Fully Released

This morning, I’m happy to be hosted over at the “Release the A.P.E.” blog.

What’s an A.P.E. you ask? It’s an acronym for apostles, prophets and evangelists, and the aim of “Release the A.P.E.” is to empower those offices in the church in greater measure.

I’m fully behind this empowerment, both for men and for women. In fact, my argument is that we need A.P.E.s of both genders in order to advance God’s mission in our world.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the post. Head on over to read the rest here.

I love the idea of releasing A.P.E.s into the world.

I also love the idea of releasing she-A.P.E.s into the world. In fact, I love most the thought of empowering apostles, prophets and evangelists of both genders to partner side-by-side in advancing God’s mission in the word.

And make no mistake about it, that’s the Biblical model for ministry. In spite of the overwhelming patriarchy embedded in the Biblical context, the Scriptures make clear that both men and women are suited for A.P.E. ministry tasks.

For instance, when it comes to apostles, there’s Paul (2 Timothy 1:1) partnering alongside Junia (Romans 16:7). When it comes to prophets, in the same passage in Luke 2, we have Simeon (v. 25-35) sharing the load with Anna (v. 36-38). And when it comes to evangelists, we can point to plenty of sinners of both genders who met Jesus only have their lives transformed; the demoniac from Mark 5 and the woman at the well from John 4 are just two examples.

And so the question bears asking: how can we do a better job of releasing male and female apostles, prophets and evangelists into mission in ways where both genders can flourish?

Read more here! And thanks to my friends over at Release the A.P.E.!