robwilkerson.net

Why I Love...And Need the Apostolic Ministry

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Why I Love...and Need the Apostolic Ministry: It Provides Accountability and Mediation

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Four: It Provides Accountability and Mediation

One of the most frustrating things in the world when you're leading a church alone is having someone to go to when you can't resolve issues in your local church. Paul's question to the Corinthians always haunted me: "Don't you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can't you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don't you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? I am saying this to shame you. Isn't there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues?" (1 Cor. 6:2-5).

Of course, there ought to be people wise enough. But evidently there weren't. Which is why Paul had to intervene and say something. And that was a shame to them, as it should have been. It is precisely because there are few wise men in local churches that they have so much division, much of which spills over the edges and out into their communities bringing shame to the name and body of King Jesus. Churches fight over the dumbest crap in the world. And the fact that so many of them are independent-minded and "autonomous" just makes it worse.

To be sure, a biblical local church seems to necessitate autonomy. That simply means that when they are mature with their own leaders, a church is ready to govern itself with the biblical leadership structure it has put in place. Also, it does not seem to be a biblical idea that one church has a right to tell another church what to do, how to do it, when to do it, etc. Each local church essentially operates independent of the others. But biblically they are never to operate without interdependence upon each other.

I recall some of the darkest days in my life. I was pastoring a small Southern Baptist church in West Georgia. For some readers, the fact that I mentioned Southern Baptist is probably all you need to hear. Memories of church business meeting fights probably come to mind...the ones where everybody was yelling and making threats toward each other because of the disagreement about whether pine nuggets or pebbles ought to be installed in the children's playground area. Seriously. Or the one I sat through as a kid where the church voted on how much to spend for the new toilet seat in the parsonage where we lived. Asinine.

At the church where I was pastoring a stink arose which I hope I never have to relive. I can't recount it here, but I will simply say that the lack of interdependence among other Southern Baptist churches meant I was all alone in dealing with this massive problem. I could not rely on any other Southern Baptist pastors in town or even outside of town for any help other than just the obligatory, "We'll be prayin' for ya!" Gee. Thanks. I think.

The massive problem ended up in the courts. No kidding. One half of my congregation sued the church leadership by lying to the courts with zero evidence to support the initial accusations. Somehow those poor folks either had a special study bible which footnotes releasing them from obedience to 1 Corinthians 6, or else they had use their black highlighter on those verses. And while there were wise men in our midst who could handle the situation, the fact that were were an autonomous local church meant that we couldn't govern ourselves, the courts would have to...or at least try.

To be sure, Paul's apostolic ministry did not necessarily prevent lawsuits from happening in Corinth. But the fact that he planted the church did give him a right as well as biblical authority to speak into the life of that church to reprove, correct, and exhort the flock. In other words, the apostolic role he played in the life of that church gave him a place of biblical influence. And that had the power to change and shape things, because some of the problems got better, as we read in 2 Corinthians.

For me, things only got worse. There was no one I could turn to. The area director of missions was of little help. He had been in town way longer than I and had made it apparent that he had sided with the ones who were disobeying the Bible. A baptist pastor in a nearby town would have little to do with me. Only a friend from the Atlanta area, and a friend from South Georgia, and a local Methodist church member offered accountability for me outside the existing church leadership. In other words, there was no one really holding us accountable for the way we were handling all of this. And we desperately needed it, especially since none of us had ever experienced anything like this before.

My point is that where I am now in life, I would never think of operating in any leadership capacity in a local church without the apostolic ministry offering accountability and mediation to resolve conflicts and difficulties. We've already had a few where I am now. And if we didn't have apostolic oversight, we would have already split...perhaps two or even three times. We are not at a point now where biblically we can govern ourselves, so to speak. We have no elders yet. And until then, as it was in the Scriptures, the apostolic man and the pastors he trains, lead the church together, until the church matures by ordaining its own elders. That gives the apostolic ministry a place of influence and authority in a local church, which is used biblically to shape and mold and form a group of people around the gospel of Christ, both in belief and behavior.

It seems that when I adopted a mindset that the apostolic ministry was valid for today, a whole host of problems, both potential and actual, flew right out the window. When a local church adopts a mindset of accountability rather than independent-autonomy, it can experience the spiritual growth the Bible talks about...that "unity of the faith" and "mature man" stuff Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4. A local church will be filled with people who aren't tossed back and forth by every wind of teaching. They will grow up together in love. Accountability is necessary to see that through. And the apostolic ministry is Jesus' gift of accountability to His church. Thank you Lord for the apostolic ministry in my life and local church.

apostles

Why I Love...and Need the Apostolic Ministry: It Provides Wisdom

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Three: The Apostolic Ministry Provides a Lot of Wisdom

I'm always amazed by men who are younger than me, but somehow know more than I do. I'm even more amazed by men who have no children, but know how to parent mine better than I do. There's never a shortage of men who want to give their opinion on something...even though they probably have no idea what they're talking about. Proverbs 18:2 says, "Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions." Verse 13 says, "Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish." Those verses pretty much sum up many men. While there's no shortage of words, there is a great shortage of wisdom.

