A little while ago I took the APEST assessment. I first came across the concept through reading about it in books and on blogs. Essentially proposes that the leadership of the church comprises apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists. If the church leadership is going to function properly, then it only do so with all five of these leaders present.
So anyway, I took the assessment and came out strongly as apostle and prophet. Now at first glance I was a bit confused because I'd always though of myself as a preacher/teacher primarily. But then I dug a little deeper and discovered that in fact the role of preacher was actually subsumed into the role of prophet and the role of teacher was actually more of the role of organiser.
Now that makes more sense to me, even if you don't define teacher this way. I'm no organiser, but on my good days I can be an effective preacher.
I guess the question that arises now is what does this mean for my ministry and my leadership role, and of course for the role of those with whom share
leadership responsibility. At its most basic, the question is: where are the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers?
Too much of church leadership rests on the shoulders of an individual. It's time that changed. How you change that I'm not sure, but would it be too apocolyptic to suggest that the future of the church depends upon it?
A time may very well be approaching when all ministry will have to be what is euphemistically known as bi-vocational. We will no longer be able to hide behind the paid professional church leaders of whom we expect a wide range of gifts and skills than in truth none of us actually possess.
It is quite unsettling to think that one day one might actually have to carve out a career outside of the church in order to minister and lead effectively within it. After 20 years of full-time ministry one wonders what else one might be suited to do! And I also wonder how many of us would feel if we no longer had our professional status to wear as a badge of honour.
Much to ponder!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
2 comments:
It may be, of course, we've misunderstood the nature of 'full-time' and by moulding it for so long by pastor-teacher boundaries have over defined it by function. We need to see more people airing their thoughts on this one - many thanks.
Within a non-comformist tradition like mine, there is nothing that I do that can't be done by someone else in the church family. That begs the question, "What is full-time ministry?" Add to this the professionalisation of ministry and we have the perfect recipe for reducing it down to the pastor-teacher model.
This in turn creates another problem. If Paul is correct in stating that the church is built upon the foundation of thr apostles and prophets, then we might very well be building on the wrong foundations with the wrong model!!
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