Modern Missions and Emerging Apostles

Dear Friends,

My mind has been returning to the theme of the on-going restoration
that’s affecting the fabric and foundation of the church. For example,
the Church’s worship has forever changed. Large portions of the church
now use modern praise lyrics or scripture verses along with overhead
projectors and praise teams. While I still enjoy singing traditional
hymns of worship, I greatly enjoy the new songs that have us singing
God’s Word into the heavens! This change has been for the better. It
takes an important part of church life, our corporate worship, and
gives it a valid and understandable cultural expression today.

In addition, the kind and the caliber of leaders that the Lord has been
raising up in this generation have changed dramatically. More and more,
modern preachers or church planters are no longer seeing themselves as
hirelings paid by deacons to keep the church members happy, but as men
and women “sent from God” to accomplish His purpose. As these new breed
of workers are being sent forth into the ministry by their fathers in
the faith, they are also discovering not only a new level of confidence
(from being effectively fathered and biblically mentored), but also the
increased authority of their credentials in Christ to effectively do
God’s work, an authority recognized by angels and demons both.

The restoration of a particular class of ministers—apostles and
prophets—has caused a particularly strong reaction in some segments of
the church world and will intensify until it produces a peculiarly
powerful result. Why? Because these two office-ministries (they are not
just charismatic gifts) are the result of what Jesus started to do
after His resurrection (described as an ongoing fact in Ephesians 4:11)
and what He is still doing in His present role as Head of the Church.

Along with the rediscovery of God’s original pattern for the Church,
there are two additional facets of the restoration which I believe must
be identified: 1) God’s purpose, and 2) God’s ways. Why is this
important? If we don’t line up with God’s overall purpose, we will
waste our energy and gifts building something God won’t occupy. If we
go about God’s work without doing it God’s way (this includes both the
methods and the motivations of the workers), we’ll build something that
God will inspect, find it deficient, and tear down. God’s way includes
the wisdom of having safeguards in place against doctrinal errors or
the abuse of authority that might occur in new wineskins.

Still, we probably won’t get it perfectly done right this side of the
return of our Lord Jesus. But let’s be pioneers… let’s try!

I can think of nothing more terrible than to spend one’s life working
toward achieving something only to discover it was not approved from
God’s viewpoint. When we do manage to get it right, not only will it
line up precisely with the doctrine and patterns found in the Bible,
but it will also be practical. In other word, it will be effective. I
love what Derek Prince used to say: “If it’s not practical, it’s not of
God.”

So much of what we learn in Bible School or Seminary may be true truth,
but it may not be practical truth. In other words, it won’t work in the
sense of producing good fruit in the real world. Yet traditions are
hard to replace. One definition I’ve heard for insanity is to keep
doing the same thing but expect a different outcome the next time. So,
with tongue in cheek, I could say that to the degree we are blinded by
our traditions and yet sincerely hoping for a wonderful new result, we
have all been acting a little crazy!

Along the line of these thoughts, I want to “think out loud” with you
about some issues. I welcome your input and criticism. As I recently
told a distant relative who is preparing himself for ministry (he is
rooted in historical evangelical traditions, whereas my roots go back
into Pentecostal expressions), “Truth, when examined grows stronger;
whereas error when it is exposed to the light of God’s word, gets
weaker.”

Much of church growth and modern missionary activity is still locked
into the paradigm of what used to work in the past. But the world has
changed rapidly, as has God’s resources for doing His work today. I
want to look at our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission from a new
angle using a phrase I learned from Senior Pastor Alan Jackson of World
Outreach Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His church impacts
thousands of people for Christ. The phrase is, “Does it transform?”

Our western “build it and they will come” model of Christian church
life, exported mostly from America and promoted by TV, has already
permeated the world’s mission fields. It has colored the way young
preachers evaluate their ability to do God’s will. It is dependent upon
owning land or using large auditoriums, a PA system, talented
musicians, preachers on salary, and drawing big crowds. Is this good or
bad? Is it the only way to do kingdom work?

While what we’ve done previously as Baptists and Methodists and
Pentecostals has worked to some degree in our industrialized nations,
is it the only model or even the best model to use in poorer countries
today? Is there a cheaper, more effective, or more enduring method?

