July 3, 2025 • 50 mins
Recorded live at Elim Leaders Summit 2025, these sessions focus on one of the fivefold ministry gifts described in Ephesians 4: apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching. Together, they form the APEST framework—helping leaders understand their unique calling and how it contributes to the life and mission of the Church.
You’ll hear leaders reflect on how their APEST gifting shapes their leadership, ministry relationships, and team dynamics. These sessions are practical, honest, and full of insight—ideal for anyone seeking to grow in their primary and secondary ministry strengths.
Whether you're exploring your own APEST profile or leading others through theirs, these recordings are a great next step for deeper clarity, collaboration, and whole-body ministry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So we're going to introduce ourselves, give you a bit of an
idea of direction of travel. We do want it to be a little bit
interactive today, but we have an hour.
We will not be able to cover everything that you could
possibly cover in this hour, butwe do want to spark some
conversation. And we're really, really happy
to stay around at the end for some questions or to connect
after Els on a Zoom call with some people if you want to
(00:22):
continue to explore it. So my name is Sarah.
I have the privilege of leading Elim Pray.
I also have the privilege of being on team at Elim Life
Church in North Birmingham, the center of the universe, and we
as a church community have been exploring this together over the
last three years. I'm really excited to get to
share some of that with you today.
And this is. Good morning.
My name is Lloyd. I lead the team in East Gateway,
(00:45):
Elim Harb, which is in East London and Essex.
And we've been on a journey for the last few years, which I'll
share a little bit more about later of, of looking to see how
we, we work as a group to support and serving the church
Better Together. So, yeah.
And I just want to say yesterdaywhen we did the Apostolic as our
(01:07):
primary grace, we did the session yesterday.
It was the most scariest group of people I have ever spoken in
front of in my whole entire life.
Having a group of primary apostles, you know, I mean, it
was tough. It was a tough.
I think this lot are gonna be kinder.
They're. Gonna be much kinder.
Look, there's definitely more smilier guessing this.
Yeah. Shepherds.
Yeah, I think so today. So we're really looking forward
(01:29):
to being with you this morning. Thank you.
Yeah, great. And as I said, we won't be able
to cover everything. And if you do have Apostolic
grace in your mix and you're here because of that, then by
the time we finish, you will have thought about 25 ways we
could have done this better. That's absolutely fine.
You may keep your feedback to yourself or send it to Sarah
Bale because we're really great at receiving feedback.
No, no, no, no genuine. So I just want to kind of let
(01:52):
like let the ear out of the room.
That's absolutely the way that some of you will be thinking
this morning, and that's absolutely fine.
So we're going to be thinking about the Apostolic as your
secondary grace today, and we'regoing to have a little chance to
explore it and learn together. I want us kind of be helpful and
give us some things to apply to our own lives and in the teams
that we're part of and in the mission that God has called us
(02:15):
to. And we're aware that we will all
be at different stages in exploring and understanding or
rediscovering some of what the APES graces could mean for us.
And as a kneeling movement, we're going to be journeying
together over the next few yearsthinking about this and packing
it together in different ways. But as I said, what we don't
want is for everyone to leave Els and go, well, that was all
(02:36):
right, but now what do I do about it?
So if there's any way that we can help serve and support,
continue the conversation as we go home from Els and please get
in touch, use the hub. Thanks.
Thanks so much. If you can get in, use the hub
and get get in touch with us andwe would love to help you.
I'd love to continue the conversation because I think
there's so much that we're goingto get to learn with each other
(02:58):
and from each other. So here's a bit of the direction
of travel for this session. We're going to be thinking about
how a pest is a model of grace for life.
It isn't just about what shapes how we minister and what we do,
but how we live and lead in all areas of our life.
It's been one of the most impactful things as we've been
(03:19):
journeying together as a church for people to realize, oh, this
isn't about signing up for a rota.
This isn't about fulfilling an obligation.
This is who I am and how God's made me and what God's grace to
me wherever I am. And so it makes every day, I
think, a little bit more exciting.
But my secondary grace is evangelistic.
So I would say that then we're about thinking about equipping
(03:41):
the Saints. These graces exist to build each
other up. It's not about elevating
ourselves, it's not about titlesor positions, but this picture
of collaborative and community discipleship.
I've got a whole kind of thing in my heart at the moment as I'm
seeing this quiet revival. What would it look like to be
intentional and intergenerationally discipling
(04:03):
one another? There's no hierarchy of graces.
All are needed and all are valuable, and we need each other
because what we bring is uniquely ours to bring.
And the body of Christ needs ourperspective, our input, our
investment, our ideas. And sometimes, if we've got then
(04:24):
absolute grace, our silence. Jesus lived all 5.
So Jesus was Apostolic and prophetic and evangelistic and
shepherding and teaching. We carry a measure of that.
