Tomorrow morning – group discussion and prayer time
Hey bcc.
I wanted to let you know that tomorrow we’re going to keep pressing forward in together discovering what life looks like as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher. To help facilitate that to happen, we’re going to have fellow A-gifted people sharing with A’s, P-gifted people with P’s, and so on.
I see this time as WAY more valuable than hearing from just one person’s perspective b/c it’s collective intelligence and wisdom from others who are like you.
So I’d like for you to come prepared, having thought of three things:
1.) What insights has God been teaching you about being apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, a shepherd or teacher — insights that God may have intended for others outside of you to hear?
2.) What questions have you been asking God about being apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, a shepherd or teacher — questions that God may have intended for others outside of you to also explore?
3.) In addition, it would be good for you to ask the Lord which one of the five giftings you might:
a. most value in your heart (e.g., if reaching the lost, you most likely are an E; if caring for people, an S; if staying close to God’s word, a T; if the advancement of the Kingdom in new areas, an A; if hearing from God, a P),
b. have seen God bless in others through you, or
c. have heard the Holy Spirit tell you is latent inside you (even if the other two are not in place yet!).
Whichever one is PRIMARY is the group we’d like you to go to. We will be breaking up into five groups — one for every gifting. So bring your insights and questions with you.
Following that, we will be spending some time praying for one another — especially those of us who are fairly new in the giftings or may have no clue what they are. This is a biblical practice that we expect God to show up for. So please pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit tomorrow among us.
Thank you in advance for all being part of what God is going to do tomorrow. You ARE the CHURCH.
Dreaming of what Eph.4:11-16 can look like among us,
Mike
April 6th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
A couple of great insights came out yesterday that I want to pass on to you all:
1.) from Gil: we may find ourselves in seasons or ministry situations where we will have to be one gifting over another, and God gives us the grace in those times to function in different ways.
These categories are not meant to be static categories that pin us down to be one thing and not any other, but meant to shed light on five different ways that the people of God can minister. And what’s more, they are dynamic categories; i.e., we have not fully even begun to understand yet what each of the five is capable of doing and how varied they can be within themselves. Shepherds shepherd in MANY different ways; prophetic folk live out their lives and hear God much differently, and so on. So, our challenge is to help write the ongoing story.
I have already come to see that apostolic gifting is not just about church-planting. As long as there are unreached pockets of people, there will always be church planting, but apostolic people, I have come to see, are more than church planters. They are people like Aaron Shafer who started a skate park, Nathan Carlson who are looking for ways to build access into the urban poor and day workers of MountainView — they are people who are starting Kingdom businesses, bringing the Kingdom presence of God into different sectors of society like medicine, education, media, government, and so on. It’s fun b/c it is through relationships with real life people that we’re beginning to see the dynamic character of the Kingdom more clearly.
Thanks Gil for helping to bring that out!
2.) from Sam: we may find ourselves operating in a few at once — e.g., a prophetic shepherd, an apostolic teacher, a teaching prophet, etc. Look for not the adjective but more at the noun to see which one is more primary.
Very well said, Sam. Thank you for the insight.
Any other insights some of the groups came up with? Please share for our mutual growth.