Apostolic? #2

Whenever I write or speak about the subject of Apostolicity I get three responses.  Here are the responses and my replies:

1.  Whats wrong with people going doing some good, trying to fix this dark world?

There's nothing at all wrong with people doing good.  Social action is a natural by-product of being a new creation.  We get the compassion and a heart of love for the brokenness we encounter.  What really needs to happen is for believers to discern where they fit into the Lord's scheme of things.  We all see need but depending on your calling, you will respond differently.  You get those who feel to represent God in this world is to meet needs.  You also get those who are supposed to render themselves under God's preparation meeting needs because that is the done thing. Then there is the rarity where a person has discerned that their walk is not really..er... normal.  Refer to Apostle? #1 for clarity about this.

So.. Social Action: YES!  but when we do social action don't just slap an 'APOSTOLIC' label on it because it sees some success.  The Apostolic sending will be much about the removal of spiritual forces to provide an open heaven.  I have worked at several projects that help young people who have experienced challenging circumstances.  The comings and goings of that work have helped shape and craft me in God's preparation... but none of it demonstrated God's 'gone-before' to usher in the unmistakable work like we see in Acts.  Too high a benchmark?  Not really.

2 So you seem to know a lot about this subject... where are your Apostolic works?

OOOO Points lost!  If you are looking for works to underline Apostolicity you are barking up the wrong tree.  God's preparation is the signature of God so for a long time there is absolutely no sign of signs. The work is going on behind closed doors at the backside of the desert as the Man 'tends the flock of Jethro' (menial, routine work).  Obviously one day there will be a sending that will see how God has gone before but then the above question will not exist.

As a sideline, you can tell when a work is NOT Apostolic.  Believers get vision and strategy to fill rooms.  The more gimmicky the message and mission, the more people you get.  In order to keep a thousand people happy you can't bring Teaching that is bible based.  over time the 'tail wags the dog' and we have Laodicea where 'the judgement and opinions of the people' rule.  Here are 5 signs that you are doing a good work but it is not a sending:

1.  You have to pray God into the project
2. There are no signs and wonders
3. Your church is a product of History not Scripture
4. 'End-times' is not a priority
5. The Enemy yawns at you

3. I went to Bible College and served under a Man of God... that's Biblical!

It can work that way but Apostolicity is exclusively Jesus' excavation of a man's life in order to be able to work through him.  Too many Bible College students get alongside a Pastor or someone well known and be an intern-like apprentice.  Let's be clear... there were no Bible Colleges back in the first century but that is not to say that a level of training is a good thing.  Problems begin when, like at my Bible College the Tutors announced that we were the 'future generals of the Church!'

When people talk about the Paul and Timothy relationship there was clearly some level of passing on of practice etc.  In fact the word 'paradosis' is mistranslated in many version of the Bible yet it is clear this was the context.  the idea that there was some official ranked situation is fictional, especially because 'people following people' was the explicit problem at Corinth.

IF God is purposely leading you into many years of obscurity, un-hearalded, lonely, trail-filled, barren and frustration... you can begin asking the question.  I cannot see how being in public ministry, preaching, people knowing about your ministry, the identification as a 'man of God' is getting you to the end of yourself.


Gary Ward

Apostolic? #1

One of the biggest crisis in the Church is the subject of  "Apostolic." I grew up spiritually in a Pentecostal environment and an 'apostle' was someone who planted churches.  What has been clouded over years is what an apostle actually is and how do we know someone is apostolic.  We need to be acutely aware that 'apostlicity' is a central theme for the New Testament and Jesus was clear that there needs to be an authenticity around the apostolic (Rev 2:2).

Paul was clear at the start of his letters to underline that his sending was from God not man.  I want to demonstrate that many have self categorized themselves as Apostles but are not.  Paul was not an Apostle because of what he did, it was because of what he was!  Of course, what he did was because of what he was, but the first consideration of 'am I an apostle' is what you are.  What God has made you is the central issue.  You know you are apostolic by the way your journey had been like the journey of Paul or Moses.  The process of how the Lord has designed your walk tells you you are being prepared form a sending.

If this is NOT your experience... it's no big deal... you are simply not called to walk this walk.

I've written before about the experience of Moses being a shepherd and this came about because he stepped out too early to save his people and killed the Egyptian. This act was the springboard for his preparation to become the man God would send to free the entire nation who wanted to be free.  The 40 years of shepherding was designed to make Moses a man who was utterly emptied of self.   No-one can really describe what this entails because it is a tailor-made experience that only comes about by the preordained will of God for a person.  The pain and trauma of this experience is engineered to have your life calibrated only towards the Glorious Lord Jesus.

What issues forth from the Apostle does because of who he is in God.  What people do when they want to see an apostolic work is produce something that bears the marks of their perception of Aposolicity.  So we see works such as church plants that have been done because the starting point was the Man of God wanted to work Apostolically according to his understanding.  The actual Apostle works differently.

When a man has been sufficiently prepared he is sent but the work that he is sent to do, God has gone before him and my main text here is Acts.  There have also been men in history who have been Apostolic and allowed God to prepare them in the backside of the desert.  Over time few have been willing to undergo this preparation and have gone off to do a work that they perceive as God's will.  The result is a group of people trying to produce a work when where the Apostle is concerned he has no place trying to do anything for God.  He will not move until the Lord sends him for he has gone through the process of realizing he has no stakehold in God's work.  They see that they are incapable of doing God's work and that notion becomes the most ridiculous notion... that we can do something FOR God?

So an Apostle IS the person God will send to a preordained work of God where someone wanting to display the Apostolic will try to produce it.  Authenticity will be seen when the Apostle sees the works of God and not a group praying God into a project.

Can you wait upon the Lord for his preparation or do you have to do the done thing?

Gary Ward