Apostolic | Release the A.P.E.

Apostle as Architect

one response
October 23, 2012

[This is part of a series called “What is an Apostle?” Check the other post here]

A= Architect

“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.”

– 1 Corinthians 3:10

Paul was a missional architect and we see this no more clearly than the way he talks to the Corinthian church. Paul saw his role as an apostle to lay framework and foundation for the church so others could carry out the mission of Jesus. Paul saw himself as a “wise builder” or “master builder” when it came to the church.

One of the main functions of an apostle is the “architect of mission” and the job here is to create, design and oversee the mission of God moving forward through a church or organization.

Lessons Learned While Starting New Things

2 responses
October 22, 2012

Dave teaching at one of the churches in his network

[This post is part of the Start Something New series. Read the other posts here!]

It was twelve years ago that Community Christian Church started a new campus for the first time. Since that time we have started a total of twelve campuses and have #13 and #14 in the cue for next year. It was seven years ago that Community planted our first new church and went on to form NewThing. Since that time our networks outreach has grown from one church reaching a couple thousand to twenty networks of churches reaching tens of thousands in three movements. During the last decade our passion has been about starting new things – new campuses, new churches and brand new expressions of God’s ecclesia. And during that time we have learned some lessons about starting new things.

1. VISION LESSON: The “God-Thing” Often Comes before the Vision

If you would’ve asked me a few years back how change is initiated, I would have said it starts with vision! I would have said it starts with a compelling vision from a gifted leader. While that is true, it’s not the whole truth in my experience. I didn’t really have the vision for being a multi-site church. God did! It was a God thing! I often get the credit for being a visionary leader, but what is closer to the truth is this: God did something extraordinary and I share what God has done with the rest of the church as the vision; and people follow. When you are able to share where God is working that is always a compelling vision that people will want to follow!

Apostolic Movements Beyond The Church

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October 21, 2012

This is a guest post by Bob Roberts. He is the founder and Senior Pastor of NorthWood Church.
Through his leadership, NorthWood has planted 130 churches in the US. Bob is an international speaker and thinker in transforming people, churches, communities and the world. He has led
NorthWood and other churches to provide international development projects which include building schools, clinics and hospitals, micro-businesses, water systems and exchange student programs. You can read the rest of his bio here

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

Everyone talks about how there is no division between the secular and the sacred – but do we really believe that, and if we do, how does it change the way we act? Everyone talks about how we believe in the priesthood of every believer but do we really believe that? Everyone says it’s all about making disciples – but do we know what they really look like? We are using new language – but continuing in old applications – even in our missional conversations.

When you talk about “apostolic” or leadership in the 5-fold (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher) it’s tied primarily to ecclesiology and positions in ministry. Not long ago I heard several “missional” church planting guys (primarily house but not exclusively) talk about “apostolic” and to them the “apostolic” was seen in guys who planted a lot of churches. It sounded real spiritual and transformational – “Apostolic leaders plant communities of faith in the city to engage and serve.”

Unless we release the “apostolic” beyond church planting – and hang on – the church framework, we will never see a move of God

And I mean all forms of the church, simple, house, organic, included. For a government to work, for a business to make a profit, for a hospital to work – you name it – it requires those 5 “practices” or functions if you will, in it’s own unique context.

God’s grid for engaging the world is found in the city, not the church. It’s the disciple and the city, not the preacher/planter and the church. The church is the gathering of disciples that are equipped and strategically deployed to engage the world/city/society for transformation. We teach our church planters the concept of “domains” which is found in human resource and urban studies. Domains are the infrastructure that a city is built on: education, governance, economics, health, agriculture, communication, art, civil society, etc., Sadly, most start churches to hopefully engage the city – I believe the reverse is even more powerful – engage the city through the infrastructures through disciples, and let the church emerge out of that.

Apostolic Bankers, Doctors & Diplomats

I have a friend who is an international banker who loves Jesus. For years, as a banker not a church planter, not a pastor type (even though he’s led a significant house church movement) he sees the functions of the 5-fold as relevant for kingdom business.

What is an Apostolic Leader?