We carry an expression of that. So the grace gift mix that we
have is our way of expressing the life of Jesus, sharing the
(04:46):
life of Jesus with others. But we get to continue the
ministry and the mission that Jesus began through the grace
gifts and all the other things that make us who we are in the
world. And I think it's a great model
for shared leadership for this idea of team based spirit LED
ministry. We're going to explore that a
little bit today. And so when we're thinking about
(05:09):
primary and secondary graces, one of the ways is a couple of
ways we can think about it. One of the ways is which one is
your dominant hand? Are you right or left-handed?
Have a little reminder of yourself.
OK, great. So your primary grace is a bit
like your dominant hand. It's the one that you lean to,
it's the one that you go to, it's the one you're leading
edge. It's the one that you kind of
would rely on a little bit more.And your secondary secondary
(05:31):
grace can be thought of as like your non dominant hand, still
useful and helpful and wonderfuland brilliant, but maybe not as
leaning in as quickly to that. Another way to understand it is
that your primary grace is your perspective, your lens, your
motivation, how you see the world, how you perceive the
world, what it looks like. And your secondary grace is
(05:52):
often how you're received or perceive what you sound like,
what that expression can look like.
And it's a really interesting mix to think about your primary
and secondary graces working together.
You will be able to motivate andmobilize and encourage and care
for people in such unique ways. So thinking about your first as
(06:13):
your motivation, this thing thatfuels your passion, and the
second as this expression of motivation.
So for example, if you're like ashepherd Apostolic, then you
love this idea of expanding the Kingdom, but you're also really
good at looking after people. Does that make sense?
If you're kind of Apostolic, evangelistic or evangelistic
Apostolic, you're really good atthinking about multiplying and
(06:35):
building, but you're also reallyenthusiastic about everything
and love telling good stories. So what we thought would be
really lovely is to have just a little bit of an idea of who
we've got in the room. I know I'm going to ask you to
raise your hands. Thanks.
Go with me. Because I want us to think about
like how we can work and serve one another.
So if your primary grace is Apostolic, give us a wave.
(06:56):
If you don't be ashamed. It's good.
It's great. Brill.
Fab. If your primary grace is
prophetic, Oh, quite a lot of PAS in the room.
Great. Brill.
If your primary grace is evangelistic, come on, See,
there's a woo. If it's shepherding, bless your
hearts. And if it's teaching, Oh, so I
(07:19):
called him just. It's OK.
Lloyd now owes me money. OK, so just in this space, in
this room, how uniquely graced are we to be able to be an
expression of the body of Christto others?
So how can we know more how God has made us?
Well, we know, don't we? This reminder that this
(07:40):
Apostolic grace is based in Ephesians 4.
We've been thinking about because of who Jesus is, because
of what he's done for us, because of who we are.
Now we get to Ephesians 4. Hang on.
No, let me go back. Let me go back.
There we are, me and the tech. That's not such a good
combination. We get to Ephesians 4, and Paul
(08:01):
has spent 3 chapters in his letter as we receive it, telling
people who Jesus is, what he's done for us, and who we are now
because of him. And then we get to 4 and he
says, therefore, in response to because of all of this, you now
are to walk worthy of the calling you've received.
So in other words, these are graces that we receive, not
something that we're striving for.
(08:22):
These are elements of the nature, the, the responsibility,
the ministry, the mission of Jesus that we receive in order
to bless others and for the fullness of the Kingdom to come,
the fullness of the body of Christ to come because of Jesus
through Jesus. And in Jesus we get to
participate. So as he, Jesus ascended, he
(08:43):
gives these five graces to the church with his invitation to
unity, diversity, and mission. And so these graces are given
for the equipping of everyone todo the ministry of Christ.
And I think each of us has a role in the Kingdom, a
vocational role, whether we are paid to do a job that is
connected to the church or an organization or not.
(09:06):
I believe that there's a walkingworthy that we get to do that.
What you have to bring matters, but who you are really matters.
And you get to bring this grace,this mix of grace, to wherever
you are, all the spheres and theplaces and the spaces and the
people. And so when we're thinking about
the Apostolic grace, we're thinking about the fact that it
(09:28):
is connected to the mission of God.
So this is one of the ways I have been understanding it over
the last few years. Apostolic is connected to the
mission of God, Prophetic is connected to the heart of God.
Evangelistic is connected to thestory of God.
Shepherding is connected to the people of God, and teaching is
connected to the wisdom of God. And don't we need all of those
(09:50):
in our communities and in our church environments and wherever
we are? And so we need each other's
piece of the puzzle, piece of the story that we carry.
Often people with Apostolic in the mix will be kind of sending
and extending, starting and stretching.
Those are some of the words and the ideas.
You'll have like 25 ideas beforebreakfast or not quite know what
(10:13):
to do with them all. And so this is kind of part of
how the Apostolic grace can work.
Our kind of responsibility is like new places, new strategies,
new people developing new things, bringing sort of
missional energy and direction. Words like visionary, builder,
pioneer, multiplier. 1 of the things I think is really
(10:34):
interesting is that we see the Apostolic grace working in a
couple of different ways. In the New Testament, we see the
apostle Paul, who I think is your classic apostle.
