Mark Dawes, Religion Editor
Alan Hirsch
Do you need a new type of leadership structure in your local church? Then maybe APEST is for you. APEST is the word coined by Alan Hirsch, a leader of the Foreign Mission Training Network in Australia and author of the book The Forgotten Ways.
APEST is short for apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. These offices have a biblical origin. Ephesians 4:11 states, "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers". These are widely regarded as the gifts God has given to the Church for its proper functioning and matu-ration. It is often referred to as the fivefold gifts.
In an article appearing in the spring 2008 edition of Leadership Journal, Hirsch argued that leadership of every local church should have these offices represented.
In an essay titled 'Three overlooked leadership roles' Hirsch said: "When I looked at my church and most others, I saw congregations dominated by leaders who were shepherds and teachers. What happened to the other leadership types?"
Biblical times
The Fantastic 5 Diagram illustrates Hirsch's vision for fivefold church leadership.
Many churches do hold the view that the offices of apostle and prophet were for biblical times, but not for modern era. Pentecostal churches, in particular, have rejected this view and have been strong in recognising the fivefold gifts.
Hirsch, who clearly holds to the view that these gifts are for contemporary times, made a case that the leadership in a local church is the poorer if it does not utilise the fivefold gifts at the highest levels of governance.
The absence of the fivefold gifts operating at the level of top leadership will cause churches to diminish in their zeal and appetite for evangelistic engagement. Such churches, he said, will tend to be stuck in maintenance mode.
Historically, a person who possesses one or more of the fivefold gifts, but is not given scope to exercise it by his/her local church will tend to create a parachurch organisation or missionary order to exercise that gifting, he observed.
To further press his case, he wrote, "The Navigators, for instance, arose out of a need to evangelise and disciple people outside of the church structures because the Church was neither effective nor interested. Sojourners emerged to represent the social justice concerns that the Church was largely ignoring, as did World Vision, the aid and development agency."
His article said the offices of shepherds and teachers are the only two leadership roles that are enshrined in the leadership ethos of churches as apostles, prophets and evangelists have "faded away as largely unnecessary".
Buzz words
He suggested that "this contraction of fivefold to twofold ministry is one of the main factors in the decline of evangelical Christianity in the West. If we want a vibrant missional church, we simply have to have a missional leadership structure with all five functions engaged. We need more than a pastor and/or teacher leading a congregation. A missional church requires pioneering, innovative, organisationally adaptive and externally focused leadership, and this means a fivefold understanding of ministry leadership".
'Missional' is one of the new buzz words in North American evangelicalism. The missional church maybe described as one that is rooted not just in the New Testament church of Acts, but in the mission of Jesus himself. It is one which is upwardly focused on God in worship that is passionate; inwardly focused on community among believers that is demonstrated in relationships of love and compassion; and outwardly focused on a world that does not yet know or worship God. (See ministry coach Chad Hall's definition of 'missional' at http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/001/2.34.html)
Hirsch, who is part of the leadership team at South Melbourne Restoration Community, described how the fivefold approach worked in that church.
First, he said the leadership was restructured to ensure that all five ministries were present on the team. Then second, "Each member of the team would represent one aspect of the fivefold model and be responsible for heading up a team related to that area of ministry. Our structure went from a traditional Christendom hierarchy with a shepherd/teacher at the top, to a team structure with all ministry functions playing a vital role."
He said when they faced a ministry issue, "We begin by committing ourselves to the common mission of the group. We covenant to do whatever it takes to see our mission fulfilled. But this kind of interpersonal commitment requires a bond that goes beyond the professional relationships that exist on many church staffs."
Common mission
"We lived out our unity in Christ by living together, struggling together, worshipping together, praying together and facing our problems together. It was the healthy trust developed on the team that allowed divergent opinions to be expressed without fear of offending one another. It was the strong sense of commitment to one another that gave each member permission to operate out of his or her own ministry biases, and then unapologetically represent their perspectives on the issue at hand," Hirsch wrote.
"The apostle would press the need to galvanise the community around mission and extension. The prophet would challenge just about everything and ask probing questions about how God fit into our grand schemes. The evangelist would always emphasise the need to bring people to faith and expand the reach of the gospel. The shepherd inevitably expressed concerns about how the community could remain healthy amid change. And the teacher tried to discern the validity of any new idea from Scripture and history," said Hirsch.
Inevitably there were debates and arguments within the leadership team, but, said Hirsch, such was overcome through dialogue and prayer.
The team used where practical the latest thinking from management and leadership experts. Out of this was birthed the APEST Test (see www.theforgottenways.org). The goal was for each team member to put on at different times the perspective of the other. So each team member at sometime was asked to deal with issues by articulating the perspective of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. This served to broaden horizons, Hirsch reported.
Missional movement
The church growth expert made the point that every major missional movement has in some way incorporated the five functions into its system.
He closed his article by stating, "When apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are working together, a wonderful missional ecology is created. Not only is this a more biblically faithful model, it also provides a theologically rich, organically consistent and organisationally comprehensive framework to help the Church become more missionally effective and culturally agile. The time has come for the Church in the West to rediscover the lost potential of biblical leadership that has been dormant for too long."
Alan Hirsch may be reached at theforgottenways@gmail.com. Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
