By Beau Crosetto
I was reading this new book with my kids and I couldn’t stop laughing as I saw the similarities to this “crocodile” and APE leaders.
SPOLIER ALERT: for those who plan to read this on your next vacation 🙂
This is a clever book about a crocodile who doesn’t like to swim like all the other little crocodiles. He likes to climb trees, not swim. He tries and tries to make it work. He even buys an inner-tube to help him swim better and stay afloat, but it just doesn’t work for him. He doesn’t like swimming! Therefore he is relegated to the side and is by himself and lonely.
But one day, his nose starts to grow and he finds himself with a long snout…then all of a sudden he has to sneeze and…FIRE comes out!
This my friends, is not a crocodile but a DRAGON.
He was never meant to swim but spit fire. He looked like a crocodile in the early stages, and he was surrounded by crocodiles. So naturally he was expected to do crocodile activities. But his DNA had him marked for different activities and finally he found what that was supposed to be!
Are You an APE, not a Pastor or Teacher?
Many of us are marked for the apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic ministries. Our spiritual DNA says so and we stir for those kinds of activities. We don’t like swimming, we like climbing trees. Is swimming bad? No!
Most of the western world is full of pastoral and teaching ministries. If you are serious about Jesus, you teach and shepherd people. It is what you do. If you don’t stir for those activities, then you must not be a great fit for a crocodile Christian Leader.
Today is simply a reminder that you might be a dragon APE leader and not a ST.
If that is true then I encourage you to lean into the stirrings you have. It is ok if you are not motivated by the same kinds of activities that the other people around you are. Jesus gave us five callings for a reason. We are meant to be doing a variety of things to advance the church and we need swimmers and climbers and fire breathers. Go do your thing!
This is a reminder for why we have this blog,
to encourage a community of people who feel stirred by APE types of activities. We want to model the actions we are taking so you can see what some alternative forms of ministry can be. We want to tell stories so you can see you are not alone. We want to encourage you so you keep going and be who you are called to be even if everyone else is swimming.
Lastly, we need to be creating APE type ministries in our churches and organizations so we can give people camaraderie around these activities. We also need them so young APEs can find themselves earlier and realize how they are built and designed for ministry. So, please make some space for different kinds of activities so all types of callings can be found and activated!
What would you say are apostolic, prophetic or evangelistic activities? Lets make a list in the comments to help those trying to shape culture in their community.
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What are ways you’ve created APE type ministries? Please explain that statement
In our ministry we have made specific teams for people that want to start “new things” to attract and give space to apostolic people. We have created very specific evangelistic ministries like evangelistic bible studies, outreach campaigns, large group forums designed for speakers that “evangelistic” people would be excited to work on. We have created intense prayer campaigns (48 hours of prayer, healing services, etc) as well as justice oriented ministries for the more “prophetic” types to lead and be invigorated by. All that to say, we don’t just have Bible studies for you to lead or “discipleship” meetings in the form of sitting in the coffee shop and going through books. Does that help?