Welcome to the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter - A Call to True Apostolic Leadership

Welcome to the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter. It is a privilege and honor you are here. You may have been brought up in an Apostolic church and have found your way here, or you may not even know what it means to be an Apostolic, regardless of which category you may fall in, you are in the right place. 

I'm not sure where you are in your walk with God, but I do believe this is a timely resource for this very hour. That said, I'm sure you are aware we are living in perilous times, and never before has the Word of God been so more detrimental to our survival, both physically and spiritually. 

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Everything I know about what is to come, and everything I've taught for nearly 20+ years, I've learned from reading and studying the Bible. You may have heard people say how they were raised by music or by movies and television ... well, I often tell people I was raised by the Word of God -- and that's not meant to come off as being super spiritual by any means.

The reason I say that is because when I was growing up, instead of going to my mother or father for advice or guidance, and instead of going to music or television/movies, I went to the Word of God. For every situation or issue I was dealing with or facing while growing up, I always went to the Bible for my answers. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure of many people that have lived life that way. 

Nevertheless, my point in sharing that with you is because it is my desire that this Apostolic Ministry Newsletter will help you reach your potential in Christ, while there is still time. That said, never before have I  been led by such a spirit of urgency.

​I've told many people in my line of work (outside of the ministry) that my first love has always been the expression of thought through the written word; however, what they don't always realize is that when I say that I'm actually referring to Logos -- the essence (or Spirit) of God and His Word (His thoughts or mind), and which was expressed to us through the Sonship of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). In short, there is nothing I love more than the precocious Word of God. 

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Isaiah 55:10 -11, which says, 

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." (NKJV)

What an amazing promise!

I am so grateful that God has given us His Word, for there is nothing on earth like it. As you read each article in this Apostolic Ministry Newsletter be assured that God's purpose for your life will be fulfilled, for there is no doubt,  His Word will surely not return void! 

​And my hope is that the included lessons will add value to you as the Spirit of God guides you into His eternal purpose for you and your ministry. May it be a blessing to you as you go about being a blessing to others.
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​A Call to Apostolic Leadership

For the first article of the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter, I think it is fitting we begin with a call to Apostolic Leadership. Where do most people go to learn about leadership?

​Some may go to the world of politics, some may even look to the world of business. Many seem to look to successful CEOs, management consultants, or theoreticians with PhDs in leadership and so forth. 

However, the truth is, the best source for leadership teaching today is the same as it has always been for thousands of years. If you want to learn about leadership, then what better place to go to than to the greatest leadership book ever written -- the Bible?

​That book you hold in your hands has the potential to change your life, or course correct your overall path and development as a spiritual leader. And as you are probably aware, often the first and most difficult person to lead is ourselves.

That said, there is much written about self-awareness, and most of it is useful, but what I have found to be quite interesting is how much of a disconnect or a complete absence there is on the side of spiritual awareness in self-awareness literature. You see, who could possibly teach us more about ourselves than the One who created us? And what better book to go to learn about ourselves (as well as leadership) than the Word of God? 

​Moreover, did you know the word vocation has come to mean something far detached from what it was originally defined as or known for? It comes from the Latin root vocare, which means “to call.” It was originally used in the religious sense, as a means to answer a call to the ministry. But now we use it to define one’s occupation rather than one’s calling, which aren’t always the same thing.

And because of that, fewer people are viewing their work (vocation or occupation) as a calling, and more so just something they must do to pay the bills. In other words, fewer people are pursuing a calling; and more and more are just seeking a job to get by, to survive.
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I don't know about you, but I have been persuaded that many go through life backwards instead of forwards, upside down instead of right side up. Consider this: there has been many debates within Christian or Evangelical circles … some believe work was part of the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden of Eden. They come to this conclusion because of what the Lord told Adam, “In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread…” (Genesis 3:19). In other words, you will have to work at the sweat of your brow … and bread can be viewed as a form of monetary gain from your spoils, thus “I have to work to pay the bills.”

However, what most tend to overlook is Genesis 2:15, just a chapter before, that reads, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” In other words, Adam was to “work” the land. You see, the significant thing here is that work is/was not a consequence of sin, but rather it is God’s calling to us to participate in the Creation process -- in our day this would be equivalent to getting involved in your local church and participating in the act of ministry, service. 