I've discipled many men and trained many of those for leadership. In the course of those relationships, most of the young men had not yet graduated from being a smart alec. That's the time in a young man's life when he thinks he knows more than his mom and dad. Some don't grow out of it at all. Many do, thankfully. I was one who almost didn't, because I didn't discover until I was around thirty that I actually knew far less than I thought I did. At that point, I was ready to be led.

I remember serving as a full-time youth pastor for a couple of years in an almost-mega church. The Sr. Pastor was my father. And even though he had years of ministry experience, as well as a doctorate, I knew better than him when it came to members of the masonic lodge in our church. "We just need to go and confront 'em and tell 'em that they need to leave the lodge or leave the church! Dadgummit!" "Son, I don't think that's a wise way to handle something like this." "Of course it is, dad!" I was so filled with wisdom in those early days of ministry. And I'm so dumb now.

Then there's the time I was on my biblical counseling high, after having concluded that all psychology is bankrupt and stupid. So I proceeded to set an appointment with the president of my bible college to help him understand why I not only needed to be exempt from the required core psychology class, but that we also did not need to offer that course anymore as a school. So filled with real wisdom, the president kindly listened to me and said he's take it under advisement. I'm glad he didn't. I was such a dork.

I have more stories like this than I can recount here. Suffice it to say I was a bonafide jackass. Thankfully, age has matured me into just a "jack" now. Most of the other is pretty much gone, though I tend to show mine from time to time. And that's because I need someone smarter than me to help me, to guide and disciple me. I need someone who knows more than I do to help me grow more and lead better. That's where the apostolic ministry comes in.

For me, the biblical-apostolic ministry means that the apostolic man I'm relating to has himself been in a relationship of biblical discipleship. He has been mentored and shepherded. His desires to lead were taken, shaped, molded, formed, and released. Someone else invested in him. As his gifts developed and were manifested, it became evident that the fruit he was bearing resembled that of apostolic ministry. So he joined a team of other apostolic men to function in that way. And in that team there are men who are older than the others...men who've been doing apostolic work much longer than the others...men who've planted several more churches...basically, men with more experience in pretty much everything. Imagine a team where everyone was a peer and no one really had that much more experience. That's called a pooling of ignorance.

Now, this apostolic man is a friend of mine. And I am one of his friends. He disciples me. He knows more than me. A lot more. He's at least fifteen years older, has planted three more churches than I have, has been married twice as long as I have, and enjoys the fruits of his faithful parenting with his three believing children and their spouses and children. He has raised up and trained more men for ministry than I have, dealt in spiritual warfare far more times than I, and counseled countless more couples. He has operated in the prophetic, spoken in tongues, and laid hands on far more people than I have. (And this brother has been deer hunting longer than I've been alive...which is a huge help to a guy like me whose harvested one deer in six years.) In short, there is wisdom in this man. And I'm the fool if I neglect or reject it.

The fact that this man is an apostolic man mostly like means that, over a period of time, he has developed both a self-starter mindset about things that need to get done, as well as an accountability mindset with those in authority over him or with him. In other words, he's learned how to get stuff done and answer for it. Men who are self-starters are a dime a dozen, though it seems increasingly hard these days to find them. Men who desire accountability are a goldmine of potential. There is a balance that develops in a man like this, which makes him increasingly stable when it comes to leading and decision-making. I want a stable guy to lead me. Who doesn't? I want a guy who knows how to get stuff done, as well as a guy who knows what it is to be held accountable and to have to answer to others. That's called wisdom. And wisdom comes from a stable, apostolic leader.

Wisdom is knowing the difference between doing the right thing and doing it in the right way, between knowing what to say and knowing how and when to say it. Wisdom is knowing when to put pressure on someone and when to release it. Wisdom is knowing how fast or slow to move in helping someone to change and grow. It is always willing and ready to learn, never believing that it has gathered enough information to make an eternal, dogmatic conclusion. It always asks questions, and only assumes when experience has proven those assumptions valid...and there's almost always exceptions as any honest man will tell you.

