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Here's what I had written on the sheets:
Entrepreneur
Questioner
Recruiter
Humanizer
- Carer, Social cement
Systematizer
(Those of you who have read The Shaping of Things to Come will immediately recognize that I copied these from the book.)
I introduced the various labels as business-speak coming from organizational theory. Then I said, "Each of us probably has a strength in one of these areas, and a lesser strength in another area. Let's pick on somebody and figure out what they are." And so we went through our group, writing each person's name on two of the sheets, like this:
We tried to include people who were not present (except for Kreek't because we don't yet know her well enough). This probably introduced some slop because it's helpful to get feedback from each person; John (who was there) had us move him from one area to another. And having thought about Sherree (who was not there) a bit more, I'd say she definitely belongs on the "Entrepreneur" list.
Everyone had fun categorizing each other. Then I began reading Ephesians 4:1-11, which is pretty familiar to everyone. But when I got to verse 11, I said, "Watch, now" and scribbled an extra label at the bottom of each sheet:
"Look," I said, "we have a pretty good spread across all the categories. That's one of the reasons our group works so well."
Kay said, "Look Jon, you and I are different, so between you and me, we have 4 out of 5 covered."
"Yeah," Mike said, "you two, our leaders, are missing Recruiter. Maybe that's why our group hasn't grown!" Ouch, he's right.
Teddy asked a great question: "Can one person, a leader, do all these things?"
I replied, "No, there's no way. We need each other. In fact, I think God designed it that way on purpose."
I pointed out that church leadership tends to focus on pastors and teachers to the exclusion of the other categories -- so that's why people in the first three (A, P, E) tend to get into trouble in churches. We're not crazy, the church needs us!
At this point in the meeting, I had planned to spend some time worshiping through song, then pray for each other as the Holy Spirit directed. But when we got here, it was pretty clear to me what we should do next: Lay hands on each person and bless their APEPT giftings. This was powerful and fun.
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• © 1999-2004 Len Hjalmarson.•
Last Updated on June 10, 2004
This elicited some surprise and at least one "Oh my gosh." I pointed out that the labels of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers (APEPT) did not mean that these people were apostles, but rather that they were capable of functioning in an apostolic fashion.
