Groundhog Day is one of my absolute favorite movies. I’m not ashamed to admit it.
So what does it have to do with APEST? Fair Question.
Ever feel like your ministry, your life as a disciple of Jesus, your church is stuck in the same day? You relive the same stuckness day after day, week after week, hour after hour, meeting after meeting.
Have you ever felt like one Sunday, one outreach, one brainstorm is the same as the last? Of course, you have.
See where I’m going with this?
At one point, we’ve all felt like Bill Murray? Waiting for the Groundhog to pop out of his Punxsutawney condo and predict whether or not we are going to move into a new season of mission or slog through another cold spell of Gospel winter. Waiting for time to snap back into forward momentum, pushing you toward Kingdom incredibleness?
But, we are not at the mercy of time or weather! We are the body of Christ and we have been given the gifts that we need to build God’s kingdom in his time, for his glory. Ephesians 4 is a view of Spring.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Eph 4:11-16
APEST is the key that Jesus has given the church to make sure that everything is in its season and we don’t get stuck in any one more than another.
Groundhog Day is over! Spring is here.
If you are looking for a next step, you can take the next FiveFold step by reading this post, Changing The World With The Color 5. J.R. Woodward, author of one of my favorite books on the topic, Creating A Missional Culture, has written another fantastic intro piece, Creating A Missional Culture For The 5Q Church, that you can find on Alan Hirsch’s new blog, 5QCentral.
If you want to take an inventory to discover your fivefold gifting, you can do that on Alan’s new site here.
In terms of resources, diving into Alan’s new book, 5Q: Activating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ, is the best antidote to a life trapped in Groundhog Day.
Hirsch is the Godfather of the APEST movement. Anything he has written will change the way you think about the body of Christ.
Check out the Permanent Revolution, The Forgotten Ways and The Shaping Of Things To Come!
It’s a new day. Step into APEST and watch the Spirit of God transform your leadership/life in Christ.