One of the greatest challenges facing the Church in the West can be summarized with this question: “How does a Church with a mature presence co-labor with apostolic teams in the same geographical context?” Unfortunately, few imaginations are considering this question.
Church life as we know it has come to be defined in pastoral terms. Over the centuries, established Church structures have developed and matured. Ministry–including that which is often defined as missions–is now filtered through a pastoral framework with its methods and strategies.
But though the shadow of the steeple has grown less and less, the pastoral worldview remains strong. Of course, this is necessary and very important–when it comes to established ministry. As long as the Church exists in a geographical location, pastoral ministry must be developed, strengthened, and continued.
A problem arises whenever a geographical location such as the United States finds itself with a population of unbelievers to be estimated at 75% and home to the third largest number of unreached people groups in the world (360) (Of course, other western countries have different numbers.). Traditional approaches for disciple-making and disciple-shaping begin to grow less and less helpful among those without a church background.
The Spirit can do anything. But unless another awakening occurs, I believe 25% is close to the maximum amount of the United States population that will be reached by our longstanding pastoral approaches to engagement.
The need of the hour is for apostolic-type laborers to cross the cultural boundaries that exist between the established Church and those who remain in darkness. Such is no easy task anywhere in the world. However, and again I shall use my country as an example, the Church in United States finds Herself with a unique set of challenges. We imitate what we know; we know what is modeled before us. And that model defines ministry for an established Church context with Kingdom citizens and how to evangelize and teach obedience through well-established Church culture and structures.
There is no room for the apostolic. That type of ministry is for the geographical locations of the world where little-to-no Church structures exist.
As one of the pastors of The Church at Brook Hills, I am laboring to see our members sent as apostolic teams to make disciples, gather and teach, and appoint elders over new churches (Acts 13-14), while also laboring to shepherd this faith family through traditional church culture and structures.
Such ministry requires a constant changing of ministerial gears. One moment I am rightly working to strengthen our present church structures and organization for healthy Body life; the next moment I am rightly working to equip missionary laborers who will move across country (or across town) to reach an unreached people group. One model is more pastoral, the other is more apostolic; the pastor must understand and relate to both. Both.
Easy?
Absolutely not. But absolutely necessary.
A paradigm shift is never easy.
Our seminaries and Bible colleges are not prepared to meet this challenge.
Our mission agencies and societies are not prepared to meet this challenge.
When it comes to ministry in the West, we only know the way of the pastor.
When it comes to missions, we attempt to force the apostolic into established Church structures. This is tantamount to making David wear Saul’s armor.
Western world pastors must develop apostolic imaginations if we expect to participate in the Great Commission. We pastors might never be called to serve as missionaries, but we must equip the church for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:11-12). And such equipping demands that we prepare church members for pastoral-type activities and apostolic-type activities–in the same geography.
The four billion remain.
Over the past several years, I am seeing God raise up Christian business leaders who have this strong apostolic impulse. They are being trained to take the Gospel to the unreached, but they are being trained by groups outside the local church and not on the campus of a seminary. They are not seeking nor asking for anyone’s approval, save that of the Lord of the Harvest. They are finding ways to support themselves, in many cases, apart from the support of their church or denomination. I fear the institutional church has fallen in love with our old wine skins, and is expending a great amount of energy to try to save them.
Thank you J.D. We are here in Toronto trying to do this very thing. You have puts words to a tension I have felt. Thank you brother. After serving for 5 years in South Asia, having to involuntarily leave, we are now here to see things happen among UPG’s. And there is a huge tension between the establishment which is either ignortant, unsure, blind, or apathetic and those who come from tough areas who are now in a politically and economically free country. We have developed a team that is pursuing the answer to this. Thanks again. If you are ever in Toronto, look us up!
You are welcome, Clint. Thankful I could be of some assistance.
I love Canada and the GTA. Anytime I can get to Tim’s for a doughnut or bagel is great! 🙂
Thanks, Randy, for sharing. Glad to hear of those whom the Father is raising up and praying for the local church’s future involvement.
Tim Keller & Alan Hersch both are promoting this idea. How can we implement it?
I will not argue with what appears to be the basic premise of this article: the church must continually go into all the world to make disciples and teach them to obey all that Christ commands (Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke 24), and pastors should be equipping the church to do so. However the article is unhelpful in many ways. First, statements about what the church must do, or pastors must do, have to be supported by scripture and this article is almost devoid of scripture. And the two references do not seem to support the premise of the article (i.e., while Acts 13-14 do describe missionary activity of Paul, they also establish “traditional church culture and structure”; and the context of Eph 4:11-12 for defining “ministry” seems to be very pastoral, as defined in this article). Second, the distinction between apostolic and pastoral is a false distinction. Paul seems to have done both as an apostle without making this distinction. Since we have no more apostles, the church is apostolic when it follows the teaching and commands given by Christ through his apostles; so that pastoral ministry (as defined in this article) is apostolic ministry. Third, the terminology is misleading. The following terms are used to describe “pastoral”: pastoral terms, pastoral framework, pastoral ministry, pastoral approaches, and the way of the pastor. These terms are then equated with: mature, traditional, longstanding, well-established, structures; words which tend to provoke negativity. The term apostolic or apostolic-type is then equated with phrases like: “the need of the hour”, “paradigm shift”, and “no one is prepared for this”. In other words, your terminology creates its own urgency, an urgency which does not seem to be supported in scripture. “Shepherding a faith family” and “strengthening church for healthy body life” are apostolic ministries (modeled by Paul Acts 14:22, Acts 15:41; and commanded by apostles to the church in the NT).
Ruth can you share some of how Keller and Hersch are promoting this too? That’s exciting.
To answer your question a lot of people are trying to pioneer this kind of grassroots apostolic work. One that I’m very familiar is #noplaceleft —a coalition of practitioners seeking “no place left” without the gospel through multiplying disciples and healthy churches. It’s an open coalition, not owned or controlled by any single organization, focused on applying, learning and sharing kingdom growth practices in the North American context.
Thanks, Brian, for your critique. I’ll briefly respond to your points. Hope this helps.
“First” Like most blogs, this blog is part of an ongoing conversation. If you jump on and off, then you are going to miss out on the context of the conversation. Throughout many of my posts over the years (and books), I have provided numerous scriptural citations.
“Second” In this running conversation, I agree with you and have stated elsewhere that, Paul was both apostolic and pastoral. But no, I do not believe that pastoral ministry is primarily apostolic ministry and vice versa.
“Third” These are not negative terms; they represent our present reality. I have been a pastor for many years and describe myself and ministry in this way. The urgency is not in the terminology but in the scriptures, which you would need to read the conversation in context to see my citations.
Dr. Payne, thanks so much for putting a voice to this issue. I serve among the First Nation people’s of Alaska in village settings where there has never been a church. In the U.S. Most people cannot fathom this reality. And so the church moves along without apostolic clarity into its own back yard. They need to see that “I reached villages” can exist across the street from their building. Thanks again.
Thanks, Chris, for sharing! And for reading!
Keep up the great work among the First Nations up there!
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