Apostles can be something of a controversial subject in evangelical circles today and the reason is simple. Some people think there have been no more apostles since the 12 and Paul and some other oiks have arrogantly called themselves ‘apostles’ or ‘apostolic’ (which is nearly as bad).

Yet it seems that the idea of apostles today has a broader range of support from many different sources. Here are just a few:

Archbishop of York John Sentamu described Rowan Williams as ‘God’s apostle for our time.’ You might not agree with that assessment, but that’s not the point. Sentamu is saying, that Williams performed the role of an apostle to the Anglican church and as Archbishop, that’s probably as it should be.

From a completely different angle, read this interview with Tim Catchim who is co-author with Alan Hirsch of The Permanent Revolution. In particular note what he believes about apostolic ministry.

“…it is the apostolic person and vocation that provides us with our most missional form of ministry. They are the ones most likely to cross geographical and cultural boundaries with the gospel to establish innovative and sustainable expressions of the ecclesia in unbroken soil. Without this pioneering form of ministry, the church will likely not break out of it’s current pattern of only reaching a minor segment of the cultural and socioeconomic landscape in the West. We need all five ministries…and the apostolic in particular, if we are going to meet the adaptive challenge of missional extension in our time and place.”

Then there is this interview with David Devenish (I’m currently reading his book on apostolic ministry Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission) who in about 15 minutes lays out his convictions for ongoing apostolic ministry even though I would suspect that there would be some significant differences in style at least between Hirsch and Devenish.

Then from Sheffield Paul Maconochie refers to former leader Mike Breen using the ‘A’ word.

All this is to say that from a variety of different places the language of ‘apostleship’ is being used and rediscovered alongside (hopefully) the gift itself.

Speaking personally, this is a journey of discovery. I think each leader has to recognise someone’s gift as apostolic or not, it’s no good being told by someone else that so and so is an apostle. Bully for them. Trust needs to be earned and I think the apostolic gift if it is to mean anything must be relational not institutional. You can’t fill in an application form for ‘apostle’.

For us, here on a mission to church plant in Sweden, I see myself as being sent by a local church and by a family together on a mission but that family is an apostolic one. There are men who God has gifted to build churches across geographical boundaries and carry them with him into further mission together and we are happy to serve with them in building a movement of churches in Scandinavia and beyond.