He sees new opportunities, he sees new places, he goes and
starts something new. He builds up a bunch of teams,
he releases them and he moves on.
And so we see that grace and I think we maybe have only
understood the Apostolic to meanthat, whereas I also think we
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see Peter and Peter is an Apostolic grace in a different
way. His grace is within community.
He stays with the Jewish community.
They loop in the Gentiles, yes, but like they, they stay in
community. And Peter brings change from
within. So if you've got an Apostolic
grace in your mix, it might meanthat you have a desire to go out
and plant some pioneer in that way.
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Or it may be that you just have so many ideas of how to make
things better or different or tomultiply or to make a change
within. We have a capacity for
adventure. Oh, that's exciting, isn't it?
People with an Apostolic grace tend to be less risk averse.
There's a pioneering instinct tous and empowered by Holy Spirit
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and Apostolic grace has this bigpicture purpose that we keep in
mind. The big picture, the mission of
God, often with a motivation andthe invitation to help keep
people mission focused. Here are some characteristics to
think about. We're comfortable crossing
boundaries, intellectual, socialand cultural.
We might have entrepreneurial interests who's got like a
(12:04):
couple of side hustles on the go.
Yeah, look at it. I do it.
Come on. We love starting something new
and it's quite energizing to us.I'm looking at Pete over there.
We're strategic decision makers.We are innovative in our
approaches and our solutions. Quite often we're uncomfortable
with the status quo. And if you have a shepherding
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grace alongside an Apostolic grace, then sometimes for you it
will feel like this. You'll bet the mission of God,
the people of God, the mission of God, the people of God.
So like just that awareness thatthat in the mix that God has
graced us with. Once we know that we can do
something about it, we can understand, oh, when do I need
to lean into that shepherding grace?
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Actually, when do I need to leadin to that pioneering change?
Making Apostolic grace not 1 is better than the other.
We can see things holistically. We understand multiple dynamics
and components, and we may need to move occasionally to pursue
something new, whether that's within our context to move roles
or whether that's to start something new.
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We're imagineers and problem solvers and innovators.
Some of us with an episodic grace love setting up systems
that create sustainable change. That's one of the ways that the
grace can be expressed. We have somebody in our
community called Lise, and she'sa businesswoman.
She's one of our voluntary leaders.
She's brilliant and we did a pest together with her and all
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of a sudden she found language for what she's been her whole
life. She's like, oh, I didn't.
I just thought I was being annoying because I kept coming
up with new ideas and I kept telling people how I think
things could be better. When I kept trying to multiply
and build things, I just thoughtI wasn't.
And I was like, no, no, no. You have a way of seeing and
being in the world that we need.We need that perspective.
And so how can we do that together?
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Let us have that perspective so we can grow in these areas, so
we can focus, so we can move into these things.
And it's given her language to be able to understand.
Oh, that's not just through church related activity.
That's in my professional life, that's in my household, that's
in my friendship groups. I get to bring some of that
energy wherever I go. So what I would love you to do
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is we're going to give you, I know this is difficult.
We're going to give you about 90seconds to have a little look at
those words and turn to a coupleof people next to you.
Which ones of these really feel like they resonate with you and
which ones of these you like? Yeah, no, I'm not sure.
That's part of the Apostolic grace mix that I've been given.
So we're going to give you maybe2 minutes.
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I'm kind, I'm wondering if Dan might put us some nice vibe
tunes on. So yeah, 2 minutes off you go.
And then I'll call us back and we'll continue.
OK, so we're going to continue and we'll give you a little bit
more time to have conversations.Plus after this we get a big old
coffee break. So, you know, plenty of time.
So I think when we're thinking about the episodic grace, I
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think some of the benefits that we bring to the body of Christ
is that we can prepare people for innovation and
entrepreneurship, that we can develop capacity in people and
in teams for appropriate risk. We can paint the bigger picture.
We can say, hey, we're just out the corner of my eye.
I think the Spirit is saying something here, let's go.
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And so we can prepare people forthat appropriate level of risk.
I think we can maintain and develop this commitment to
mission. And when I say mission, the big
picture mission, but also the mission of whatever your church
or organization or team are a part of.
Hey, This is why what you do matters.
So it's not just that you're looking after children on a
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Sunday morning. You're discipling the next
generation. And so we help keep people
focused on the bigger picture ofwhat they're a part of.
We're pretty good at championingthese core ideas.
And DNA or culture is another word.
We're not too bad at networking translocally, and like I said,
we have a sense of the big picture, which makes sense of
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the rest for others. OK, prepare yourselves.
We also have some blind spots. And so Lloyd and I are both
going to be very honest about this today because I don't think
we're always that honest about it.
