The Sixth Article of Faith

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

Thinking about this one, I was tempted to treat it with the 9th; some of my first thoughts related more to the ninth. 

They should all kind of go together anyway, but I decided it would be more productive to focus on the differences. 

Perhaps it helps that I was reading in Acts not too long ago, with the first calling of bishops (pastors). There were physical needs. Maybe those needs were unusually pressing so it was noticed sooner, but leaving the apostles in charge of everything took time away from those things that only they could do. Hence, you call people whose chief responsibility is "serving tables". (See Acts 6:2.)

The thing is, we adapt organizations all the time to the specific needs. There is much that was not in the primitive church.

We have a Sunday school, and that is not just for children but also for youth and adults (though they do have different classes), because everyone can stand to learn more about the scriptures and there is a lot to learn that you don't get on the first pass.

We do have an organization for children, the primary, because children need to learn and will do better with lessons adapted for them (and with singing time and chances to wiggle more).

We have Relief Society, which started as women sewing shirts for men working on constructing the temple, and did not operate continuously, but then was restarted because it filled a purpose that was good for that time and place.

Under different circumstances there are different needs, and different ways of meeting those needs.

However, the callings that are mentioned in the article are on one level very basic and very important.

Apostles are special witnesses of Christ, and a church that is following Christ needs those witnesses.

Without prophets and prophesy, it is apostasy. That doesn't mean that faith can't exist or matter, but there would be a lot missing.

As much as that spiritual guidance matters, it is hard for people to focus on spiritual matters when their needs for shelter and food and safety are not being met, so having pastors to focus on that (even if they end up providing some spiritual guidance too) is important.

There is always more that we can know, so there must always be teachers, even if often we are learning together. 

There is still someone working on it.

Those callings focus on the believers, but there will be people who could believe but do not know; evangelists spread the gospel, and this is also necessary.

It makes sense that those parts of the organization were listed, even if there is a lot of room for more.