Ephesians 4: 11-12:
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 in order to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ
What are the differences between these trades? Are their roles, responsibilities and gifts formally defined somewhere?
It tends to be just charismatic denominations that refer to these as “crafts,” so if we use the term as a starting point, we run the risk of reading ideas into the text that may not be original to the author. In many patristic texts, ‘Apostles’ were a shorthand term for ‘apostolic’ texts (e.g. New Testament letters) and traditions, ‘Prophets’ for Old Testament texts, ‘Evangelists’ for the four Gospels , and then the ‘pastors and teachers’ were the current leaders.
In Philadelphia, Ignatius treats the prophets and apostles as historical phenomena:
“The priests are also noble, but the High Priest who has been entrusted with the Holy of Holies is older, and he alone has been entrusted with the secret things of God. He is the gate of the Father, through which Abraham and Isaac enter. and Jacob and the Prophets and the Apostles and the Church. All these things are united in the unity of God. But the Gospel has some prominence, the coming of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion and his resurrection. For the beloved prophets had a message that pointed to it, but the Gospel is the perfection of incorruption.” – Ignatius to the Philadelphians, IX
Similarly, Clement (himself a disciple of Peter) only speaks of Apostles in the past tense:
“The Apostles received the Gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent from God. So, Christ is from God, and the Apostles are from Christ. Therefore, both proceed from the will of God in the appointed order ”. – 1 Clement 42
On the other hand, the Didache (effectively a first century church manual) has a section discussing ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ as contemporary phenomena, so there is another side to the argument.
This then leaves the terms pastor/shepherd and teacher for the actual roles that occurred in the church, which are a bit easier to handle.
Pastor is a warm and charming pastoral term for a leader, and seems to be an umbrella term for those with leadership responsibilities, such as bishops or elders.
Teacher is a more generic term and could be understood to encompass the widest range of people who provide teaching or training in a church context.