If you have an Apostolic grace in your mix, we can be really
dogmatic about vision. We can be autocratic,
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domineering, bullying and controlling because we have a
picture of what it should look like and that's where we're
headed. We can get super frustrated with
people who don't get it. Come on, please don't put your
hand up. But like in my there, I can't
tell you how many conversations I've had with people over the
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earth. Why don't they just get it?
Like, why can't? Because they don't.
And that's great because they get a piece of the puzzle that I
don't get. And so they need mine in health,
in love, and I need this. We want to use these grace gifts
in health and in holiness, I think.
I think we can get disillusions and impatient when we either
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don't see the results that we want or we don't see them
quickly enough. I think if we're honest, we
sometimes see people as a means to an end, and at times we can
sometimes struggle with accountability, which is why
this invitation is part of the body of Christ.
And remember Mark's encouragement to us on that
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first day? Humility, patience, bearing with
one another. At our church, we have a saying
when we're thinking about this that it's about completion, not
competition or comparison. It's about completion, not
competition or comparison, because we are in the business
of continuing the ministry and the mission of Jesus through the
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body of Christ for the fullness.And Jesus was Apostolic.
He was sent by the Father. He was sent to accomplish God's
mission and ministry here on earth.
He came Incarnate, embodying themission of the Kingdom,
declaring it and demonstrated it.
He lived the mission, but then he recruited and he trained and
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he released a team of disciples to go and do the same.
As you read through the New Testament, you see them kind of
wandering off to different ideasand what does Jesus do?
He brings them back to why they're there, what they're
about, who the king, what the Kingdom is, who God is.
He helps them to be open and moving towards new things.
There was such an idea of who Messiah would be and of what
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that would look like, and He hadto help them open up their
thinking to realize that it was Him.
He laid the foundation of the Kingdom.
He sent them on missional opportunities, and then he did
feedback and training and sent them back out again.
As he's laying these foundations, whenever they kind
of would veer off it, He would invite them back to it when they
didn't get it. Aren't you grateful for that?
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And that's something that we canoffer in love, because then
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to help us do the same.
Holy Spirit is continually working to cross boundaries, to
reach everyone, and we get to join in as the church, the body
of Christ. As I've already said, in Acts,
the church is growing among the Jews in Jerusalem.
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And then God gives Peter this vision from Acts 10, in Acts 10
to loop in the Gentiles. Go and read that.
He takes a team with him. This is not a solo pursuit.
This is a collaborative effort. And he brings that change.
He's open to that change. I mean, he needs a wild vision
to get in there. If that's what you need, then
ask the Spirit for that. And then we see Paul this sort
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of more classic picture of this expanding the gospel to the
Greek and Roman world. How strategic is God?
Because as he does that, it thencan get carried in the
structures and the setup of the Roman and Greek world to the
entire known world. The Holy Spirit knows what he's
doing. So Paul would start something
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and once it was solid enough to stand on its own, he would move
on to the next thing. But he didn't just like leave
them in the Destin like see you later bro.
He also then would check in withthem and connect with them and
continue to encourage them. An expression I think of the
Apostolic grace is that we can maybe take the DNA of a church
or an organization or a ministry, and we can look at
what isn't necessary in order for the thing that God is doing
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now and preparing people for perhaps what God want to do in
the future. In one way, I think the
Apostolic grace can be ambassadors of the mission of
God, creating systems and structures to mobilize people.
And we remind ourselves that is part of the body.
We use this grace with the help of Holy Spirit wherever and
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however we serve. The Apostolic grace will be a
part of that mix, that perspective that we offer.
And awareness helps us in how welead.
Awareness that we don't have to bring every idea that we think
of all the time. And awareness that while we
might love change, not everyone else does.
And so with more awareness and understanding, we see more
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potential being released. We're reminded that none of
these are about titles or jobs or functions, but they're about
the way that we exist in the world with Jesus, through Jesus,
and for Jesus. So as we begin to understand
that more in our own lives, we can then look to release that in
others. And that's part of an Apostolic
gracing. A key kind of part of maturing
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in this is learning to call thatout in others.
It's not just something for us, but it's a lens through which we
can bless, encourage, and develop others in their graces.
I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to give you a few
ideas and I'm going to hand overto Lloyd, who's going to share.
We started some of this APES journey in our church community
a number of years ago and we started it around my kitchen
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table. You might have seen it in the
little promo we did yesterday. I got a lovely wallpaper.
But anyway, we we started it around my kitchen table.
We asked a bunch of people, Hey,we're exploring this.
We do explore it together and wedid it on a Sunday evening in my
home. And the one kind of week I asked
everyone, as you came into the space, as you came into the
kitchen this evening, what were you all kind of thinking about?
What was in your mind? The person with the shepherding
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grace was like, oh, it's a Sunday.
I bet you've had a really long day, Sarah.
I wonder if you've had a chance to eat.
I wonder how tired you are. I wonder, should I have brought
a cake? The shepherd and grace, the
evangelistic grace in the room was like, who can I bring with
me next time? Who can I tell about this?
This is amazing. I need to get my friends and my
colleagues and everyone to understand.
