Implications of Apostolic Leadership in the 21st Century Part 17- Apostolic Ministry Detonates the Spiritual Violence of Change and the Whirlwind of Creative Chaos

SECTION II

The Twenty First Century Apostle

We live in a time of incessant acceleration of change. The unyielding verisimilitudes of this era demands structural change in all echelons of life.  The Body of Christ is not an exception to this whirlwind of creative chaos.   Mike Regele spoke of the death of the church in terms not of its final demise, but of the essential precondition for resurrection.[1]  The prerequisite for resurrection is change or transition.  The body of Christ is an organic miracle of diversity expressed in a unity of purpose.[2]  Yet, the body of Christ is undergoing a transformation that will accentuate its ability to not only express the unity of purpose, but to evolve into the full stature of Christ. This cannot occur unless we stop fighting the currents of change.  To become effective at change, we must leave behind the imaginary organization of individualism, designed by our flesh, and learn to work in a real organization, which will be a dense network of interdependent relationships, intensively focused on manifesting the corporate “Christ” on earth.  John 17:21 implies universalized corporateness of the Christ Body as the major requirement for global revival.  The solutions that the corporate Christ needs are present within the Body. No longer can we define the purpose of God or the Body of Christ by a part, to understand our part.  We need a consciousness of the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit has been intensifying the global prayer movement for the last twenty or so years.  The church has birthed a reformation that is transforming its face through its cooperation with the Holy Spirit in incessant global intercession.   We prayed for revival, but God sent reformation.  The reformation came before global revival because great preparation is needed for reengineering systems that will conserve the fruit of evangelism for rapid planting of the harvest as sons of the kingdom in the earth.  This can only occur as the Body of Christ becomes aware of its predestined interconnected relationships and giftings.  The Apostolic reformation is the precursor of the endtime harvest.  The Bride makes herself ready by becoming keenly aware of her parts. The purpose of the apostolic reformation is expedited through the Bride making herself ready for the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Divine Confrontation, Graham Cooke said that only apostles and prophets can rebuild the church through the violence of change.  When expansion comes in the Body of Christ, pressure occurs in the areas that are juxtaposed to the expansion.  In an article on apostolic ministry, Noel Woodroffe stated that the following characteristics identify the Apostolic Reformation:[3]

1.    A complete radical renovation of the mentality of the Church globally as God removes all aspects of limitations from our faith.

2.    Recognition that we are a generation of destiny coming rapidly into the realization that we are in the best position to actually bring an end to the ages in our time.

3.    A radical movement away from dead religious and local church limitation to a Kingdom reality that invades every aspect of life.

4.    A positive bringing of the mass of ordinary believers into the reality of ministry, thus radically broadening the base of the assault upon enemy positions in every area of life.

5.    A complete restructuring of the way the kingdom is financed and the recognition and faith for huge financial input in the Kingdom for the push to the end of all things.

6.     A ferocious thrust into governmental prayer across the nations of the earth as a tidal wave of prayer and expectation sweeps through demonic territories worldwide.

7.    A coordinate invasion of all territories internationally that have not yet received the declaration of the gospel.

8.    A deliberate, strategic, heightened warfare against illegitimate spiritual thrones world-wide as God gives the Church insight and heightened powers of discernment.

9.    A purification of ministry and ministers as new leadership is shifted into place and a global reshuffling of leadership, by the Lord, is underway in the Church.

10.  The return of effective recognition and operation of apostles and prophets to complete the function of the five governmental ministries of the church.

11.  The achievement of a great momentum in the Church that will push it through the ultimate end.

12.  The global harvesting of the earth of souls for the Kingdom as God closes the ages down.

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[1] Eddie Gibbs, Church Next (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2000), p. 67.

[1] Ibid. p. 67.

