Travelling with an apostle

People shopping

I’ve been thinking recently about who I am and what I do and I’ve been writing about those themes here on Journeys of heart and mind as you’ll know if you’ve been reading along.

The articles are not particularly about myself, but more about the principles. And if you’ve been reading the blog for quite a long time you probably also know that I’ve written in the past about the so-called APEST gifts – apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher. These are not so much gifts to particular people, they are better described as gifts of people to the church. And in that sense I feel it’s high time I tried to convey more fully to my readers the nature of these gifts and the people who carry them and use them in the work of building and sustaining church life. As the church has changed over the 2000 years since Jesus was leading his disciples around Galilee and Judea, much has changed. Some of the original nature of church has been lost through a process of the encrustation of traditions and the discovery of ‘better’ ways of doing things. The APEST gifts have been one of the greatest of those losses.

We can’t do without these gifts, church doesn’t function well without them, yet most of the people who consider themselves to be part of church don’t understand them, don’t recognise them when they’re active and don’t value them. How can we value something we don’t understand?

So I’m going to attempt a pen portrait of each of these gifts, starting with apostle. And let’s be clear, I’m not proposing to write about an individual person here, I plan to write about the gift itself – what it looks like, how it arises, how it affects a person who is expressing it, and how the rest of us can relate to it, support it, and, as an expression of church, benefit from it. And next time we’ll take a look at the gift of prophet in the same way.

I used the ChatGPT AI to collect and organise some background information before writing this article. You can see the information it provided if you wish.

AI can do some great spadework, but it can’t think or make judgements, and it cannot respond to the Holy Spirit, so now we need to draw our own conclusions. I’ll explain what I think, and why.

First we need to give some thought to the difference, already mentioned, between the thinking, judging and responding to the Spirit that’s unavailable to AI. Also, AI has no experience of what it’s like to be in a church environment. Paul said that the gifts of people to the church involve first apostles, then prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

In particular, let’s consider the idea that an apostle is someone who has seen the risen Christ, been directly commissioned by him and is sent to found and oversee communities. Does this allow for people in our generation to be apostles?

The answer to that, in turn, depends on what we mean by ‘seen the risen Christ’. We use the word ‘see’ in two very different ways – seeing with our eyes, but also seeing with our understanding. Do you see what I mean? And in that latter sense all believers have ‘seen’ Christ. Jesus himself made this clear to his disciples when he commissioned them. We are to do what the original twelve were told to do.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19–20)

Notice particularly that Jesus says ‘teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’. The word ‘everything’ here includes going, making disciples, baptising them and teaching them to do everything I commanded you’. This is a down the generations command, we can’t escape, we shouldn’t want to escape, this is Jesus’ command to us, to you, to me.

So are we all apostles? The shocking answer is yes, we should all be prepared to be apostles.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built upuntil we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Our mistake is to think that these are special roles that most of us are not called to. But the truth is subtly different. All of us have all five of these gifts, but to varying degrees. I might be strong in one and you might be strong in another. Most of us are reasonably strong in one or two, few of us are strong in all five. So what does that imply for his locally gathered people, the ekklesia (church) in a particular place. It implies that any gathered group of believers will have all five of the gifts in differing amounts – we will lack nothing! But it’s the togetherness in the church that ensures we lack nothing. We all need to do our bit.

Why does Paul say first apostles – most important perhaps? No, we are all important. Think about the process of building a house. First you need the skills and knowledge of foundation makers, then you need bricklayers, next roofers for the roof structure and then tilers to make the roof water tight. Then double-glazing people for the windows and external doors, carpenters to fit internal doors and partitions, kitchen fitters, plumbers, electricians and so on. Which of those are most important? The foundation layers?

No! You need them all to build a house, And in the same way you need apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to build a local expression of church. And all are present wherever people are meeting regularly with Jesus and hearing his call to go and make disciples, baptise them, and teach them to do everything that’s needed for the next generation. All five are present, but sometimes they are not active.

What does an apostle look like?

Don’t expect apostolic people to look different from anyone else; to identify the apostolic person you need to watch what they do and what drives them. Apostles are all-rounders, and for very good reason. Because they are driven to go out they need to have some level of competence at all five of the gifts of service. Until a new community of Jesus followers has been formed the other gifts will not be available, so as the one who goes out and teaches people to follow Jesus, the apostle has to provide a bit of prophecy, evangelism, shepherding and teaching. You can see this clearly in Paul’s life. As you read through Acts, Paul stops in one new town after another, acting in all these ways. But one of the things he is doing is noticing the gifts in other people and encouraging them to start using those gifts for themselves.

One identifying feature of apostolic people is that they go out, start something in one place, then go out again and start somewhere else. They have very itchy feet! And that’s usually because we don’t provide room for them. They build churches, then move on. They’re not interested in making the house cosy and comfortable, they don’t bother with carpets or furniture, the newly built house (or church) has inhabitants who will do all of that. So you could say an apostle is about structure, nor decor. But because good structure is important to them they’ll often come back for visits, to check things are still on track. Paul did that a lot.

Aiding and encouraging apostles

These people need support, sometimes in terms of money or practical help, and definitely in terms of encouragement. It’s good to ask them where they have been, who they’ve been meeting with, and what they plan to do next.

Listening to apostles

They’re here to help you grapple with problems concerning church structure and difficulties that may arise. Apostolic people can be very forthright in pointing out issues a local church may not have noticed, consider how Paul intervened when widows or orphans were not getting the help they needed or when he saw people gossiping or not focusing on things in the right way. Apostles tend to be sensitive to things that are not quite right, sometimes they may seem a little rude or pushy, but hear them out and take what they say seriously.

The photo at the top of this article shows shoppers in Western-super-Mare, here it is again; few of these people are followers of Jesus Christ, most of them are unaware of him or follow other faiths. Many are too busy to talk. What are we doing to reach them or engage them? We need to find effective, apostolic ways to do it – try the links below for some ideas.

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Author: Chris Jefferies

I live in the west of England, worked in IT, and previously in biological science. View all posts by Chris Jefferies