This is brilliant. The person with the teaching
grace in the room is like I'm I'm not sure.
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I don't understand. I need to know more.
Show me more. How do I how do I fix this thing
to this thing? And then what does that look
like to really live it out practically, How do we apply
this thing? Great, you told me.
Well, what does that actually look like?
And the people with the Apostolic grace in the room were
like, how many of these can we start tomorrow?
Could we multiply a bunch of them?
Who could we train up to lead? Like how many can we manage?
So you see that we need each other's perspective.
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And so in teams with this kind of interdependent community,
aren't we? Malcolm was helping us think
about that yesterday. So I just want to give you 4
words. And then Lloyds to come and
share to to help us in that. How do we do that?
Identify what are the graces? What are the graces in you and
in your team? Look at it, have this long term
view. This is not, I don't think, kind
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of one hit wonder. This could be something that
changes the way that you move and work together as a church.
Hang on. Yeah, that's going to be Lloyd.
Celebrate like a firm in community.
It's given us language for the strengths of people, but also
our shadow sides. So we'll borrow something.
We in our team, we don't have a lot of people with the
shepherding grace. What a surprise.
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There's a bunch of apostolics there.
And and so we asked the people with the shepherding grace, hey,
we've we've got this idea. We're thinking of doing this
thing. Give me a shepherding
perspective and they'll go, yeah, you've done something for
the last 14 weeks on a rose hereand they might be a bit
exhausted and we go, Oh yeah, you're right.
Good, we'll do it next week instead.
So, but celebrate that, affirm in each other, collaborate, work
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together, learn from each other.No one has the full picture.
And then keep it centered on Jesus, his mission and his
mission. We get to literally embody Jesus
and continue his shape for the church that he has left with us.
We join in with the Kingdom and we get to be an expression of
that through our grace mix. Thank you for listening.
I'm going to hand over to Lloyd and then we're going to have
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some time to chat together. Thank you, Sarah.
That was fabulous. Thank you.
I was smiling when you were mentioning about the blind
spots. We were sat stood next to each
other this morning during the praise and worship and there was
a couple navigating down the side of the the auditorium and
they were moaning about the amount of bags that they were
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having to get through. And, and we heard it and we just
looked at each other and said and just said to each other,
just open your eyes, you know, come on.
Just just see where you are. I mean, really, why are you?
Yeah. So that's the kind of the, the,
the, the frustration of the Apostolic grace upon, upon both
of our lives. I'm just going to share a little
(25:01):
bit about my own personal journey.
A few months ago, Mark asked me when did you begin your
Apostolic journey? And I kind of looked at him a
bit way out, I guess, because for me, I've kind of felt like
it's just always been there. I I I don't recall a moment
(25:24):
where someone has said or where I've been prayed for or where
I've suddenly felt like this grace gift has come upon me.
I've just felt it's just been a natural part of of who I am at
At the age of 6, I became the founder and the president of my
local skateboarding club. Come on.
(25:45):
Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah, President and our family gatherings, you know, the family
gatherings that some of us have,I would I would ensure that me
and my cousins were, were, were performing this, this, this,
this play in front of her and I was directing them and showing
(26:06):
them what to do and telling themwhen you've got to come on and
all that kind of stuff and what act I want you to do.
At a very, very young age. When I went into primary school,
I, I set up a a, a comic club where we would share comics.
I know that's quite sad. Hey, when I what when, when I
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went into sixth form and and andand gave my life to Jesus.
Not long after that I was asked to lead the 200 strong Christian
union at that school. When I was in the sixth form, I
directed two major productions within the within the school
that I was that I was at. By the way, when I was leading
(26:50):
the the school sixth form, we asked Gary Gibbs to come and
speak at our events. So I am, I'm very grateful to
you, Gary, for that. So I'm not sure when that grace
gift actually began, but for me,it's just been a natural part
of, of who I am. And, and perhaps I'm not sure
(27:11):
whether whether it's the grace gift or whether it's just
because I like being bossy. Probably the latter as well.
Some of you are nodding at that one.
Throughout my working life, I, I, I began working in Tesco's
after I left school and I couldn't just be the, the, the,
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you know, a check out supervisor.
I had to become on the regional,on the, on the retail management
course. I had to kind of push myself to,
to do more and more of, of that.I, when I went in to work for
you for Christ, where I worked in my local centre just
developing and, and, and pushingpeople and, and, and becoming
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the director and then working for regional within Youth for
Christ. And then later coming into Elim.
I've always felt myself pushing forward, doing new things,
pushing the the norm, never feeling quite satisfied, just
wanting to get to the next level, wanting to get to do the
the new thing, wanting more, wanting to improve myself more,
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wanting to improve the environment that I was around
more, wanting to see change. My wife's here today and she
will testify the fact that in our house I'm always moving
things around. I like change.
I can never settle. I like to move stuff around.
Anybody with me on that one? Yeah.
(28:37):
OK, that's good. We're in good company.