The only thing that sin brought into the picture here (regarding work and ministry) is that we will get tired (sweat on our brow). In other words, before the Fall, Adam could tend to the garden from sunup to sundown without feeling any kind of exhaustion or needing any kind of break throughout the day.
 
Now, what does that sound like to you?

If many of you are like me, you have probably heard the saying, “When you have found something you truly love, you will never work a day in your life.” Moreover, you have probably heard others refer to people that work all the time as being workaholics – often this term is used in a derogatory way.

In fact, when I was young, I used to view my father as such, because he would work long hours, day in and day out, sometimes well into the evening. But it was also my father who told me that if you find something you truly love you will never work a day in your life.

​It wasn’t until much later in my life that I began to connect these dots and discover that our pursuits should be less about trying to find a job to pay the bills, and more so about pursuing a calling or a passion, which in reverse affect, provides us more than we can ever possibly need. 

The Crying Need of the Church Today is True Apostolic Leadership

Believe it or not, the most critical problem facing the church today is not that less and less people want to serve the Lord, but rather the lack of leadership that is present within our churches. Church expert and statistician George Barna stated, "Leadership remains one of the glaring needs of the church. People are often willing to follow God's vision, but too frequently they have no exposure to either vision or true leadership." 

Not too many years ago, Barna came to some very interesting conclusions in his research:

"After fifteen years of digging into the world around me, I have reached conclusions regarding the future of the Christian church in America. My overall conclusion is that the American church is dying due to the lack of strong leadership. In this time of unprecedented opportunity and plentiful resources, the church is actually losing influence. The primary reason is the lack of leadership... Nothing is more important than leadership." 

That said, Christ left His church on earth to do meaningful work that will leave an eternal impact. If the local church isn't well led, then the Bride of Christ suffers, and she will not be able to fulfill her mission for this next generation.

Speaking of the next generation, as we enter a new era in human history, as our average lifespan decreases, and as the world becomes even more efficient with the rise of new technologies, more and more people are asking deeper and deeper questions. We are less and less about “small talk” and more and more about “Big talk.”

We now realize the way we have been doing “ministry” will no longer work. The world is demanding a fresh approach to ministry which requires a new perspective. Pastor and author, Tim Elmore said in his book,  A New Kind of Diversity  (AFF), "Rapid growth of technology has created a greater distinction between how generations connect, what they value, and how they prefer to work.” He goes on to say how changes in parenting styles over the years have also resulted in a different kind of graduate – what some would define as “entitled.”

The reason for this is because, in regards to work, older generations have this opinion that younger team members have this unrealistic expectation to move up the career ladder faster than their more seasoned and mature counterparts, who strongly believe in seniority (loyalty). Moreover, they often want to argue that the younger generation hasn’t “paid their dues” -- something millennials really hate to hear.
 
That being said, the next generation, when it comes to work or having a job, care less about sustenance and more about significance. In other words, they care less about falling in love with a product (a job), and more about falling in love with what that product can provide (a calling). 

Let me put it to you another way: They are not after a job just for the sake of having a job (to pay the bills, or sustenance), although they know and understand those things are necessary, but rather to make a difference in the world, to have meaning and significance; otherwise, what’s the point? 

With that in mind, Mr. Elmore goes on to say in his book that with every new generation, the following items become more and more apparent:
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• Time becomes more valuable (work is less of a means of living, and more of a hobby).
• Expectations of convenience and service increase (work should revolve around your life and not the other way around).
• The demand for work to have meaning intensifies (if we are going to work it better be worth it).
• The hunger for options grows (more about opportunity and less about loyalty).
• The sense of entitlement increases.
• The need for speed and space expands.
• The desire for customization becomes more and more expected.

​I share all this because the same kind of thing can be said about how ministry is being conducted within our churches. My point is this: there is a way to significant, meaningful work (ministry), and there is more to life than what happens to us, more to a vocation than punching a clock. By answering the call to Apostolic Leadership, we are providing a place of meaning in a less meaningful world, we become agents nurturing an environment of purpose and significance. 

Understand this: the next generation does desire to be mentored or led; however, due to their strong understanding of the power of influence (which came through the medium of social media), they will not just learn from or be led by anyone. It must be someone they can trust.

