We are a family of churches. Its not a Bible phrase as such, but it is something we value highly. It comes from the very heart of God. We don’t want to abandon the idea of a community. The people related to one another.
1. Its to do with the gift of the apostle
2. Its to do with the relationships surrounding that gift
It’s a biblical concept. Apostle is based on a Greek word which means to send with authority, commissioning, representing someone. Its an ambassador, someone apprehended and sent. There are different categories. Hebrews 3 describes Jesus as THE Apostle. He was the ultimate sent one. In John’s gospel he kept saying he had a task, he had been sent. Moses was a different man before and after being sent. Moses was trying to help and met hindrances and then left. Then when he was sent, it was almost as though he was bullied into it! God imposed his will on him. He still has difficulties. But he is confident in his call.
Jesus was unique. But he also gathered the 12 and called them Apostles. They are unique. They have a peculiar standing. They are foundational.
Thirdly in Ephesians 4 it says Jesus ascended on high and then gives gifts. These are a different category. Paul was one of these, although he is almost in a category of his own. He was unlike the 12 apprehended after the ascension. Barnabus, and others in the Scriptures are also listed as apostles. In Ephesians 4 we see diverse gifts with different tasks all given from heaven. They have different roles. A pastor is not the same as an evangelist.
They provided the foundation of the church.
The early Christians were not just converted but added to a community founded on the foundation of these Apostles. God made his home in the church. Never known a whole people before who could say God lives in us. Jesus says I am the true vine and you will be like branches in me. We are in the Messiah, and the messiah is in us. When people were saved, some of them would have been rejected by their families. They found a new sense of belonging in the community of the church.
They gave identity to the church
The people were built on the apostles and their teachings. Jesus replaced the temple, now we are the temple. Some Evangelicals will say that Apostles were simply Bible writers, and when the Bible is written that’s the end of the deal. Of the 12 only 3 who wrote any of the Bible! The person who wrote most of the New Testament, Luke, wasn’t even one! Some say now we have the epistles who needs apostles. These scholars take away this phenomenally important ministry for world mission. They rob us of an incredible thing. The reformers were anxious to reject apostolic succession in the Catholic church, and so they rejected the continuation of apostles and most commentators since have just followed them.
1 Corinthians 3, describes Paul’s work as a wise master-builder in founding churches. Obviously the completed cannon of scripture is foundational for our faith. But Paul spoke about the work he did in individual churches. He was a church builder. He was the wise architect. God gave him a blueprint and he built it.
He said to the Corinthians they were the poof of his gift, and he said “surely I am to you” He said that the fact they existed was the proof that he was an Apostle. Paul was a dynamic figure who fathered churches. Phillip the Evangelist did not father them he simply evangelized. Paul says you don’t have many fathers. He developed relationships with churches. He brought them to birth and he continued to have a link with them. Even Colossae which he had never visited personally (one of his team had done it) he stabilized his team, and were still within his sphere. He had an ongoing relationship with a number of churches. Theologians speak of the “Pauline churches.”
He spoke of his ongoing care for the churches. He prayed for them day and night. It was affectionate and dynamic. It wasn’t institutional It was life imparting. 2 Corinthians 10:13
speaks of a sphere that reached to them. In the ESV this is translated as
“But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged”
The idea actually seems to be not so much that the area or sphere grows in Corinth but that it will stretch beyond them.
We gave an apostolic sphere a name – Newfrontiers. Actually, what is important is the apostolic sphere.
The idea is that the Corinthians faith will grow, and hence he will be able to reach beyond Corinth. A spiritually unsettled state of affairs at Corinth would be a hindrance to him moving forward.
Paul is not called to be a pastor, but to press on.
In Bible days, Jesus called apostles who then planted churches, and then the whole church got caught up in their mission and the world was reached. When churches were not healthy, the apostles came back.
JB Phillips “your growing faith will mean the expansion of our sphere of action”
A healthy church can help apostolic thrusts, we are in this together.
Churches and their faith and partnership determine the growth of apostolic work. The churches are caught up dynamically on a mission. We really are together on a mission.
We are trying to recapture Biblical Christianity. We need to fight for the apostolic. We want to see the dynamic of global evangelism through the biblical way of honoring apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We want to win this battle.
