14 Eldering in an Apostolic Household

As eldership teams in JoshGen, we have a number of incredible privileges. One of them is that we are part of an apostolic household. We have got strong apostolic gifts leading us forward. That is something that we should be incredibly grateful for. It's something that we should remember is an integral part of how each of us leads the congregations in which we work.

New Testament Churches Under Apostolic Oversight

If we look in the New Testament, there wasn't a single church that was considered independent and autonomous. All of them were linked together through apostolic gifts. Some of those churches were very significant. Churches of thousands of people. But the leaders of those churches still submitted themselves to Paul or Peter or others depending on which field that they were in.

We often say that elders are responsible for doctrine, discipline, and direction. But as you look throughout Scripture, those churches that were in Paul's field, Paul would actually come in and bring discipline. 1 Corinthians 5—He commands them to discipline the sexually immoral believer.

He's the one who brings doctrine. He says, I command certain men not to teach certain doctrines. And He brings direction. He says, take up an offering for the church in Jerusalem. This is how you should pray. This is how you should worship. And that's churches that were just part of an apostolic field.

JoshGen’s Shared Doctrine, Discipline, and Direction

Now as JoshGen we have dozens of congregations that are field within a field. The apostolic authority carried by Andrew is greater within JoshGen because he's also the guy who leads JoshGen as its visionary elder. Even more so, we should be very careful that any doctrine, discipline and direction as an eldership team is not ours as a congregation.

But ours as JoshGen. And it comes through the apostolic leadership of Joshua Generation. Sometimes there is a frustration that can creep in. There are things we may feel that we want. Or there may be things we want to do as a local eldership team.

We might feel the frustration of not getting what we feel we need. But I can assure you of this, the benefits of being together far outweigh any frustrations. And the reality is this, for the absolute vast majority of us, our congregations are as big as they are and as healthy as they are because of what we belong to.

We draw people because we're part of JoshGen. It would be good for us all to be humble enough to recognize I am not as successful as I am because of my anointing. But the anointing that flows through an apostolic household. I do a lot of ministry into Brazil and one of the challenges is some of the people keep referring to me as an apostle.

I was even presented with a certificate from the mayor of a town that thanked me for my work in that town as an apostle. I keep trying to explain to them, "I'm not an apostle." However, because I am being sent from an apostolic household, there's something of a grace that I carry that isn't mine.

But that I carry because of what I represent. Some of the anointing and some of the grace that you will carry as an elder is because of the household that you're a part of. It would be easy to start thinking, "this is who I am."

But I promise you, if you went and separated yourself and did your own thing, you would not carry the same grace. You would not carry the same anointing. Because of what flows through us. As an apostolic household, of course, the opposite holds true as well.

That as a household, we're stronger because of you and because of what you contribute. But let us raise in our thinking and in our strategizing and in our approach to how we move forward a greater understanding of the role of apostolic influence in our congregations.

Submitting to Apostolic Perspective and Vision

So what does that mean? What it means is we submit gladly to apostolic perspective. In ancient Greece, the word *apostolos*, from which we get apostle, was used in many contexts, before the church was established. The word *apostolos* was borrowed. Out of the many different ways that the word was used one was this.

If you had a fleet of ships, the first ship in the fleet, which every other ship followed, was known as the *apostolos*. On that ship would be the captain or the Commodore. The one who was in charge of the whole fleet. And the one who was the most skilled navigator.

He would have all the maps. And he would know where all the dangerous rocks were. And he would be able to find safe passage. And the ships behind would find safe passage because they were following that ship in front. To depart from where that ship was going was exceedingly dangerous.

And you could easily find yourself shipwrecked by departing from where the *apostolos* was leading. Of course, if you were absolutely convinced that the *apostolos* was about to be shipwrecked, then you would have more reason to depart. But that is a lesson for us, that we need to understand that actually following the apostolic vision is the safest thing we can do.

Sometimes people say to me, "I struggle to trust men because men can lead us astray," and that is true. But I struggle to trust my heart because my heart is more deceitful than anything else. And if a man can lead me astray, I can guarantee my heart will.

I want men of character, men with a track record, men with the grace, men who've been called, that I can follow because that is the safest route. And following means I want to follow closely. I want to be tucked in right behind. When he goes left, I want to go left.

Sometimes we can say we're in submission, and that can be true. But I think sometimes we can be obedient—we can follow without being truly submissive. Without being truly joined. Without being truly united. And we need to be very close. I have often said to deacons that I've led, "I want to feel you at my shoulder."

I want to feel you close. I want to feel your push as we move forward, and we need to get very close. Now, relationally, that's not always easy. Andrew is one man and we're dozens of congregations. So we can't all have intimate friendships, but we can be close in terms of opening our hearts to what's being said, praying for, and stuff like that.

But it also means that we need to accept that while we might not have access to Andrew, we can have access to Andrew's team. Paul couldn't always get to places, but he would send apostolic representatives. He would send Timothy or Titus.

And I want to say this, as an eldership team, it'd be wise not just to accept those guys when they visit, but invite them. Invite people in and say, "We would like you to come and add what's lacking in our team. We would like you to come and visit us on a Sunday. We would like you to come and visit our elders' meetings. We would like you to come and sit in and observe and give us your perspective. We'd like you to come in and audit us. We'd like you to come in and pick your brain and ask you, what is the best way for navigating forward? We'd like you to come in when there's conflict that we're unable to resolve and come and resolve it for us. We'd like you to come in."

And beg and plead for these gifts to come in. Because what we've seen, both in Scripture and in our experience of churches around the world, is that when churches don't take advantage of that, they drift into ill health. They drift into problems. And what will keep us healthy and strong, and what will make our job as elders easier, more enjoyable, and more fruitful, is close connections and submission to the apostolic gifts that God has blessed us with as a church and as a movement.

Leading and Speaking as an Apostolic Household

Furthermore, we need to be apostolic and prophetic in our leadership. We need to be not just experiencing our own little bubble, but going out. And not just going out into the nations, but going out into other congregations and observing and helping and learning from our other congregations. And taking teams with us and raising our people to have an appreciation of being part of an apostolic household.

How we speak about the apostolic gifts, how we speak about JoshGen, how we speak about being part of something bigger, how we speak about being team is essential. And our language as elders in a local context will determine whether people feel they're part of one little congregation, or whether they're part of a wider church and a wider field and a wider family of God.

And so I want to encourage us—I know this is something that many of us value—but let us reappraise our thinking of and our approach to being part of this incredible apostolic household that God has joined us to.