[3] Noel Woodroffe, Questions About the Apostolic (Caribbean Resource Center & International Ministries, 1999 - accessed on April 2001) available http:// www.acts29online/apostoli.htm; Internet

Implications of Apostolic Leadership in the 21st Century Part 16 ( Pauline Apostolic Methodology B) See Part 15

Excerpts from MAPS Project at Southwestern Christian University

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Paul mentored Timothy through the books we know as First and Second Timothy. Normally, we refer to these books as Pastoral Epistles.  As a matter of fact, First and Second Timothy and Titus are apostolic training epistles.  Titus is another son of Paul’s, who wholeheartedly embraced apostolic responsibility.

• Titus – Timothy, Onesimus and Titus were noted in the scriptures as spiritual sons to Paul. Titus was a quintessential troubleshooter for Paul’s apostolic ministry. Paul trained Titus for apostolic ministry by giving him responsibility incrementally. The following enumerates how Titus functioned as an apostle in Crete and Dalmatia:
• Titus had to encode new values in the culture of Crete. He was prepared for this contextual responsibility when he assisted Paul in Antioch, Corinth, Crete, and Dalmatia.
• It was necessary for Titus to exercise wisdom in selecting leaders for governing the church.
• Women Eldership – When Titus instructed the older women, it appears he was referring to women who function as elders in the church without the position of eldership.
• Embedded the doctrine of salvation in the foundation of the church in Crete.
• Combated heretical teachings and doctrines.

Titus was a successful apostle. Over ninety-five percent of the population of Crete remains Christians even to day.[1]

Not only do Paul’s mentorees affirm the success of Paul’s apostolic ministry, regional churches established by Paul adduces Paul’s apostolic success. Within ten years, Paul established regional churches in Asia, Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia. The remarkable aspect of this phenomenon in these metropolitan hotbeds is that there were no churches in these regions before Paul’s apostolic expeditions. Roland Allen’s, “Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?” condenses the methods that Paul used to establish regional churches.

Allen asked, “Was there any antecedent advantage in the position or character of the cities in which St. Paul founded his churches?[2] Obviously, Paul, by reason of experience, acquired fundamental truths for planting churches in non-churched territories.  Paul used these maxims as guidelines for planting regional apostolic centers:

1. Paul’s theory of evangelizing a province was not to preach in every place himself, but to establish centers of Christian life in two or three important places from which the knowledge might spread into the country round. He planted churches in all the cities and towns where there were centers of Roman administration, or Greek civilization, or Jewish influence, or of some commercial importance. Paul seized strategic points because he had a strategy.  In his hands, the strategic points became the sources of rivers: mints from which the new coin of the Gospel was spread in every direction.[3]
2. Paul was able to adapt to morbid demonized social environments for the sake of procuring souls for Christ. Many of his converts were slave owners and slaves. With slave owners, he always advocated clemency.
3. Paul used miracles to address the crowds, not individuals. In Paul’s era, miracles were universally accepted as proof of the Divine’s approval of the message and work of him through whom they were wrought. Moreover, Paul saw miracles as announcement of the invasion of the Kingdom of God in a region.  Miracles represent the newness of the message of salvation.  In Western civilization, we’ve attempted the works of Paul without miracles.
4. Financial management was a key element in the success of the churches he established. First, Paul did not solicit financial management from his converts or churches for his personal warfare. He required that his churches become financially independent so that they could be a reservoir of life to the poor.
5. His preaching testified to the authenticity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His preaching emanated from a deep level of faith that God sent him to that region. The faith of being a sent one to a region resulted in the multiplicity of churches in pagan cultures.
6. Paul’s method involved training for leading. The whole community of faith was responsible for discipleship, baptism and ordination.
7. Training for future leaders was essential to the longevity of the regional churches.

Certain aspects of Roland Allen’s compilation of Paul’s apostolic methodology are applicable to our 21st Century apostolic ministry.   After Paul, the church fathers were the viable means of God to protect the church from heresy and advance its influence into Rome, Greece and Alexandria.

SEE MORE POSTINGS OF THIS NATURE IN MY BLOG AT  YULCRAWFORDGROUP.COM

[1] F.F. Bruce, The Pauline Circle, p. 64.

40 Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p.8.

[3] Ibid. p. 15-17.