Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Ephesians 4:12 For the perfecting [total equipping] of the saints [Christians], for the work of the ministry [service], for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13 Till [until] we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [mature or complete] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.

Note that the office of apostle and the four ministries that are mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 are to be in operation until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Jesus and until we come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  Other Scriptures speak of these ministries and the office of apostle. 

In a plastic and powerless church, this pattern of God has been all but eliminated.  The patterns of God have been replaced by many man-made patterns.  The pattern of the one-man-ministry is not found in Scripture.  The order of the Chief elder or head pastor is not in Scripture.  The order of the paid local minister/pastor is not in Scripture.  Scriptures that apply to traveling ministries, apostles, have been twisted to fit the current distortion that can be seen in the churches.

For those who desire to press on to the fulfillment of the promises mentioned in this Scripture, they soon find that they can only go a certain distance down this path before they need these five gifts to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Some have tried to manufacture these or make these gifts fit into the man-made orders that they have spent so much energy in ignorance building.  That only has led to frustration and rationalization.  God moved to restore these gifts in His great move that began in 1948 and continues to restore.

Let God be true and every man a liar.

Apostles are given the responsibility of protecting the entire flock of God from the attack of the enemy, but with so many voices in the world, each one claiming to be the one that should be listened to, how can you know?  You are responsible to be close enough to God so that you can tell the difference between false apostles and real apostles.

Read the complete definition of "Apostle."  

God restored the gifts of the Spirit and apostles & prophets to the church since 1948.  Counterfeits and false gifts abound, but the real is still real.

Only Christ can do any edifying.  In understanding Ephesians 4:12-16, you must go back to the main verb, edoken, in verse 11.  Christ gave the gifts.  He gave the office of apostle.  He gave the four ministries.  Those gifts are not the persons but the Christ in those persons, as another passage says, "Christ in us, the hope of glory."  The text cannot be read any other way than to understand that these gifts are performing all of this work as the gifts proceed from Christ.  Grace means, literally, free gift.  This is grace, and we know from Scripture that it is grace that does any work that is done.  In fact, God could give no greater gift, so He gave us of Himself.  He chooses to do it through apostles, ones sent.  He chooses to not use those who send themselves or who are sent by men.  It is plain from the Greek that it is not gifted people who do any of this work, but rather the Gift Himself does the work through the members.  This is true whether it is the apostle who is totally equipping and completing the member or the member who is now also moving in the power and authority of the same gift.  When any member comes into submission to the apostle, that person carries the same anointing and authority of the apostle just as long and to the extent that they are in submission.  They are not submitting to a man but to Christ Himself.  If you can discern the Body of Christ, you will see this.  If you see this, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but your Father in Heaven has revealed it.

You can go many places on the internet, on Christian radio, or in the religious world where you will find people twisting this Scripture.  They will twist "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" into "teacher/pastors", or "pastor/teacher", or "evangelists, pastors, teachers", or some other misquote.  It is evil to twist the traveling elders and deacons, the apostles, into locally abiding pastors.  Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about locally abiding pastors.  There are locally abiding elders who pastor (care for the church as a shepherd does sheep) the members, and those men receive no money for what they do.  They receive a double measure of honor.  The Bible says what it says.  The Scripture cannot be broken.  Satan hates the Bible and he hates God's church and the orders of God's church.  If you see someone doing this, run, do not walk, away.