And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Eph 4:11-13 NKJ)

When we look at the Gospels, we find all five of these gifts in Christ. So we ignore these ministries at great cost and to our deficit. Also, the body becomes one-sided and out of balance.  To ignore the apostolic calling means that we lack a vision of the bigger picture (the direction of the Body of Christ). To ignore the prophets (this is not the gifts of 1 Cor 12) is to lack directional and societal adjustment. The teacher adds depth to the Word, something that is often lacking.

These ministries are given for the equipping of the saints.  Look at this verse again in the Amplified version:

His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church), [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [[b]full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.

How can we steer this ship if we lack the equipment? The answer is; we can’t. The reason Christ has given us these gifts is to keep us on track.

“So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of [c]unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.” Eph 4:14 AMP