12 responses
October 18, 2012

Apostolic leaders are always plotting where the mission needs to go next

The Apostolic vocation in the church as noted in Ephesians 4 is very important to me personally and vital for the Kingdom of God as it continues to move forward.

What makes the Apostolic vocation extremely important is the fact that it is the primary role in charge of pushing forward the mission of God.

The Apostolic function of the church is responsible for pushing forward the mission of God and designing the way the church carries that out. These are our primary catalysts, visionaries and risk takers in the body when it comes to advancing the mission of God. We need them and we need them fully empowered!

Apostle is a buzz word these days.

At the very worst, it is a negative word, associated with crazies who have distorted the vocation and defined it in unhelpful and unhealthy ways.
At the very best it is being activated day by day as a legitimate vocation in the church and we are seeing the mission of God screaming forward.

However, the majority of people and churches are somewhere in the middle, and they just don’t talk about the Apostolic vocation much. Its just not a word you would find in those people or in the language of the church leadership. Therefore, the apostolic calling is not being released.

Well, we are going to talk about it a lot here as you can tell by now!

Some Helpful Posts

A series of posts on the apostolic calling. Follow along right here

— How To Identify An Apostolic Leader

— Here is my interpretation of Ephesians 4 and the five fold ministry

— Beau’s Story as an apostolic evangelist read this.

— Jon Hietbrink has a great post on owning the whole field

— The apostolic impulse needs to drive our minsitries

— Dave Ferguson says “you know you’re an apostle when…”

— Chris Nichols tells us apostolic leaders are born not made

[Are you finding this article clarifying? Click here to send a tweet to your friends]

So, I would love to know…If you could pick one word to describe an apostolic leader what would it be?

When Preaching Fails

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October 17, 2012

I’ve been thinking again about John Wesley lately.

That might normally be weird. But I find myself going back to this European believer from the 18th century. For one, he was a premier evangelist, and would take his message to the mines to make sure the miners, who wouldn’t normally step into a church, would hear about the message of Jesus. In a time when it was often considered wrong to preach outside of a church building, it was a courageous step.

At the same time, and perhaps more importantly, he thought preaching alone wasn’t enough. Here’s a quote that I took from James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful God:

In one stark entry in Wesley’s journal, he commented on a time when he failed to establish societies and classes in a region where he had preached. He returned twenty years after a great revival in a region called Pembrokeshire and was grieved to see that no evidence of their evangelistic success remained. He concluded:

“I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline, no order or connection. And the consequence is that nine in ten of those once awakened are now faster asleep than ever.”

It’s clearly a cautionary tale. But it’s also amazing that he learned from it, and became unwilling to preach unless structures were put in place to help the new believers continue to mature. It wasn’t either/or for him:

he called people to make decisions for faith, and still wanted to create the structures that would encourage relationships and a growing faith within the community.

When you hear someone called an “Apostolic Leader” how does that rub you?

2 responses
October 16, 2012

Confessions and a Needed Practice for Apostolic Leaders

2 responses
October 15, 2012

One of the characteristics of our host culture here in the United States is that we live in an atmosphere where our worth is often determined by our ability to produce and achieve. This has a tendency to shape us into slaves of production.

I have especially experienced this an apostolic leader who is always creating and starting things.

In the first church I planted, it was rare for me to take a day off. I was like the rat running in the wheel with no rest. The problem is that when we enter the rat race, we often become rats in the process. I had little patience, which, according to I Cor. 13, means I had little love. I thought patience was for under-achievers. Being an Ennegram three, the Achiever, one of my basic desires is to feel valuable and worthwhile, while my basic fear if of being worthless. The corresponding weakness is that I can try and find my value and worth through achievement, which make Sabbath for me (and other apostolically gifted leaders) a needed concrete practice that can act as a counterforce to our dominate culture, which is trying to squeeze us into its mold.

In Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson gives a beautiful description of Biblical Sabbath. He says that Sabbath is, “Uncluttered time and space to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities so we can see what God has been and is doing. If we do not regularly quit work for one day a week, we take ourselves far too seriously. The moral sweat pouring off our brows blinds us to the primal action of God in and around us.” I’m happy to say that since being in L.A. I have religiously taken a day off.