The apostolic man I relate to evidences these things. And that's why I enjoy my relationship and friendship with him. He truly cares about me, and not just about telling me what to do. He loves Jesus more than he loves me, or anyone else for that matter. But he loves Jesus by loving me and everyone else. He loves me enough to tell me what I need to hear, and in a way that ensures I will want to hear it and actually do it. He speaks into my marriage as a church leader, and challenges where I need it, corrects as I need it, and affirms where I need it. He does the same thing for my parenting also. And I'm finding something strange but wonderful. The more I listen, the smarter I get! And that's really awesome for a guy like me whose mom referred to growing up as a "meat head" with peanut butter for brains! Thank God for apostolic leadership!

apostles

Why I Love...and Need the Apostolic Ministry: It Provides a Bulls Eye as Well as Focus

Friday, January 07, 2011

Two: The Apostolic Ministry Provides a Bulls Eye As Well As Focus.

If you're like most people you find it's easy to identify a task that needs to get done, only to find yourself getting distracted by something smaller. That smaller thing is definitely associated with the bigger task, but you somehow get fixated on that smaller thing so that the bigger task doesn't get completed. Then you get kind of frustrated, wondering how in the world that happened...perhaps even purposing to do it differently next time so that doesn't happen again. But then the cycle happens again.

I needed to rearrange some stuff in my shed a week ago. With Christmas comes more Christmas stuff, decorations, lights, etc. And all those things required more storage space, which required some rearranging in the shed. This requires moving stuff out and then back in. The whole process is very much like a live, backyard version of Tetris. Playing Tetris in my shed required that I move a tub of fasteners (nails, screws, bolts, etc.). This required the lid to be put back on, which reminded me to gather all the boxes of fasteners lying around the shed in various spots so I could put them in that tub, etc.

Here's where I took a wrong turn...as always, it seems. I spotted some fasteners that had been spilled in the tub, which requires me to put them back where they go. After about a half hour of messing with fasteners, I was out of time and had not completed the job. It was time for dinner, and too dark to work anymore. Had I maintained my focus on the bigger task, I would have written down a list of smaller tasks that I can do later...much later...like rearranging the spilled fasteners in the tub. At least I would have gotten the main task completed then. Maybe. Then again, I probably would have gotten fixated next on finding a new and more convenient place for the boogie boards.

In my experience, the apostolic ministry works much in this way, yet more so in my favor than the shed-Tetris game. Apostolic ministry has helped me to maintain the focus on the bigger task, the bigger picture, the bird's eye view, or the "bulls eye" of ministry. This was the relationship Paul had with Timothy. His letters to Timothy, as well as to Titus, both reveal that the bulls eye of their respective local church ministries was to be on training and teaching people, as well as guarding the gospel.

The gospel is, of course, the ultimate bulls eye, and the associated tasks Timothy and Titus were supposed to be doing in their local churches flowed directly from the gospel. That's what you do with the good news...you train people with it, how to live according to it, how it impacts and affects people's relationships with each other, as well as teaching people about it. All of this, generally speaking, guards the gospel and therefore the people from error, because that would damage their lives. The apostolic ministry ensures that the gospel is maintained as the bulls eye of ministry. And apostolic men do that by constantly evaluating what is happening in a local church - all the tasks, relationships, programs, ministries, etc. - and challenging leaders to ensure that the gospel is the bulls eye, so that all the other stuff is really flowing from it and not from somewhere else, like legalism.

If I didn't have the apostolic ministry in my life and local church, I would have made a massive mess of things, majoring on minors, turning ant hills into mountains, leading everyone to focus more on their parenting methodologies and bible versions, and spiritualizing my personality idiosyncrasies so that everyone would do ministry my way. I would be doing these sorts of things rather than focusing on the person and ministry of Jesus Christ and doing what He told us to do. After all, that is what Jesus Himself told us to do: "teaching all things I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19). He provided the bulls eye for me. The apostolic ministry helps me keep my focus on it. Thank you Lord for your apostolic ministry to your bride, the church!

apostles

Why I Love...and Need the Apostolic Ministry: It Provides Clarity of Vision

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Over the next several posts, it's my attempt to describe some of the functions and benefits of the apostolic ministry as I have experienced them personally. These posts are not intended to be a formal theological treatise defending the ministry as a whole. Rather, I'm writing from the perspective of one who naively assumes that the apostolic ministry is something Christ still has for His church until He returns, and therefore as someone who benefits from it greatly.

One: The Apostolic Ministry Provides Clarity of Vision.

