FINDING THE NEXT GEAR OF OUR MOVEMENT
Mark W. Pfeifer
The Apostolic/Prophetic Movement is stuck between gears. It seems to me that we have disengaged from the last season but have not fully engaged in the next one.
For decades now, we’ve debated titles and job descriptions. We’ve scoured the scriptures to formulate a theology on apostles and prophets. We wrote books, created conferences and preached sermons on the great possibilities of apostolic and prophetic impact on churches, cities and nations. People were motivated by the hope and potential of apostolic and prophetic power in the church.
But alas, the luster is gone.
The novelty has worn off.
People are discovering that there are no secret weapons nor silver bullets in accomplishing their dreams of transformation. The ease of speaking in theoretical terms has given way to the challenges of practicality. It turns out that making the apostolic and prophetic work in the real world is not as quick and easy as we thought.
But that’s OK! Nothing of value is ever quick and easy. As we have quoted many times in Isaiah 28:10, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
One season must be completed before the next season can come into being. The achievements of the last season have set the stage for this present season. To the apostolic and prophetic pioneers, we say:
“Mission accomplished! Well done! Thank you for your hard work, dedication and sacrifice to get us where we are! Bravo!”
But now, we must shift gears!
The strategies and achievements of the last season are inadequate to take us into the new season. We must shift gears...
✅ from the theoretical to the practical...
✅ from titles to function…
✅ from definitions to actions…
✅ from defending ourselves to taking new ground…
✅ from examination to demonstration.
But what does this look like, exactly? What does this mean to the person who has the responsibility to make it work in the real world?
What does this look like for a single mom with three kids? A business owner growing his bottom line? A pastor of a local church? A denominational leader implementing change? A college student forming their worldviews? A political figure trying to parse out controversial legislation?
It seems to me, there are at least four specific areas the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement needs to engage in order to move into the next season of our movement.
1. We Must Engage the Next Generation
Most people under the age of 40 have not seen a significant move of God in their adult lifetimes. These are the architects of the “Nones” and they represent the first generation of people in United States history who have migrated away from church rather than towards it as they grow older (although emerging data suggests this trend may be changing!).
One thing that Millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Z (born 1997-2012) have in common is their desire to relationally connect with spiritual mothers and fathers in a familial atmosphere that is real, authentic and life-giving. This is why they have gravitated away from the institutional church in search for what it means to be, “spiritual.”
While my generation (Boomers) took those things for granted and went after the American Dream with gusto, our children and grandchildren have not been so bold. They share the planet with others in their age bracket that were deprived of those familial securities and are now yearning for the peace and safety these environments provide. Add to that, the increased financial burdens from overwhelming student loans and the sense that the future is not as bright for them as it was for their parents, and you have a perfect storm for anxiety and depression.
Engaging the next generation means we must settle our debates on titles. We must end our theoretical monologues on apostolic and prophetic authority. We must focus our efforts on being spiritual fathers and mothers to a generation that is yearning for us to step into that reality, even if they don’t fully realize it.
2. We Must Engage Local Church
To secure the future of the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement, we must move from orienting ourselves around conferences, celebrity preachers and social media ministries to finding a place in the local church. This is where longevity is established. This is the place where future generations are molded and motivated. Our movement cannot be sustained without finding a place in the local church.
Pastors need to see that our movement is congruent with their goals and objectives. They need to hear how apostolic and prophetic influence can help them achieve their dreams and visions – ALL THE WHILE – showing them how they fit into that picture.
Which brings me to my next suggestion…
3. We Must Engage with all Five-fold Ministry Gifts.
When Nicki and I first started doing USCAL Regional Roundtables, I thought for sure the subject of how apostles and prophets work together would repeatedly come up.
It never did!
Instead, questions and ideas circulated around all five gifts of Ephesians 4:11. Then it occurred to me, God never intended that apostles and prophets should work alone at the exclusion of the other three gifts. We need all five. There is no equipping the saints without being a team. That’s when we began to dig deeper into ideas around 5D.
What is 5D?
In order to equip the saints properly, they must be influenced in equal proportion by all five gifts. In other words, to complete our mission of making disciples, apostles need teachers, evangelists need pastors, prophets need apostles, etc.
Missing any one of these five influences creates a deficit in the life of a saint that hinders them from becoming fully Christlike – since each of these five gifts represent a unique and necessary dimension of Christ. It takes the complete five-dimensional representation of Jesus to develop a well-rounded, fully developed five-dimensional disciple of His.
Apostolic churches can’t create this kind of disciple. Prophetic churches can’t create this kind of disciple. Evangelistic churches can’t create this kind of disciple. Pastoral churches can’t create this kind of disciple. Teaching churches can’t create this kind of disciple.
It’s only when all five dimensions are equally influencing the saints that we will see what Paul described in Ephesians 4:13-16:
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
This is why the Apostolic/Prophetic Movement needs to engage with the other Five-fold ministry gifts as a team to serve the needs of the saints.
4. We Must Engage with Greater Accountability
This is a new one for us. Given the number of moral scandals happening in the church today, it is now more important than ever that our movement, which is largely independent in nature, becomes more accountable to (a) spiritual authority, (b) one another, and (c) to the people we serve.
No longer can we site instances where we’ve been hurt or abused by spiritual authority to claim the moral right to disown it altogether. Just because there have been some bad fathers and mothers in the world, doesn’t give us the right to disregard the Fifth Commandment of God to honor our fathers and our mothers.
Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”
Every person reading this needs to be able to identify the person/people to whom you submit yourself for personal accountability. Who are the people looking out for your souls? Can you name them? Do you have a relationship with them? When was the last time you spent time with them? When was the last time you called them
Ephesians 5:21 also says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” There is a mutual accountability we should walk in as brothers and sisters in Christ. Only those who are truly submitted to God can achieve this feat.
True accountability starts in the heart of a person and is born out of an intense awareness that sin continuously lurks at the door and the works of the flesh cannot be trusted. Accountability must be practiced in the deepest humility and displayed in the greatest of honesty.
Our movement needs accountability in the most urgent way to engage the next season. In the months to come, we are going to be revealing some solutions to that problem.
Stay tuned!