The key task for an apostolic leader is to help people connect with their calling so that mission can be carried out. If we are not slowing down and taking days off with God to remember that He is in control and the one in charge, we become as Peterson suggests, blinded by our “moral sweat” and we cannot properly see how God is at work and help others step into that.

Part of what it means to become more like Jesus is walking in the Spirit and living a life more and more characterized the by fruit of the Spirit, including patience. It is interesting that the Chinese join two characters to form a single pictograph for busyness: heart and killing. Could it be that they understand that busyness kills the heart and makes us stop caring about the things we care about?

Free Book Give Away: “The Permanent Revolution”

32 responses
October 14, 2012

Here we are again for our next book give away!

The last one was great and we had awesome participation!

Let’s do it again!

This week we are giving away “The Permanent Revolution” by Alan HIrsch and Tim Catchim.

5 COPIES!!!!

And they are really nice and hard back! I am tempted to steal one and not give them all away…that’s how good they look!

This is a great book on apostolic leadership and it really makes the case in an in depth way for why we need to release and empower the apostolic vocation in the church. If we want a “Permanent Revolution” then we need the apostles released.

You think I like this book 🙂

THIS BOOK gives great attention to the apostolic vocation and goes in depth with describing it and giving us language.

I am really excited for you to get this book!

Also, if you are in LA area this Friday and Saturday, there is a great event at Fuller Seminary, LA 2012, where Alan will be presenting his book and JR will be presenting his. It is really cheap to come. Like $20 for a whole group! Check out the event here

Here is how to enter yourself for the drawing…

How Does A.P.E. Show up in Parenting?

no responses
October 12, 2012

[This post is part of the “Non Conventional Places A.P.E. Giftings Show Up” series. Read the rest of the posts here!]

Ever wondered how your spiritual gifts play out in your parenting style? It’s pretty easy to assume the way you parent is due to your wonderful planning combined with the 55 gajillion parenting books you’ve ingested. Ever considered that the healthiest aspects of your parenting style are all bound up with your spiritual gifts? Well, duh. I hadn’t.

Like most areas of my life I hadn’t realized I was “leading” my children out of my spiritual gifts because a) I tend not to notice the things I’m doing well that I haven’t horded enormous effort into and b) the connection between spiritual gifts and parenting styles is talked about so infrequently.

Due to all the duty and responsibility wrapped up in being a parent it can seem daunting right to figure out which is which? But, we are leading our kiddo’s and we may as well do that in an informed way. We need to do that in a way that lovingly invites them to share with us in our work to expand the Kingdom of God. When the hubs & I parent R1 & R2 with these intentions in mind we are shepherding their gifts as well as watching them learn and risk alongside us.

Today I’m kicking off a 4 part series on four non-conventional places A.P.E. gifts show up: in parenting, marriage, blogging & friendships. On our Belief page, we describe the Apostolic gift set as “leading in a sent way” to reach those in the fold or to expand the Kingdom of God where it is not yet. Since I’m a stronger A than P or E I’ll explore how we can apostolically lead in these 4 areas in a sent way with a little P & E thrown in for good measure. (And yes, apostolically is my very own made up word. Can you handle it?)

So. How can we model A.P.E. giftings while shepherding our kiddo’s into their unique gifts and callings?

Here’s a few ways I’ve given it a shot…

Doing vs. Praying

2 responses
October 11, 2012

[This is part of the A.P.E. Pitfalls series. Check out the other posts here.]

Since reading Shawn Young’s post the other day about starting new things and how it starts with prayer, I have been really chewing on the tension of doing vs. praying.

As an apostolic leader who is highly activating, and entrepreneurial, it is hard for me to slow down and pray, let alone begin with prayer. My first thought most of the time is “how do we start this?” or “when are we going?”

It is hard for me to start with prayer when I see there is so much to do.
It is hard for me to start with prayer when there is so many people to train.
It is hard for me to start with prayer when there are things waiting to be started.

Do you ever feel that tension as a catalytic leader?