That's good. So wanting, wanting to stretch
myself further, I'm wanting to stretch other people.
And I acknowledge that, that when I'm wanting to stretch
other people, that's not always reciprocated.
It's not always something that is, that is good for them.
But nevertheless, that's one thing that I try.
I, I was a prison chaplain for 18 years and wanting to see the,
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the young guys coming into our prison, wanting to see them
desperately wanting to see them change, wanting to see them get
saved. And we put on Alpha and we, we
were trying to, in trying to geteverybody to come and, and, and
just wanting them to leave better people, wanting to see
them equipped to be on the outside, wanting to see.
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But it was, I guess, when I was in Elam Missionary where I
really felt stretched in this whole grace area of Apostle.
I went to we, my wife and I and our three children went to work
in Swaziland, in Eswatini in Southern Africa.
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We're there for just over 7 years.
And I worked for a high, high, high Apostolic grace gift
person. And within that whole nation, we
worked together at wanting to change the nation.
We had that common purpose to bring transformation to the
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nation of Eswatini. Eswatini, for those of you that
don't know, it's just over 1,000,000 people.
So it was achievable to be able to bring change.
It was achievable to be able to stretch the nation so we could
bring in transformation. We had two Teen Challenge
centres. We had an orphan and vulnerable
care home for over 450 children.We had a church planting
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movement that began when we started with about 6:00 and then
moved to just before we left to about 30 and now it's just under
60. We were pushing the boundaries
together, wanting to see change as well as as being part of the
leadership of an over 2000 plus church in the capital of
Umbaban. We wanted to see Kingdom
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transformation. He and I, we wanted desperately
to transform the country. And so we set out.
One of the things that, that I had the privilege of doing was
some of you may have heard of the Global Leadership Summit.
And so I was sent from Swazilandto Chicago and meet with Bill
Hybels and the team over in Chicago.
And, and to bring back the wholemodel of, of the GLS that for
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those of you that don't know, Global Leadership Summit, it's,
it's, it's, it's main aim is to reach the, the, the top 7
mountains of leadership and, andto bring change and
transformation and Christian values into nations and into
businesses. And, and, and my, and what we
wanted to do was to bring that into the nation of Swaziland.
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And in our first year, we were meeting with the Prime Minister
of the country, the King that the, the, the members of the
royal family to bring this wholething into the nation.
And in the first year, we had the house filled, packed with
top business leaders and Prime Minister, the Prime Minister.
We were we, we met with the Prime Minister regularly to plan
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this whole event. It was amazing.
I kind of think to myself, did that really happen now?
But it did because we were aboutdesperately wanting to see
things change, to see the country go from a hopeless
situation, which at that moment was the, the, the, the, the,
the, the, the, the top HIV AIDS rates within the world and to
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see transformation. A nation without hope bringing
hope. Today I have the privilege, as I
said earlier, of, of leading theEast Gateway, Elim, Harbin, East
London and, and Essex. And we've been given the, the,
the, the vision by God to reach first of all, to reach out to
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smaller struggling churches and to help them and to support them
and to equip them and make and give them the passion that you
can do it. That together we are better.
That, that together we can change your community, that
together we can change and, and bring transformation to your
church. We can bring transformation to
your town. We want to see these smaller
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churches grow and thank God it'shappening.
We want to see together advancing the Kingdom of God.
And so we have a vision within the East Gateway hub that from,
for those of you that that know that there is a, there is a road
that runs from South End all theway into central London.
It's called the A13. We have the estuary and the
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River Thames that go all the waydown and run in parallel with
this a 13. And we have a vision from sea to
sea, from coast to city and either side of that that run to
be planting churches, to be planting communities, church,
Christian communities, Elim communities, Elim churches along
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that road. That is our passion.
That is our desire to see transformation and together we
believe that we can do it. Together we believe that we can
do it. So that's a little bit of my
journey from from six years old right up until today being I
think I'm 52. Just want to go on to the
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Apostolic in teams. And I acknowledge that that most
of you here today, it's not yourprimary, but some of you I know,
put your hands up to say it was,but I acknowledge it's not your
primary. But I think if, even if it's in
your second secondary grace gifts, it's important to
recognize that if you're here and it's your secondary grace
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gift and you're part of a leadership team, it's not always
easy, is it when you're working under someone that has a
different grace gift to us because we want to push forward.
We, we want to bring change, We want to bring transformation.
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We want to do, we want to be, weget frustrated when things
aren't moving at the pace we want them to move up.
And so we're pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing.
But actually we're working undera leadership that maybe are not
that way, but maybe are more shepherding.
And so they're they're sometimesI'm shepherding is my least one.
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By the way, as you can probably guess, it was no surprise to my
team when they found out that shepherding was my least one,
but that actually you maybe feelheld back by your senior leader
because they're a little bit more cautious or they're saying
to you, you know what, we need to bear this in mind and we need
to think through this. And you're like, no, let's just
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go and let's just do it. So recognizing that, that as a
as, as a team player, it's, it'soften difficult.