When I was six or seven years old...I can't remember for sure, perhaps for obvious reasons you're about to hear...I was hit in the right side of my head with an aluminum baseball bat. My right eye socket was crushed, my eye slightly spilling out of my head. If my life was a movie, this scene would make it rated PG-13 for disturbing images. I have no pictures today, only the recollection of reports from friends and parents. I was playing catcher, while the 18 year-old coach was hitting balls to other team members who were fielding. I guess that was pretty normal for an 18 year old, feeling like he had to be the one to hit all the balls, feeling the need to show off with how far he could hit a fast ball from a 7 year old. I'm sure it was quite impressive.

During this whole time I was foolishly not wearing a face mask. I complained of not being able to see well with it on, without any thought of the fact that I can see even worse today as a result! Nor was I wearing the standard hard helmet. That was probably because my mom was always calling me a hard-head, so I figured I didn't need more protection. Then as the next pitch fired into the batter's box, he stepped back and reared back his bat preparing to knock another homer. In his zeal to impress us once again, his back swing almost took off my head.

I don't remember much after that...obviously. I remember waking up laying on a stainless steel table, in the church kitchen. It was Wednesday night, and dad was preaching. He had to be interrupted and called to the kitchen to see what I'm sure was a macabre sort of scene. I then remember a blood soaked towel wrapped around my head...then moments later my head laying in mom's lap in the backseat of the car, only to fall out of consciousness again. When I came to, I was sitting up, strapped to a special chair, getting my head x-rayed. I went out again shortly thereafter, due to the anesthetic prior to surgery. I distinctly remember thinking that this was my moment...to rebuild my eye...and make it just like Steve Austin, the bionic man. "We can rebuild him," I faintly heard. Instead, I awoke in the hospital room with my head all wrapped up, and my bionic dreams crushed with my head. The diagnosis was that my eye socket had in fact been crushed, and prosthetic parts had to be fastened together with what looks today like one of those garbage bag twist-ties. My eyesight in the right eye would never be the same, of course. And every year it seems to get a tad worse.

I was deer hunting yesterday just before dusk. It was getting darker by the minute. I'm right-eye dominant, which means I favor looking through holes with my right eye. But as I looked through the scope of my Marlin 30-30, it was difficult to see clearly. I focused the scope a bit. No good. I cleaned both lenses. Still no good. "I just got a new pair of glasses a year ago!" I'm thinking to myself. Thankfully, I have a decent pair of binoculars which interestingly has a right eye focus. This means I can look through the binoculars, focus them with the top knob, but then fine tune the focus with the right-eye view finder. Ahhh! That was the trick! Now the main focus, and the right eye focus were working together to give me clarity. I began thinking about how I could affix them to my head with an elastic strap so I could see better all the time. Looking like one of the heroes from G. I. Joe would be cool. But that would look weird, and scare my church family. So I didn't do that.

However, I did discover that the apostolic ministry is much like the binoculars I was using yesterday. For various reasons due to sin and my own personality wiring, I don't have the complete picture. Things aren't very clear all of the time. Like the rest of us, I live out of focus...a lot. I'm in good company, however, because the Apostle Paul did too. "Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror..." (1 Cor. 13:12). One day Jesus will come back and I'll see everything with perfect clarity. Until then, Jesus has given His church apostles (Eph. 4:11). And here's their biblical job description.

"Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love" (Eph. 4:12-16).

So basically the apostolic ministry has been given as a gift of Christ Himself in order to provide vision and clarity. And the vision is unity and maturity. The other gifted people (prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers) do the same thing, of course. But the apostolic comes first because biblically it seems to function kind of like a set of guardrails along a highway, ensuring that despite whatever accidents might occur, they don't spill over off a bridge or ravine, or into the other oncoming traffic. Apostles keep that vision of ministry in front of us. And in so doing, they help maintain clarity. Vision creates clarity, when it's communicated right.

When things in the local church get out of focus, which they always will from time to time (some churches more than others, of course), apostolic ministry reminds the church of the biblical vision from Jesus Himself, and thereby sharpens the focus of the "ecclesiastical binoculars" so that the flock can see more clearly. The prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher may serve as the primary focus, much like the top knob on my binoculars. But the apostle serves as that right-eye focus on my binoculars, bringing an ever-sharper clarity to the ministry in a local church.

I'm so glad I have the apostolic ministry in my life. Without it, the vision I attempt to provide as a pastoral leader in my local church would be as bad spiritually as the vision in my right eye physically. In other words, I can't do it by myself. That's why Jesus was smart enough to put me in a team with other men whom I need in order to keep our church in target and heading in the right direction. I'm supposed to be on a team with apostles and prophets, etc. because without them my leadership would look like that one-eye-patched pirate on Pirates of the Caribbean, probably with the drunken, growling, Australian-accented speech included! And the band of people I attracted would probably be just like me! What a church that would make! Thank King Jesus for the apostolic ministry!