A Shift in Leadership

A Shift in Leadership

The apostolic mentality is quite different. The leader is released by the people into an apostolic function to the larger Body of Christ and to geographical regions outside of the local church. The local church takes on the burden of apostolic ministry to regions beyond and to the nations. The people realize that the church is about more than just having their needs met, and that it is also about touching others with the resources that God has given us by His grace. More ministries are released to meet this burden and fulfill this vision. The church does not revolve around the ministry of one leader, but around a team of leaders with apostolic vision that comes from a revelation of proper church government. The vision to plant churches and send out teams is birthed in the heart of the people by seeing this pattern in the word of God. In an apostolic church, the governing gifts of apostles, prophets, and teachers are set in place. The overseeing gifts of pastor and the outreach gifts of evangelist are released. The people learn to draw from all of these gifts and not depend upon the senior pastor for everything. The minds of the people must be renewed to accept and receive this order of ministry. They must be taught that this is God's order, and much of what the Church has inherited was based on tradition more than revelation. What we are seeing is a radical change in our whole concept of the Church. Reformation always requires new teaching and restructuring of thought patterns. The people will not be able to handle such change as long as they are bound to old thought patterns. The leader must spend time teaching and training the people in new truth so that the entire church can transition into a new position.

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