We must beware of the danger of becoming too static. We might loose the edge of our New Testament origins. It could become too easy to belong to this movement. What is it we are building? We are building something radical.
Over the years there has been change within Newfrontiers. Many guys who have gone out from us, and who would have represented Terry initially, now are more and more functioning in their own gift. People have built networks of grace-filled churches that span different nations some nations where Terry has never been to. There is already a lot of pumping life out there in our movement.
When Simon Petit died, it was like a large tree had fallen, and God directed us not to replace him but to make room for the saplings that had been growing in his shade. We are now in a dozen more African nations as a result.
Adam is told fill the earth. Multiply. Sons who become fathers, who can then have sons. Newfrontiers is not just Terry’s apostolic sphere any more. He is coaching others who are themselves doing apostolic work.
We are coming to the end of the beginning of this movement. When this was one apostolic context. Its already more than one apostolic context. There are details to be worked out. But the principle is established. Jesus did not hand over to a successor, Peter was not the pope. When Peter stood with the eleven, Peter was the spokesman. But it was Peter’s moment, not Peter’s movement. Later James stood up and spoke at a controversial council, and it was his moment. Paul said he went to those of reputation, not that I went to the new leader. He spoke of those reputed to be leaders. There was not a stagnant nature.
What we are looking for is gifts that multiply, grow and develop. Paul did not come from the Jerusalem stable. He wasn’t trained by Peter. He grasped the gospel, he founded churches, he fathered churches, and he was recognized for his gift. He did not want to be alone. He wanted to be in step with what is there before me. He wanted unity with the existing. He wanted recognition and affirmation from those who were before him, though he was absolutely confident in the gospel. Later on, Paul is able to confront Peter “to his face” when he saw him drifting on grace. Why? Because he wanted the church to be one. There is confronting, and challenging each other. They were a fellowship of apostles, a band of brothers. They held together and kept relationship. They could have chosen their own way. They could have said “I’m off”. In fact, if some people want to leave Newfrontiers and go their own way then they are free to do that. Its not that Newfrontiers has authority. This is a name we gave to an apostolic sphere, that’s all.
There is a mutual support that is going on. We have relationships that have bonded us together. We believe that these relationships will continue. We are looking for the emergence of more apostles. Its God’s church. Its not our institution. Its HIM that gives the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Apostles are not an appointment of the church, they are a gift of Jesus. Terry can’t make more apostles.
You can encourage and train those with developing ministries, but it is GOD who gives the gift. The day we make it our thing is the day we drift towards and institution. We need the divine call and the divine equipment.
Apostle is not a name given to the church’s leadership, it is a gift given by the ascended Christ. Give us laborers for the harvest! Give us more of these gifts. Lets see more spheres opened. Let the criss-crossing happen. Not a case of little visits, but apostolic thrust. Paul did not have a big religious event. He probably had a meeting in a house somewhere where Peter just said – hey we are with you, we recognize God is with you.
Paul says “We were gentle, as apostles” in a letter written by Silas and Timothy. There is some confusion there about whether these two were apostles or not. We need to be careful to see who are the real apostles, recognizing they don’t have to look the same, but neither should we call a room full of pastors an apostolic team.
What is more important than Newfrontiers continuing, is that genuine apostles rise up where churches are in dynamic partnership with apostolic advance. It’s about a dynamic joining not about being on a list.
There is a generation coming up through Newday and Mobilise that are not very interested in institutional life. They are pumping and radically red hot. We have to stay vibrant for that to happen. It must be uncomfortable to stay around. What can hold the spheres together? There is fellowship to happen between different spheres knowing that we are more together than we are apart. Unity of doctrine and values. There has been great strength to us in that. There are promises God has given us to change the expression of Christianity all over the world. Not sure any one sphere can do that, but lots of spheres together can! We are going to touch nations. We need one another, we are going to still need one another.
Finally, Joseph was a dreamer who was thrown out, through youthful exuberance. Ultimately came into a place where he was a blessing to his brothers. We are seeing an opening of doors into reformed conservative evangelicalism. They are seeing “perhaps you are not as crazy as you thought”. Jonathan said, come and join the victory. We need a big heart to embrace and bless if we can the broader body of Christ.
God will take us from nation to nation. We want to see every nation touched.
If we are to be a grape vine it can stretch very far from one root. In these next few years we are coming to the end of the beginning. God will do an amazing thing.
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