That said, trust is built on many things. It will require an investment of time, and the more respect you give the more trust you shall receive. Moreover, they will require great amounts of unconditional love or positive acceptance, as well as much sensitivity, along with a strong touch of encouragement -- which is what we hope to provide here through this Apostolic Ministry Newsletter. 
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God Calls Each One to Apostolic Leadership

God could have arranged His creation any number of ways, but He chose to create human beings who possess thoughts and emotions, as well as various personality traits, in order to establish ways in which we are able to relate to Him and follow Him -- without being forced to do so, mind you. 

When mankind fell into sin, God could have easily implemented a new plan that did not include sinful people in the process, but even today He still calls us to participate in His redemption plan and lead others as we follow Him. He makes this clear from the beginning when He says, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness: let them have dominion" (Gen. 1:26). 

​It was leadership expert, John Maxwell, who said, "everything rises and falls on leadership." That establishes the foundational thought that the leadership of any group or organization will determine its success or failure. And we can see this portrayed all throughout the Bible. For instance, in ancient Israel, when God's chosen people had a good king, all was well with the Nation. However, when they had a bad king, things always went horribly wrong for everyone involved. 

The call to Apostolic Leadership is all throughout the Bible. For instance, when God decided to raise up a nation made up of His own chosen people, He didn't call upon the masses, but rather upon one leader -- Abraham. Moreover, when He wanted to deliver His people out of Egypt, He didn't guide them as a group, instead, He raised up the leader Moses. And from there, when it came time for the people to cross into the Promise Land, they followed one man -- Joshua. What we can take away from this is that every time God desires to do something great He always calls a leader to step forward. He is still calling leaders today to step forward for every great work!

Jeff Goins in his book, The Art of Work (AFF), says this: “The way to meaningful work doesn’t always look like a carefully crafted plan. Sometimes the route to our purpose is a chaotic experience, and how we respond matters more than what happens to us.”

Consider the story of Joseph, the Dreamer. Joseph was hated by his brothers and even his father ridiculed and mocked him when he told them about his dream and how they would bow down to him. Joseph was given a dream of meaning and purpose, but in his youth (where the sense of entitlement begins), he could not fully understand the significance of it, at least not yet. Plus, he lacked some humility.

Therefore, in order to develop humility he had to go through some pain and suffering by way of pits and prisons. That said, it wasn’t until much later in his life that he began to realize his dream was not given to him for selfish reasons, but as a means to become a source of sustenance for not only his family, but for humanity at large.

You see, at some point we were all given a dream that we were born to do something significant, something meaningful. God put something in our hearts that throughout our youth we were drawn to. But then as we got older, instead of responding to that drawing, we started listening to our parents or to our college professors, and then when real life began to happen, we stop listening to that Call (that drawing) from our Creator to something greater, and we defined it as “growing up." Moreover, we began to make excuses as to why trying to pursue something so great is selfish and immature, and we began to wonder if those youthful feelings we once felt and heard were even real in the first place. 
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Look, no matter how noisy the world has become around you, or how busy you have become, there still has always been this thing inside you – a still small voice whispering at you during the quiet moments of life, reminding you of that dream you once had. If you listen hard enough you could probably still hear it. If Joseph would have stopped listening during his "noisy moments" in the pits and prisons, his family would have never been provided for and the world at large would have never been cared for. 

​To that end, let me make this perfectly clear: the dream God has given you and the calling He has in your life is not selfish and immature, but is selfless and significant, meaningful, and necessary for everyone. 
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Understanding The True Nature of Apostolic Leadership

Now, like the word vocation, did you know the word passion has also be defined differently than what it was originally intended? In other words, when someone asks you what you are passionate about most people often think about and respond by stating something they enjoy doing, something they love – it has a more positive connotation.

​However, the word passion comes from Latin (which happens to be the language of love) and means pain and suffering. In other words, when someone asks you what you are passionate about, what they are actually asking you is what you are willing to go through pain and suffering for.
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That said, usually when I share this with people the first thing that comes to mind is the illustration of the Passion of the Christ, what the Lord went through for us all the way to Calvary. Having this imagery in mind, and while also understanding that we should be pursuing a calling rather than just a job, my question to you is this: what are you willing to go through pain and suffering for?
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Somewhere along the way, Christians began to become convinced that if they are going to follow Christ they should become like sheep, be quiet and withdraw. This is, in essence, confusing meekness with weakness. As Apostolic Leaders, we acknowledge our own weaknesses, but that is when God's strength is perfected in us (2 Cor. 12:9). Instead, what God desires of us is that we display a holy, broken boldness (Acts 1:8). In other words, we are not called to idly stand by and warm up a church pew, but rather to pick up our own cross and follow Him; to deny our lives, and instead, find ourselves in Him (Matt. 16: 24-26). 

