by the special office can also be handed over to the members of the church. Just as the office-bearers must admonish church members if needed (1 Thess. 5:11), so also mutual admonition and encouragement are necessary (Heb. 3:13; 10:24-25).

On the other hand, we also need to guard against an underestimation of the office, as if the office-bearers are merely officials. When they do not measure up to a certain pattern of expectations in the church, the danger is that others will start taking over their functions. Graafland rightly pointed this out in his latest book.

It is striking that in the discussions, also found in orthodox-reformed circles, about “women in office,” much attention is given to the office.

Would it not be advisable to continue this discussion from a different perspective as well: the gifts that believing women have received from God? We should not ask whether among the charismata there are also specific “feminine” gifts. Scripture does not know of a distinction between masculine and feminine gifts.

However, it would certainly be worthwhile to trace in the Bible and in church history those gifts that have been especially used by women in service of the kingdom of God.

With the current appeals and pleas for women in office we could also end up in an unpleasant position for women, where the men end up failing in their callings. In churches where the offices have been opened to women, sometimes the complaint is heard that there are hardly any male elders left.