Popular culture, over the last few years, has bequeathed many things to even the most occasional participant. One of the more pervasive and more useful artifacts – for the purpose of this post – is the concept of the mic drop. Unmatched in its sheer power to drive home a point, the mic drop has provided those who use it an aggressive visual that gives their audience a moment carved out of time where they can feel the muscle of an idea, the soul of sentence, the heart of the speaker. And, of course, the immediate feedback that shrieks through the speaker’s wattage does so like a hymn of victory.
There are several mic drop moments in 5Q, moments where what we have read is so profound, we have to stop and allow it time to wrestle with our heart and minds; to give it permission to challenge our preconceptions and understanding.
[bctt tweet=”The #5Q book is full of mic drop moments. Powerful points the soul needs time to absorb. ” username=”@5Qcollective”]As you begin to read the new 5Q book, early in the introduction, you’ll stumble upon this statement: “To ensure that APEST thinking isn’t a fad, we have to recalibrate the church’s theological system and realign it to more perfectly reflect Jesus’ original intention for the ministry of his people.”
Mic. Drop.?
It’s vitally important to embrace what 5Q isn’t. It’s not a new 7 Steps to A Closer Walk. It’s not 40 Days of Pastoral Power. You won’t discover any new love languages here.
What you will find is that 5Q is a call to action, an invitation to rediscover what has always been there to discover: the original intelligence and capacity of the Body of Christ.
The 5Q concept suggests, humbly, yet quite persistently, that the Big “C” Church can’t simply continue to make staff and structural changes, add programs and believe that Mission will be the inevitable outcome. A complete recalibration of theology is necessary to begin to see the Missional Shift that so many leaders see in the Scriptures and desire in their communities.
“When the church has sought change, it has largely been through structural and organizational fixes. Reconceived in terms of a more static hierarchy, the church has opted for the episcopal Bishop, Priest and Deacon (BPD) model of the high church; the Eldership model of the Reformed; the Deacon-Pastor role of the Low Church; the contemporary church growth churches have opted for the models derived from the business corporation with its CEOs, COOs, Execs, and department portfolios. And yes, all these have had some benefit, but they have seldom, if ever, been able to reactivate the dynamic ministry we see demonstrated in the life of Jesus, in the pages of the New Testament, and that of the various movements that have shifted the tracks of history.”
In essence, we can no longer keep things the same, hire a new Pastor of “Awesome” and expect things to change.
If the “structure” is out of whack, then we need to take a serious look at our missional expectations and hold the up to the Jesus shaped ministry we experience in the Scriptures. If you haven’t got your copy the book yet, you need to just to go through to bit about Seeing APEST as the Realigned Marks of the Church. If you have the book, but haven’t read it, a mic drop awaits you! Read on!
“APEST as the defining marks of the church therefore 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. We can also ensure ongoing effectiveness by redesigning organizations along APEST guidelines. 5Q thinking offers an almost perfect solution to long-term problems brought about by reducing Christ’s ministry in the church to unbiblical proportions.”
Realignment with Jesus shaped ministry makes the Church look like the Church. It’s how and where we get our form. However…the thing is that this doesn’t happen by accident. Recalibration and realignment happen when we take an actively intentional approach with APEST, adapting this paradigm to become the clear, observable signs of the Body of Christ both inside and out.
[bctt tweet=”A new and dynamic APEST paradigm doesn’t happen by accident. It’s an intentional shift.” username=”@5qcollective”]And that’s the third piece: Intention.
If you take screenshots, take a screenshot.
If you Instagram, gram it!
This next paragraph is one that I read fourteen years ago. It haunts me, inspires me and disciples me on the purpose and importance of intention to this very day (truth be told, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to mic drop it in a post):
In Judaism, there is a distinct activity called kavanah. It is cultivated in order to maximize the inwardness of our actions. It means to pay attention, to direct the mind and heart in order to maximize the levels of intentionality in our actions. This applies to actions/ deeds as it does to the study of Scripture and to prayer but goes beyond these activities themselves to the notion of attentiveness to God himself. It is not primarily an awareness of being commanded by God, but an awareness of the God who commands. The focus in kavanah shifts from the deed itself to its inner meaning, the goal being to find access to the sacred in the deed itself. It is finding the essence of the task, to partake of its inspiration, to be made equal to the task of fulfilling holy commands. Abraham Heschel says that “kavanah is direction to God and requires the involvement and redirection of the whole person. It is the act of bringing together the scattered forces of the self; it means the participation of heart and soul, not only of will and mind.”
**Excerpt is from The Shaping of Things To Come, by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost.
This sheds new light on intention doesn’t it? This preaches every Sunday until forever! The intention to recalibrate and realign the body of Christ in a 5Q direction…it’s about moving the Body in God’s direction. It’s deeper awareness of the gifts God has given the church and the powerful meaning of developing them among its members.
Mic. Drop. Selah. ?
5Q makes some bold assertions that require some courageous response. If recalibration, realignment and clear, intentional paradigm shift is a journey you are ready to begin, why not start some conversation with the 5Q Collective team of coaches. This kind of shift is an all hands on deck kind of thing. It requires a community approach. We are here for you! From the most basic question in the comments to hands on leadership training, we are ready to help you to “recalibrate the church’s theological system and realign it to more perfectly reflect Jesus’ original intention for the ministry of his people.”
Begin a conversation with us today!
Have you experienced a mic drop in the 5Q book? Tell us about it in the comments. Don’t have your copy? Get it here today! Thanks for reading and don’t forget to share on social media. You can help grow the movement with a tweet, a review or a like.