One of the key tasks of leadership is to get people to buy in to the mission – especially talented people that are all over the place.
One of the sad things that I see is apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic leaders written off too quickly because they don’t fit ministry contexts primarily driven by shepherding and teaching activities. Because they are not fitting in well, they get distracted, pull in different directions, and often times are not brought into the center of the mission.
From the book Primal Fire, By Neil Cole with Dezi Baker, Ed Waken, Phil Helfer and Paul Kaak
As we look back over church history, we might be tempted to ask where all the APEs have gone? The church has long been dominated by pastors and teachers (who are often seen as one and the same), but the apostles, prophets, and evangelists have largely been missing from the local church context. Ephesians 4 is clear that all the gifts come from Jesus and that all the gifts are necessary for the equipping of the saints for the work of service. Did He stop giving certain gifts because they were cast aside or not appreciated? No, all the gifts are given until the body is fully mature, so all the gifts are present in every generation, though they may not be evident.
2014 was another great year for the RTA blog and two major things happened. We redesigned our website and launched an ebook that is a 101 guide to APE ministry. If you haven’t checked out our FREE Ebook, please download it and read through it with your teams. It will help many of your people need better empowerment into their callings as A, P, or E!
Now without further ado, here are the top five read posts of 2014.
By Eric Rafferty
One of Paul’s clearest and most consistent commands to his followers was to imitate him. Modeling and imitation were essential ingredients in Paul’s discipleship.
This is a guest post by Doug Black Jr. He is a bi-vocational minister in the Philadelphia area and really passionate about making disciples where ever he goes! check him out at http://www.heyitsdoug.com
I was in youth ministry for years, reaching a group of students that (was supposed to be) between grades 7-12. These were amazing students, and many of them are still following Christ to this day, some thanks to us and some in spite of us. These students were reaching their friends at their lunch tables, giving testimonies and reports in classes, and becoming leaders in our growing little church.
And I was sitting in an office, wondering what to do while they were in school. Sure, I would prepare events and message. I would do some administrative stuff. But, I had a devastating hunger for more: making disciples where there were none, seeing ministry happened like Jesus did it, connecting with students, teachers and school events.
By Jon Hietbrink
It’s relatively easy to see “flash in the pain” success, but it’s another thing entirely to lead a movement that sustains growth over time. As APE leaders we have a unique role to play in both leading change within existing systems and helping our movements “surf the edge of chaos” in a way that propels enduring momentum, and one of the key pitfalls we must avoid is allowing our movements to become monuments—slowly decaying symbols of past success, but absent of the intrinsic vitality we see in living things.
One of the key functions of apostolic leadership goes beyond merely interpersonal to systemic influence— we cultivate environments where movements can thrive and combat the temptations of monument. Here’s a few warning signs that monument thinking is taking root and organizational recalibration is needed.
My friend Gibby passed this along to me and it’s a fascinating video about wolves and what happend to Yellowstone when they intruded them in 1995. It’s remarkable the change they brought on almost every level.
A great question to ask, “What if we we re-introduced apostles, prophets, evangelists back into our ministry?”
What could it do to the ecosystem of the church?
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By Linson Daniel
I have had the privilege of going overseas to partner with various churches and indigenous ministries – especially in India. Every time I interact with believers and leaders from the Global Church, I walk away feeling inspired, emboldened, and challenged. We have much to learn from the Global Church. I gained a refreshing lens on the apostolic. Below are five lessons:
Brian Sanders of the Tampa Underground kindly made us a video to encourage those of us that are embracing the APE callings. He tells a very interesting story that really grabs your attention at first and makes you say, “Where is this going?”
We are really excited about the response we have seen and heard about since releasing our FREE Ebook last Thursday. If you didn’t get it yet, download it here.
But we really want help from our APE tribe to help us spread the word and get this book into as many hands as possible so we are GIVING AWAY 13 FREE BOOKS to those that share!
Click to Tweet Now and Enter the Drawing
The APE Ebook is great for:
This ebook is designed for you to give it to your friends and team members so they don’t have to come to the blog and search through all the posts. This Ebook is totally organized for a 101 introduction so your friends can just read right through it and understand the APE callings, language, and how to implement them.