I believe our previous methods are both good and bad. Why do I say
this? Let me give you my perspective. I graduated from Southeastern
College in 1971 with a major in Missions with double major in Bible. As
a student of missions for thirty years, as one who started his vocation
in God as a missionary-evangelist who then became a pastor in Assembly
of God, Baptist, Covenant and non-denominational churches, I have some
background on the issue.

Besides our experience as pastors, missionaries, members of apostolic
teams, and lifelong students of the Bible, my wife and I have the
peculiar privilege of being set apart by the Lord for this unusual
task: “Help equip emerging apostles in the developing church.” Before
the Lord spoke this word, I had already heard the Spirit say that part
of my personal mission statement wherever I would go was to testify to
the restoration of contemporary apostles and prophets. This is the
observation window through which I am looking when I discuss these
missionary issues. It may not be entirely objective, but I believe it
to be accurate, and it is my honest viewpoint.

Our western model of doing evangelism has helped establish a beachhead
for the gospel in many places. Yes, it has given gifted preachers a
platform to demonstrate God’s power and love and truth and proclaim the
Gospel to the masses. But sadly, it often has stopped right there, far
short of making disciples and establishing self-supporting,
self-propagating, self-governing churches. What about the foundations
of the faith for these new believers? Are they equipped to tear down
the spiritual strongholds that may be strangling their nation? Has good
order and biblical government been established so they can have
communal peace and the blessing of God’s manifest presence? Have they
been given the tools of the Spirit and the knowledge of God’s Word so
they can succeed despite adversity?

Often the harvest has been left to lie in the fields like wheat fallen
over, never gathered into barns. As a result, this reduced model of
ministry has made the gospel a cultural backwater, isolated, walled in,
and sometimes irrelevant in many ethnic situations. The seed of the
kingdom didn’t get a chance to germinate.

Upon evaluating the missionary methods of Paul the apostle, you can see
an apparent pattern in the Book of Acts of preaching, making disciples,
setting in elders, and then departing for the next mission field. He
didn’t practice “hit and run” evangelism.” He didn’t leave his kids to
raise themselves. And he didn’t make them dependent on foreign aid or
headquarters in a distant place. He stayed on location just long enough
(and no longer) to bring order into their new radical life in Jesus so
that the kingdom of God had a thriving community of faith, usually in
the form of a house church or network of churches, which then became a
living model of the message he had preached. He did this without using
a PA system or investing in property. Instead, he invested in new
leaders.

I believe the Spirit of God is saying that the highest mandate upon
anyone claiming to be among Eph. 4:11 Ascension-Gift ministries is to
help equip the next generation of workers so we can fulfill the
ministry of Jesus to the church and to the world. To do this requires a
new way of thinking, not just a new way of doing.

The question is: How do we picture success? The follow-up questions are
these: Has our definition of success been deficient? Have short-sighted
goals inadvertently short-circuited greater achievements? Has the good
become the enemy of the best?

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© 2004 “Modern Missions and Emerging Apostles” by Ron Wood.
(Portions of this article will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming
book. I recommend for further study my brochure, “The Apostolic
Foundation”.)

To read more on this topic, please visit our website at
www.touchedbygrace.org and download related articles or teaching
outlines. If you include a contribution of any amount, we will send you
a free copy of the brochure “The Apostolic Reformation” upon your
request. Write to us at: Touched by Grace, P. O. Box 12749,
Wilmington, NC 28405 USA.

Ron Wood is the president and founder of Touched by Grace Inc., an
apostolic missionary organization. He is a graduate of Southeastern
Bible College, a member of The International Coalition of Apostles
(ICA), a writer, and has been married for 35 years to his partner in
ministry, Lana (Stone) Wood. They have two grown children, Scott, and
Wendy, and two grandchildren, Trinity and Braydon. Ron and Lana Wood
base their ministry on the east coast of the USA and attend The Rock of
Wilmington. You may reach them at the address listed above. Your
comments to us are welcome as are your prayers for God’s word to
prevail among the nations.