Welton Equipping the Equippers

Handbook for Raising Up Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, & Teacher
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5439-0670-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 216 Seiten

The fivefold is not meant to come and go with movements, but to be forever established as the equipping ministry in the church. Equipping the Equippers will enable church leaders and believers alike to pursue the fivefold with solid biblical teaching and purpose, and most importantly, begin to receive a fresh flow of the fivefold graces in their lives and churches.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Welton, Jonathan

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

The green military jeep came to a screeching halt in the mud outside a soggy tent. The general’s boots splashed as he stepped from the jeep into the darkness. He entered the tent to find five officers standing around a large map stretched across a table. The officers snapped to attention.

The general wasted no time. “Tell me what is going on here!” he ordered. “Headquarters keeps getting reports that you have a brutally high level of casualties and your units are dysfunctional!”

One of the weary officers exchanged glances with the men and women standing near him. He coughed and then looked back at the general: “Do we have permission to speak freely, sir?”

“Permission granted,” the general answered, his face a mask of sternness.

“Well sir, honestly … we were not equipped for this. We were taught to be shepherds. We can fix marriages, help raise godly children, and teach people how to live healthy Christian lives, but we weren’t built for frontline warfare. I don’t even know what I am doing here! I am constantly asked to do things that are beyond my training and capacity. I am shell-shocked and living on the edge of burnout.”

The general’s expression softened. He scanned the faces of the officers standing before him. In a less harsh voice, he asked, “Does this represent what is happening here?”

They nodded sheepishly and one said, “More or less.”

The general clasped his hands behind his back. “Where are the prophets who are meant to be in this unit to regularly bring communication from headquarters and encourage you to keep pushing forward?”

The officers looked at each other for a long moment. A woman finally spoke, “We typically have a roving prophet visit us once a year—sometimes less.”

The general asked, “And the teachers who are meant to bring fresh bread and cutting-edge strategies for advancing the kingdom?”

Another officer answered, “We sometimes read their books—if we can find the time …” His voice trailed off, and he stared down toward the battle map.

“And the evangelists?” said the general. “Please tell me that you have some of those to rescue the captives and bring in new soldiers?”

“Evangelists? Not really. Most of our people are afraid of the darkness. We get together and sing, take offerings, listen to familiar messages, and hope reinforcements will come.”

The general gave a resigned nod. “And I’m guessing you have no apostles either. Am I right?”

A woman nodded. “Correct, sir. You are the first we have seen in decades.”

The general leaned forward. “Do you know what an apostle does?”

“No sir, not really.”

“Well, ultimately, I am here to serve you so that you can best serve the kingdom. To implement my advice, you will need to make some dramatic adjustments, but you will end up better for it.” He looked each officer in the eye in turn. “I will bring in my team, which consists of five types of leaders. We will raise up prophets from within your unit who can communicate direction from headquarters and speak life and courage into your people. I will train teachers, who will feed your people and make them strong and healthy. I will build evangelists, who will push everyone out of their foxholes and on to the battlefield to advance the kingdom.”

As the general spoke, the officers’ stance slowly changed from weary to invigorated. In unison, they said, “Yes, sir!”

The general nodded. “By the time I am done here, the shepherd casualty rate will have dropped dramatically, and you will have the strongest and most well-rounded soldiers available in the kingdom. It will take a major overhaul, but we can get back to the original blueprint and set up your outpost correctly. Thank you for allowing me to bring these adjustments to you. It is my pleasure to serve you. Let’s begin.”

The officers breathed a collective sigh of relief. They had been waiting decades for new apostles to appear. The last wave of apostles had flunked out of basic training when they tried to control people rather than humbly serving them. For years, rumors had circulated that a new batch of apostles had actually been released into the battlefront. Now they had finally arrived, and together, they could begin to advance the kingdom.

OUR CURRENT PROBLEM

Modern Christianity has struggled with the reality that God is releasing apostles in the current church system. Yet this is not a new problem. I believe that every generation has struggled with this same problem, because the apostolic grace is unique, and it creates challenges for current systems, which may have become more cozy than effective. For the sake of time, I will not be reviewing how every generation of church history has responded to the new apostles God has released, but I do want to look at how the very first generation of apostles encountered this exact challenge:

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

(With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

“For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his place of leadership.’

“Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:15-26)

Peter quoted from two proof texts in Psalms to show that Judas’ death was predicted and that he should be replaced. Notice that the eleven apostles had two qualified candidates in front of them, yet from their perspective they only needed one, because they were simply trying to get back to the number twelve. Later in Acts, the number ends up at eleven again because of the death of the first apostle, James:

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. (Acts 12:1-3)

When James was put to death, the other eleven did not reconvene to replace him and return to twelve apostles. Peter did not stand up again and quote from Psalms, and no one predicted that James would be martyred. I believe that what we see in the original group of apostles, which I refer to as the Jerusalem apostles, is a system that would have died out. After replacing Judas, the group had no plan for implementing new apostles. Even in Acts 1, when they had two qualified candidates, they only chose one! Eventually, all twelve apostles would have been martyred without having raised up new ones. But the Holy Spirit had a different plan.

Over in Antioch, the Holy Spirit began to speak through the prophets and teachers about raising up two new apostles. This not only replaced the martyred James; it actually moved the number of overall apostles to thirteen:

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:1-3)

The original model is straightforward: apostles create apostles. Jesus, “our apostle” (Heb. 3:1) created the twelve (Luke 6:1-3), and the eleven raised up Matthias (Acts 1:26). Yet the Jerusalem apostles weren’t raising up any new apostles. Therefore, the Holy Spirit went to the prophets and teachers in Antioch and had them raise up the new apostles. Not only did the Holy Spirit break the barrier of the limited number of apostles by expanding it to thirteen, but these new apostles could also carry a revelation to the Gentiles, unencumbered by prejudice. We read of the new apostles, Paul...