Apostle
Not a Consultant
If I wanted to pretend to be someone I am not, I would name this page “consultant” and try to convince you why you can’t live without me and how I’m worth every penny of my speaking fee.
But consultants are stupid. And I’m not one anyway.
I am, however, an apostle. Which means I get excited about stiring up new ministries, encouraging the church to become all she can, and equipping people for the ministries God has already gifted them for. These passions tug at my heart and life and will not leave me alone. I have struggled for many years with the bennefits and drawbacks of paid ministry–sometimes blessed with more time to devote to ministry, other times blessed with more freedom to try new things. I do not know if I will ever write ‘Apostle’ on a W-2, but I do know that I must simply be available and vulnerable to where God’s Spirit calls me.
Walking Together
One thing the church needs less of are know-it-all’s and experts; but she needs more friends on the journey. I don’t allege to be any kind of an expert on the church, but I have been blessed (read “sometimes cursed”) with the opportunity to see what the church could be. For too long now, people have been running around trying to create the perfect program to create the perfect church–cutting out anything that gets in the way of streamlined perfection. But we can only cut off our nose to spite our face so many times before we just get ugly.
And who wants an ugly church?
Instead, we need to slow down; learn to love God, learn to love others, and –for that matter– learn to love ourselves. We need to become the kind of body who can love her too-large ankles as well as her perfect ears–and realize we need both to be exactly who we are created to be.
’cause who wants a fake church?
There are no easy answers–fat binders with worksheets, or perfectly timed powerpoint presentations–that will teach us how to be the church again. We just need to walk together and discover what God has been up to all along.
That, my friend, is a beautiful bride.
Contacting Me
Part of being an apostle is living and ministering trans-locally. (Which is just a fancy way of saying, ‘always moving around’). Just check out the New Testament. Those Apostles were all over the place. They would travel anywere the spirit led them to encourage the local churches and lift up leaders from the community. Then, they kept on moving to stir up new things in new communities.
If you would like to track me down, I would love to hear from you.