THE APOSTOLIC DIMENSION - Brendanu.org

95 Pages·2007·0.32 MB·English

APOSTOLE
The Reemergence of Missional Leadership
by
Ray Popham

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Copyright © Ray Popham 2006

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Unless otherwise indicated, Biblical quotations are from the
King James Version

Produced and Printed by
LifeVine International Publishing/
Ray Popham Ministries Int’l
Aiken, SC

Printed in the United States of America
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Introduction
The church, spiritual in nature, struggles with the application of secular principles of organizational
leadership. Yet the scripture is filled with principles of organizational leadership that are
compatible with secular principle. The primary New Testament leadership gift that is clearly
organizational and strategic in its approach is that of the Apostle. The unique work of the apostle
within the early church directly contributed to the unity of the members, the strength of the
movement and the expansion of the message. When that gift ceased to be recognized and
operational, the strategic mission of the church was directly affected. In addition, the church
became segmented, localized, and anemic. The result was an administratively managed institution
instead of a mobilized, strategic led missional movement. The administrative gifting and internal
interest of local bishops focused on managerial leadership replaced the leadership gifting and
advancement passion of the apostle as the primary missional voice of the church. The subsequent
demise of Biblical organization and leadership within the hierarchy of the church made the office
of pastor the primary office of Christianity and the role of managing the local church as the
primary function of ministry, further plunging the church into the hole of managerial leadership.
The apostolic spirit and missional assignment of the church took a secondary and silent role within
the Kingdom of God. The strategic advancement of that Kingdom has continued to suffer over
2000 years later. The subsequent problem facing the 21st century church is that, while the
understanding and role of apostolic ministry is being restored in the church, the original purpose of
apostolic ministry as missional servant leadership providing strategic, developmental leadership
and visionary oversight in the advancement and enhancement of God’s kingdom, has yet to surface
as the primary message of its restoration. A vast host of servant leaders with the apostolic heart
and gifting, who clearly understand their role, develop organizational skills compatible to their
calling, work together in tandem with one another, and are assisted by apostolic minded believers,
must be restored within every sector and movement of the Body of Christ. Missional leadership
must be restored within the 21st century church, transitioning apostolically gifted leaders
from the managerial to the missional role within leadership, as well as incubating the
emergence of new leaders birthed of missional vision instead of cloning to meet the growing
plethora of managerial demands of the building bound church.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Apostolic Missional Restoration........................................................3
Chapter 2: Apostolic Missional Conception....................................................10
Chapter 3: Apostolic Missional Corruption......................................................17
Chapter 4: Apostolic Missional Strategy...........................................................22
Chapter 5: The Missional Church......................................................................33
Chapter 6: The Apostolic Missional Leader.....................................................54
Chapter 7: The Apostolic Missional Role.........................................................74
Chapter 8: The 21st Century Missional Challenge............................................84
Bibliography.......................................................................................................90
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to those seasoned apostles in other nations that
have helped me to see and understand a more Biblical approach to the mission of the church as an
apostolic missional movement.

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C h a p t e r 1
Apostolic Missional Restoration

Before Christianity was an institution, it was a revolution. One definition of revolution, one to
which I am partial, is “a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving”
(www.dictionary.com). This describes the intention God had for the organic Christian church. God
intends His church to be an apostolic missional movement, who share a way of thinking and
behaving, drastic to the culture in which they live, far-reaching in their impact, instead of a
managed institution. The church of the 21st century has become an institution rather that a living
movement and Christianity a world religion instead of a revolution. All indicators of the American
church are that we have simply melted into management and holding our own. Our biggest
identified challenge is creating programs that bring people in the “front door”, while managing
systems that “close the back door”. The only problem is that Christ never established the church as
“the door.” The revolution of the Nazarene, who promoted Himself as “the way, the truth, and the
life”, is now the religion of the West, only one of the many religious doors in our culture. The
dusty feet of the Revolutionary have been washed and fitted with polished wing-tips and seated in
the board room of Christianity. His words are dissected in the halls of academia and his principles
debated in the halls of justice. Palm pilots manage the present, palm readings predict the future,
and Palm Springs is a “sanctuary from them both.” People that have never really met Him carry
and wield His name. His leaders eat in to avoid the crowd. His followers eat out to avoid the
hassle of preparing the table. When Christianity won its place on the world calendar, it
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relinquished most of its power as a revolution. The movement that had charged and changed
Rome was now settled within the walls of an office in the central part of town. Prosperous, well-
managed, and fair, His church can no longer say, “Silver and gold have I none”, yet neither can we
say, “Take up thy bed and walk.”

When Christianity ceased to be viewed as an apostolic missional movement, and instead formed
itself as an institution, the focus of the church became one of preservation and administration
instead of penetration and duplication. Its methods became questionable, its reputation tarnished,
its leaders consumed, and its effectiveness at changing culture almost obsolete. It became a
structure out of order. By the time the reformation dawned, only the offices of the pastor and
teacher were restored to the church and they became heavily administrative. Even after the
Reformation, newer movements led by men and women of apostolic heart and calling, soon
succumbed to the institution and transformed into denominations with second and subsequent
generational leadership given by gifted administrators. As George Barna writes, “When a group is
preoccupied with the present, that is a sign it has become institutionalized. The driving issues
become territory and survival, rather than purpose and renewal.” (Barna, p199), The results often
became institutions with prideful sectarianism and doctrinal elitism, which depart from much of
their early passion and spiritual teachings, and focused on maintenance of members, management
of programs, and expansion of buildings. Over a course of time, they experience declining
membership and lose many of their passionate and gifted leaders to new movements fresh with
apostolic missional fervor.