In short, a follower of Christ should be a leader of people. That is not the same as being someone's "boss" or having some kind of leadership position. And it certainly doesn't mean being pushy or controlling; or more importantly, being physically, emotionally, or spiritually abusive. No, actually, quite the opposite. You see, Jesus taught that the core of leadership is all about service (Matt. 20:25-28). If you are being salt and light, like Jesus instructed us, then you have already begun to answer God's call to Apostolic Leadership.
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All Believers Can Further Their Spiritual Growth Through the Act of Leadership

It has been said that often times the most difficult person to lead is yourself. In John Maxwell's book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (AFF), he teaches that the Law of the Lid states, "Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness."

That said, greater than resources, talent, or intelligence, self-leadership (discipline, discipleship) makes all the difference when it comes to making an eternal impact. That is our goal with the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter, it is our heartbeat to help enable you to raise the "lid" on your own effectiveness within the Kingdom, especially during these last days! 

We want you to reach your potential in Christ by becoming more and more like Him, and in so doing, it is it important that we each learn to think and act more like a leader, which in Biblical language, and how Jesus would describe it, is all about service. We all, both individual and church organization as whole, must become people of influence -- and we do that through the act of leadership known as service. 
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True Apostolic Leadership is the BEST Means for Reaching a Lost World

I believe we are all aware of how much we are living in an age of tolerance. In fact, I was reading a news article by Blaze Media earlier today about how there is a group of middle school students in Utah dressing themselves up as "furries" and causing not just a distraction in the classroom, but also an unprecedented disruption all over campus. And ultimately controlling how institutional policy is being implemented.

With that said, we are living in time where protecting one's feelings is more valued than proclaiming the truth. And people would rather censor or at least look with suspicion upon anyone who desires to influence someone with an alternative perspective or viewpoint.

We are proud to say that here, at the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter, we encourage others to embrace unpopular opinion. As Thomas Jefferson asserted, "In matters of fashion, swim with the current. In matters of conscience, stand like a rock ." 

With that said, I want to take this moment to not only encourage you, but to challenge you to become a dedicated student of leadership. Truth be told, becoming a good leader may not guarantee you will be able to leave a spiritual legacy for future generations, but it certainly provides the greatest opportunity to do so. 

Make it your aim to practice true Apostolic Leadership (i.e. transformational leadership), where people's lives are changed from the inside out. That kind of leadership is based on character, conviction, as well as holiness. In other words, transformational leadership follows the pattern that Jesus left us all throughout His ministry. 

That said, the need of the hour is great!

That is why I have dedicated my life to the work of the ministry. In fact, a co-worker of mine recently said not long ago that knowing me has not just been beneficial to him in a professional since, but that knowing me has actually made him a better person, that I have helped to improve his character. That is the essence of transformational leadership -- and I will continue in this good work until God call's me home. 

That said, it is my hope with the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter that it will be of great value to you. That through it, I may be able to be a person of influence in your life, as I have been with my co-worker.

Now, we both agree that God's Word alone has the power to change you for the better without me having anything to do with it; but by the grace of God, I present myself here available to Him to be used however He sees fit, and that through this resource -- where I provide you with cases studies and biblical and ministry lessons -- that you use it as a studying tool, as well as a ministry you can believe in and pray over. And maybe you could even use it as a resource to teach from and/or refer tool as you face leadership challenges at home, at work, and at church. 

My prayer is that you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind each time you take a moment to sit down with me as we join together to learn more about the men and women God has used as leaders to change the world for millennia. And if you are transformed as a leader through this ministry, then you won't be able to keep from influencing the world around you.
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​Logos & Literacy

​We hope you've enjoyed this first article of the Apostolic Ministry Newsletter. For our next piece, Logos & Literacy,  we understand that these days more and more people are experiencing storm after storm in their life, sometimes it's multiple storms at once; but we also know we serve a God that cares more about us than what we can possibly imagine. It is our aim with our next article to present that divine care in such a way that will provide a heavenly peace to you, not just for today, but for years to come.
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​Suggested Reading: 

• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, by Dr. John C. Maxwell
• The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do, by Jeff Goins
• A New Kind of Diversity: Making The Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage,  by Tim Elmore