And I just want to encourage those of you who are in teams,
but yet you have a primary or secondary as, as Apostolic to
keep on submitting and being humble within your team and
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within the leadership structure of your team.
As frustrating as it might be. And I know I was there as well
for many years in Eswatini. It's important that we still
remain humble and we, we still remain submissive and, and, and
supportive of that senior leaderand that team that we're a part
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of and to work collaboratively. I also, for those of you who are
senior leaders, I want to encourage you as I encourage
myself to be, bearing in mind that there are members of your
team who have a primary as Apostolic.
And we need to be aware of that and enable that to come forward
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and to flourish and to develop and not to hinder and not to
stop that growth of that gifting.
So may I encourage you, Is that OK?
Senior leaders from one to another, please, please, please
don't, don't stifle the Apostolic gifting as you.
We shouldn't do that for any of them.
I know that, but I'm an apostle,so I'm pushing that one.
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We need to work collaboratively with the other graces as, as
primary leaders, particularly with primary leaders.
But finally, in terms of teams, I, I want to be a little
vulnerable. Is it OK to be a little
vulnerable? It's not going to go out of this
room. I know that.
So that's good. I acknowledge that as an
apostle, and Sarah touched on this just now.
(37:30):
There have been times in my ministry where I have abused the
grace gift, where I've gotten frustrated with others in my
team, where. I've just wanted to.
Push ahead and get the task done.
I've wanted to see them. Do their best.
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I've wanted to stretch. I've wanted to develop.
I've wanted to bring change. But in the process of.
Wanting better. In the process of wanting to
stretch, in the process of of wanting to do more, In the
process of wanting to achieve more, in the process of wanting
to plant more, I have ridden roughshod over them.
(38:18):
Some would say and I would. Agree.
I have been bullish in that desire, in that aim and to my
shame, that is the reality. That is the struggle that I
have. Had to walk.
(38:39):
And continue. To do so.
If I'm being entirely honest. I think we have to.
Bear in mind that even if we're primary or secondary Apostolic,
that is one of the blind spots that many of us have to deal
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with. And consequently, I know.
Because of that, I have brought hurt.
And I have brought pain. To people in my team, did I
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intentionally do that? No.
But that's what's happened. And to just just acknowledge for
a moment, but for some of us here in this room.
It may be that we need. To re evaluate how we approach
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our team and. Maybe we need to and.
I have done this on numerous occasions and will continue to
do so. Apologize.
Don't worry, my senior. Leader is here today and he
knows all about this, so it's OK.
(40:17):
There are times when as. Apostles be for primary or
secondary. We really need to reach down to
that shepherd in grace and pull it up hello where we really knew
doing. It's no excuse.
The fact that we're apostles to abuse.
It's no excuse to to be frustrated.
(40:38):
It's no excuse. We can't use that as a as an
excuse. We need to be humble and we.
Need to show love. And however we operate as
apostles, primary, secondary, weneed to do it with humility.
And I'm coming on to that just now.
Sorry. I know time has gone, Sarah.
(40:58):
Finally. Cultivating the gift, we need to
understand this goes for all thegifts, I guess, but we need to
understand what our grace gift is and, and we need to read up
on it. We need to, if your grace gift
is Apostolic, if it's, if it's profit, if it's teacher, we need
to ensure that we're reading as much as we possibly can on our
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Apostolic gift or our teaching gift.
We need to listen to podcasts. We need to ensure that we're
getting the training that we need in that area.
We need to secondly learn from others who are our grace gift,
whether it be primary or secondary.
We need to surround ourselves. I need to surround myself with
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other apostles that I can learn from.
I was so blessed that I had seven years with a very high
operating apostle and I learned.From him I.
Continue to have the privilege of of serving under my regional
coordinator, David Redmond, who is a a great apostle.
And I make sure that I'm. Surrounded with with people and
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men and women like him to learn from.
We need to humble ourselves and be teachable in that area.
We don't know it all, none of us.
And that's one of the things that Mark was pushing the other
day. We need to ensure that we are
continually being taught. Ask time to spend with other
people who have your grace gift.Go to them while you're here.
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Why don't you? It's not not too late.
This is the last day. It's not never too late.
Why don't you go to someone and say, Hey, I see the gift in you.
Can we just spend some time together?
I'm having coffee with someone this morning after this
lunchtime because someone has said to me, I, I want to be able
to spend some time with you so Ican learn a little bit from you.
And that's the, that's the mentality that we all of us need
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to have to, to be, to have mentors in our grace gifts that
we can learn from, that we can be teachable in.
So ask them if you're just beginning this, this primary or
secondary Apostolic gifting, then be faithful in the small
things, in the unseen things. Ask God to enable you to serve
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in that gifting behind the scenes so no one sees you.
Be faithful in the small things.When we're faithful in serving
Him, be within our primary or secondary gifting, He will bring
the higher things, the greater things I believe, but serve Him
faithfully in the small things. Recognise that we need others to
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be in the team we. Need others to be in.
