Discipleship and Leadership don’t have to overwhelm you, they don’t have to kill the momentum of your organization! We don’t need a super powered program in order to disciple. The simple form and function of discipleship is embedded in the DNA of APEST. The key is helping others see what they are already doing and align it to the work of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher.

Discipling 101 requires that we remain patient, be observant and get creative; we watch for words and actions that align to APEST and then suggest creative ways to help disciples live into their Jesus-shaped calling.

Last week, we posted an excerpt from the 5Q book that focused on God as the Primal archetype of the APEST gifts. If you didn’t read it last week, go back and get caught up because today, we are giving you a look at the exercise from the accompanying workbook, Activating 5Q: A User’s Guide. Not only will you get a glimpse of some of the equipping resource in the workbook, but you will have access to an exercise that you can bring to your team and use immediately.

In today’s post, we explore APEST as it is expressed in the imago Dei (image of God) through an excerpt from Alan’s new book, 5Q: Reactivating The Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ. If we are to grow in our awareness of 5Q and then move toward application that is powerful and transformative, then we need a strong understanding of the primal ordering of the APEST gifts. We need to see how they issue from the very person of God. If you haven’t read the book, this post is a great first step in the conversation, and if you have, then it is a timely reminder. The importance of theology can not be overstated. Who has given the gifts will always be more important than the gifts themselves.

Building on the article from the previous week, this post continues to explore the use of language in solving issues in the organization, particularly those in the Body of Christ. What change is possible when we begin to move APEST from an idea, or information, into actual application in the Church? When we look through the 5Q lenses, how does that change the way we see ourselves as ministers? How does it help us diagnose problems and reach solutions that move us toward actual forward progress? Read on to find out!

In a chapter in Organization at the Limit, a book dedicated to analyzing the organizational dynamics that contributed to the Columbia space shuttle disaster, William Ocasio discusses the unique connection between language and organizational activity. Applying an analysis of the language used and how it points to deficiencies in thinking, Ocasio points to the subtle yet powerful capacity of language to focus our attention as well as to blind us to seeing problems when they occur. The language we commonly use can greatly influence what gets noticed and what gets ignored.

Today’s post is from one of our favorite authors, Jon Ritner, pastor of Ecclesia Hollywood. In his new article, Jon shares how he is integrating APEST into his year long preaching calendar. If you have been asking the question, “How do I preach this stuff?”, we believe this is going to help you! Bring 5Q to your congregation every week by adjusting the way you think about calendaring the Scriptures to include a three dimensional grid where Sections of Scripture, Major Discipleship Themes and APEST intersect. We look forward to your comments and contributions on this!

Today’s blog post is a review of The Permanent Revolution by Len Hjalmarson. If you haven’t read this paradigm breaking work, The Permanent Revolution is a sort of autopsy of Movements. Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim open up the anatomy of what it takes for a movement to happen, what it takes to make movements stick and provide a new strategy to awaken the Apostolic Imagination of the Church of the 21st Century. For an even better understanding of the book, check out this review! Len Hjalmarson has done a great job of working through the structure of the book and synthesizing the key points and ideas. Some of the 5QCollective team have read this book through many times. Hjalmarson has us gearing up to read it again.

Recently, Alan tweeted something that created a fantastic opportunity for discovery.

Click here to follow him on twitter.

So, this week, we are going to explore the three dimensional connections that are rooted Jesus and extend from Father to his people, the Church. What we see is that,in Christ, God is connected to the world through the fivefold gifts of the Body of Christ. So let’s take a look.

Deeply embedded in the assumptions of the whole APEST/Five Fold conversation is the understanding that Ephesians 4:11 is moving the church somewhere; there is a destination in the mind of the Apostle, namely Ephesians 4:12, “His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ.”

The five fold gifts Jesus gives to the church aren’t a jam of the month club that shows up at your door and overcrowds the refrigerator shelf. These are capacities that are meant to be activated in the Body. They are personalities that are exercised in the people. They are grace at work in the most surprising of ways.

APEST as the defining marks of the church presents us with an outstanding, ready-made, inbuilt, and theologically robust, way to assess the church’s overall spirituality, ministry, and effectiveness. And we are effectively making an assessment against the ultimate benchmark of all Christian ministry—the ministry of Jesus Christ himself. Having then identified relative strengths and weaknesses, we can then go on to develop appropriate leadership and organizational strategies to suit.