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When the church loses its sense of being “sent,” then it also loses its sense of purpose and destiny
in the earth. The apostolic mission of the church is the vital core of the church. All the other
ministry gifts and roles of the church are birthed from it. People do not need pastoring until they
are won to the Lord and gathered into a flock. Only believers can be taught, understand, and apply
the truths of scripture, so the teacher is birthed as a result of apostolic mission. The prophets were
tandem gifts of the apostolic. Even the evangelist, in its original form, was the result of the
apostolic. The first century evangelists were the assistants to the apostles, sent to deliver letters
and messages on behalf of the apostle. They were bearers of the apostolic message. (II Timothy
4:5) The church is the result of apostolic work. Thus, when the church ceases to be apostolic in its
mission, focus, and understanding, it ceases to understand its purpose and destiny in the earth.

When the office of Apostle goes unrecognized, the apostolic advancement of the church ceases.
Without the anointed visionary and organizational leadership of the apostolic leader, the church
becomes administrative, managerial, and pastoral in nature. Without the apostles, there are no
apostolic people, vision, or movement. Cessationist theology teaches, without Biblical premise
that the apostolic age, apostolic office, and associated spiritual gifts ceased with the death of the
original apostles and close of the canon of scriptures. Much has already been written on this
subject within the church world, so I will not take the time to outline how this came to be. Suffice
it to say at this point, that this is a leftover doctrine from the medieval period.

I believe there is strong Biblical theology that supports God’s intention for apostles and the
apostolic to continue. Primary to this theory is the fact that Ephesians 4 lists the apostle as
prominent in the ministry offices God gives as a gift to His church. They serve to equip the saints
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“until we all come into unity and maturity.” Since the church is neither in unity nor near maturity.
This in itself is a foundational argument to the perpetuation of the apostolic gift. Given the fact
that nowhere in scripture are we ever told that the office or work of the apostle would cease and the
fact that Ephesians 4 lists them as a perpetual gift, one can also easily conclude that Christ will
continue to use the gift and office until His return. The use of apostles was and is a part of the
eternal strategic plan of God for His church (Luke 11:49). There is also the fact that there are other
apostles named within scripture besides the original twelve, the names of whom we will share in
the next chapter (I Corinthians 15:5-7). There is also the fact that another apostole, Mathias, was
chosen by the apostles, not by Christ personally, to replace the seat of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:20)
Then there is the fact that the church is warned in scripture about “false apostles” in II Corinthians
11:13 and Revelation 2:2. If there were to only be 12 apostles, and the church knew that already,
there would be no need of warning against trying apostles to see if they were true. (Revelations
2:2) The apostolic nature of the great commission (Matt 28, Acts 1:8) provide us with an
overwhelming argument for the existence of present day apostles and apostolic ministries in the
kingdom of God. Even cessationist adherents refer to many of the disciples of the apostles as
“apostolic fathers” and a study of early Christian history reveals the continued influence of
apostolic leadership with the church into the 2nd century. My travels around the world have
enabled me to see ongoing apostolic work of apostles and the movements they lead. They are
experiencing phenomenal results and influence for the kingdom by simply practicing a Biblical
form of Pauline ministry. I suppose they have not received the word yet that the apostle and
apostolic missional ministry and leadership, along with the gifts, have ceased. As one can see,
cessationist theology did not truly cease the office of Apostle; it simply crippled the apostolic ethos
and focus of the church by its doctrinal limitations.
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In every movement and denomination there are those with an apostolic heart and calling whom
have struggled to fit into the ministry boxes placed within modern day religion advancement.
Many of these have left the ministry and given their gifts and abilities to the marketplace, simply
because the church had no room for them and the mundaneness of management, with little lasting
purpose, frustrated them. They are often misunderstood because of their views and apostolic
passion. Pastors and denominational leaders do not know what to do with them. Other leaders are
intimidated by them. They have been misunderstood and often mislabeled. They have an
apostolic ethos within a movement that has lost its true ethos and can’t clearly define the fracture.
They are apostolic missional leaders who desire to pioneer new roads and penetrate new places.
They are apostolic people who are not content simply setting in another Bible study and being
“building bond”. They are an apostolic revolution just waiting to burst forth, alive with the
apostolic ethos set in motion in the hills of Galilee.

. The 21st Century church needs apostolic servant leadership that leads a revolution, strategically
empowering the Body of Christ to be a “sent” apostolic community focused on the continued and
strategic advancement and enhancement of God’s kingdom. Even with the present day “restoration
of the apostolic”, much of the focus is on who “covers” whom, managing an organization, and
building a network of churches and leaders. While bringing many great truths to the table of
restoration, it continues to leave the church impotent in most ways, by failing to address and
awaken the church with the apostolic ethos. We need to restore the apostolic ethos within the
community of Christ. The ethos s what will change the church, not just simply trying to restore the
title and office of apostles. When the ethos is in motion, the apostles will naturally emerge and the
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