Lance on APEST in the latest eNews

Last week's eNews was on a very personal topic for Lance however, even then, Lance stepped aside from the personal to address a big picture issue.

He mentioned APEST and noted the importance of recognizing all of the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13.

He noted that, for too long, the "church" has tried to function without the "gift expression" of apostles, prophets and evangelists and he, then, added this phrase,

"alongside pastors (shepherds) and teachers."

Lance then laments that when the role of the APEs is embraced that same conversation often discredits and underappreciates the role of shepherds and teachers.

I have three comments:

First, I don't know who in the CGGC is discrediting and underappreciating shepherds and teachers. To this moment, the CGGC I know is still all about shepherds and teachers! What is one thing that the General Conference has actually DONE that diminishes the roles of shepherds and teachers??? What is a single thing DONE that places too much emphasis on the APE gifts and the people in the body gifted to be them? My network of correspondents in the ERC is leading me to think that the proposed restructuring of the Conference will focus significantly on the issue of the health of the PASTOR. Discredit? Underappreciate? the role of shepherds and teachers? I'm not seeing anything close to that anywhere in the CGGC.

Second, (perhaps due to the translation he was quoting from) Lance committed the nearly unforgivable sin of equating the spiritual gift of being a shepherd with the institutional church's invention of the role of the pastor/cleric/parish priest. THERE WERE SHEPHERDS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT BUT THERE WERE NO PASTORS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT! As long as the mountaintoppers continue to write the parish priest into the New Testament, the CGGC will be out of step with the Holy Spirit and the will of God!

Third, this blog never, ever discredits or underappreciates the gifting of the shepherd and teacher. I've been understood as doing that and I've been accused of doing it for years. But, I don't do that and I never will. However, I do attack as openly and aggressively as I can the institution that perverted an essential and critically important spiritual empowerment to invent the role of the congregational pastor.

Thanks, Lance, for raising the issue. I hope, probably against hope, that there will be more conversation about it than my rant here.

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I'm adding this comment about three hours after publishing what comes before.

I've been thinking about Lance's assertion that when people call for a rediscovery of all of the APEST gifts they often do it in a way that discredits and underappreciates the work of shepherds and teachers. 

And, I have to say that I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN MANY CONVERSIONS THAT CALL FOR THE REDISCOVERY OF APEST GIFTS AND I HAVE NEVER, EVER HEARD A PERSON ADVOCATING APEST DIMINISH THE IMPORTANCE OF SHEPHERDS AND TEACHERS.

I do suspect that shepherds holding institutional power feel threatened and imagine that that happens. But, in my experience, it has never happened. 

Ever!

Quite to the contrary, advocates of APEST love and embrace the shepherd and teacher gifts and yearn to live in 1 Corinthians 12 mutual submission with those people. 

If what Lance describes actually happens in his presence, he needs to associate with another set of people.