In the case that you have not heard, we are excited to announce the release of our new resource, Activating 5Q: User’s Guide. If you are looking for a way to immerse your lead team or small group in 5Q, this is a great place to start. As a companion to the book, Activating 5Q: User’s Guide will move your group forward, help you become more fluid in thinking and seeing in 5Q colors as well as experiencing growth in your APEST gifts.
This week, I want to share my personal experience with the User Guide resources and hopefully encourage you to choose this path as you consider a next step.
[bctt tweet=”Activate 5Q is a guide that is intended to help us see ourselves in new ways, the ways that we were created to live. The 5Q journey is something that is shared among uniquely diverse people with uniquely diverse spiritual capacities.” username=””]One of the best ways to get 5Q on it’s feet in conversation and team dynamic is through a cohort style gathering of learners. You can read a really helpful blog post about learning in a cohort format here. Once you get a group together who are committed to investing some time in 5Q immersion, you are going to want a guide, a light for your path.
The last two cohorts I’ve run, I’ve used The Permanent Revolution Playbook as that guide. While the Playbook was released several years ago, it is still wildly relevant. The Playbook is a primer that introduces group participants to the beginner basics of APEST; helping those who are less familiar as well as equipping those who are further down the 5Q road.
The Permanent Revolution Playbook is a six week interactive curriculum with daily devotional style readings that will move you and your team through a good deal of vital thought, introspective discovery and conversational discovery. It comes with an APEST inventory to help you discover the metrics of your APEST gifting alongside an ongoing revelation of your type through community dialogue and exercises.
So, as you approach the Playbook, or the brand new Activate 5Q: User’s Guide, there are a few things I’ve learned that I feel inclined to share from my experience and observing the groups who have walked through the curriculum.
It’s About Paradigm Shift, Not Program
Starting off with APEST, one of the most important things that there is to pass on to you is that there is no program that your church needs to start. You don’t need a Summer APEST push; no six week 5Q teaching series; no book clubs.
The reason is simple. Well, complex, but simple in it’s complexity. 5Q is like gene therapy. It is the slow conversion from one way of operating to another through learning, conversation, practice and transformation. Releasing APEST into you church is grassroots movement, it’s yeast in the dough. Understanding the five fold gifts and how they interact with one another, how they build up the body of Christ, and how they ultimately help the church “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” takes time. It’s paradigm change.
[bctt tweet=”5Q is not a program. It’s a patient process, a paradigm shift. Learning 5Q is a slow conversion from one way of operating to another through learning, conversation, practice and transformation.” username=”@5QCollective”]
We often talk of the church shifting from Gutenberg to Google. For hundreds of years we have thought in terms of paper and printing, but now we are a digital culture. Even though we no longer licks stamp to send a letter, there are still churches who don’t invite attendees to open their Bible app. 5Q is like the primal digital. It represents a shift of habit and thinking as well as practice and application.
APEST is a shift that has the potential to unleash the gifts that Jesus has given to the Church that will re-align us to the Mission of God in our neighborhoods (as well as the world). A Bible study alone isn’t going to get it done. Instead we need, to quote Eugene Peterson, a long journey in the same direction.
The Playbook and the new User’s Guide are both catalysts for the journey.
It’s About The Journey
5Q is a journey. It’s a journey that is intended to help us see ourselves in new ways, the ways that we were created to live. The 5Q journey is something that is shared among uniquely diverse people with uniquely diverse spiritual capacities.
The Playbook isn’t about one slice. It’s the whole pie. As you and your team work through the pages, you will discover each person interacting with the material and one another in a variety of ways. It’s a beautiful thing.
The Apostles get really creative about how to apply this to their context and the teams/people that they are ministering with. They become this burst of entrepreneurial energy.
The Prophets discover permission to be themselves and encourage value in the other gifts, learning ways to work together and still exercise their spiritual calling.
The Evangelists are both equipped with a tool that is reproducible with new groups. At the same time, they are able to spend time examining how their call is unique, why more people don’t feel the same passion to practice this gift to the fullest extent.
The journey promotes a deeper understanding.
Teachers beware: the Playbook and User’s Guide may not fill you with the volume of information that your gift requires and/or delights in. You may feel like a six week commitment is too much for the amount of data that you read daily. But, that is not the point.
The Teachers must resist the impulse to mine the material for a sermon or lessons and exercise the flip side of the teacher coin: Wisdom. Listening wisely, offers the Teacher personality an opportunity to move beyond the gathering of information and experience the gift of transformation.
The Shepherds discover a tool to help their tribes, their people, unlock more of who they are created to be. The Permanent Revolution Playbook is a great small group/paradigm shifting/gene therapy resource. Vulnerability is one of the keys to its use, so…there you have it Shepherds.
It’s About Illumination
In my experience, the Playbook turns lights on. It inspires. It re-energizes. It re-invigorates. It shines light into darkened, unused spaces in the body of Christ. Helping a team discover who they are, the gifts they have and how to exercise them is some of the brightest light I’ve had the privilege of witnessing in my life of ministry.
If it stopped there, it would still be cool, but it doesn’t. Journeying through the Playbook turns your teams in lights as well. Where they go, in a fuller, empowered expression of their gifting, things get brighter.
That’s why we are so excited about the release of Activate 5Q: User’s Guide!
If you haven’t worked through The Permanent Revolution Playbook, from personal experience, I highly recommend it. Or if you are ready to dive in deep with Activate 5Q, we will be leading our first groups through it together and we can’t wait to hear about your experiences.
[bctt tweet=”The Permanent Revolution Playbook turns lights on. It inspires. It re-energizes. It re-invigorates. It shines light into darkened, unused spaces in the body of Christ.” username=”@5QCollective”]
Please let us know if when you get your copies, how you use them, what you are learning and what you would like us to address more here on the blog. This space is meant to be a conversation among practitioners. We want to you help you succeed as you shift toward 5Q. Let us know how we can help!