Our team, we need all the grace gifts.
As Sarah has alluded to today, we need all the grace gifts
within our team. And if you're working within a
team, then ensure that you what we all should be working in
team. Let's face it, whether they're
full time, part time volunteers,we need to ensure if you're on
your own in a church, and as themajority of us are in church
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leadership, we need to ensure that we've got other people
around us that are operating in the other grace gifts because
we're A-Team, we can't do it on our own.
And you need to. We need to stay.
In community, we need to stay inthat community of
accountability. Whether your grace gift is
primary secondary apostles, we need to ensure that we are
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accountable. We are not above being
accountable as apostles. Hello in.
Fact. We need it even.
More so, I believe, because we have that tendency to go off on
one. We need to live in that.
Humility and humble ourselves I need to do every moment of every
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single day we. Need to live in that humility.
And finally and particularly forthose of us that primary,
secondary, we need to try and switch off.
Our brains, Our minds. For those of us that are high
grace apostles, we need to ensure that our mind is switched
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off, that we switch off our mindand that we because as apostles,
it's always working, isn't it? It's always on the go.
We eat, sleep, wake and it's always going.
We wake up thinking what's the next thing today?
What, what, what, what are we going to achieve?
We're in a meeting. We should be focused on
something and we're always thinking about what's the next
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thing. Sometimes we just need to switch
it. Off and be still and know that
he is God. We need to enjoy that Shabbat
rest, that rest in God to find rest for our souls.
So we just sometimes need to just switch it off.
(45:50):
That's my journey. Thank you.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you so much, everyone has listened.
So well, so we're going to give you 10 minutes now and some
questions to have a little thinktogether with a couple of
people. You won't have time to do all of
those questions, but maybe you'll want to pick one or two.
What resonated with you? How does it show up in your
(46:10):
story? Where do you see this grace
needed more? And what's your main question so
far? So we're going to give you 10
minutes and then we're going to gather to pray with each other
as we close out the session. We're very conscious that at Els
you will hear lots of information, lots of ideas.
You will be buzzing with lots ofideas and information.
(46:33):
What do you do to process that, to think about that, to work
that out in your local context? So we would love to keep having
that conversation. If that's helpful, please get in
touch with us, use the hub. We really love to learn from one
another. We don't have all the answers,
We really don't, but we'd love to journey together if that's
helpful. But I want to finish by giving
us a little bit of a prayer practice, and maybe we'll just
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pray with one another. And then we're released for
coffee back in the auditorium for 11:30.
Is that right? Yes.
OK. So has anyone ever been to
Ravenna? Give me a little wave.
Ravenna. Great.
One person. I accidentally ended up in
Ravenna a couple of years ago. I went on a walking tour of
Roman Empire churches. Come on, the geek in me, bring
(47:18):
on the Byzantine Empire. That's all I'm saying.
But I didn't realise that when we said yes to this excursion
that we would walk into so many churches and the churches in
Ravenna are world renowned for their mosaics, these mosaics
that tell the story of God, thattell the story of Jesus.
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But I was talking to one of the guides and it's only been in
recent years that they've rediscovered so many of these
mosaics. For years they were covered over
with plasterboard and paint and building renovations, and
they've been discovered and painstakingly put back together,
restored, shined in the bits that need shining, replacing in
(48:00):
the bits they need placing, changing the shape of it.
And I genuinely was like jaw droppingly inspired as I walked
around some of these church buildings to think about this
picture of the mosaic, all the different pieces absolutely
necessary to tell the story of God.
And I think for those of us withan episodic grace in our mix, I
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think there are two ways that that helps all of us with the
graces. But one of the ways is that we
get to be a part of the story ofGod, that what we have to bring
matters. We may feel like a beige mosaic
tile. We need the beige mosaic tiles.
That's all good. You may be like, no Sir, I'm
sparkly gold, thanks very much. Great.
We need you too, because withoutwhat each of us has to bring,
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the picture doesn't make sense. But for those of us with the
Apostolic in our mix, we are only a piece of the picture.
We're not the superstars. We are telling the story of
Jesus, we embodying the life of Jesus.
We are continuing the ministry and the mission of Jesus.
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So what we're going to do is give you 2 seconds to pray with
each other and then as you leavetoday, we'd love you all just to
take a little mosaic tile. They are all the same colour but
different shades. Because isn't that true that we
are different shades of the Apostolic grace in this room and
in this space and in our mix? And we'd love you to take this
little mosaic tile and put it somewhere that you're going to
see it. There's going to be a little
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provocation, a little reminder, maybe to pray, maybe to thank
God for the grace on your life, maybe to look for the graces
that are in others, maybe to find a way to develop it.
It's only small. Don't lose it on your way home.
But I try and find somewhere to put it it just so that it
becomes this little provocation to pray, to connect with God, to
think about your grace, how you matter, what you bring matters,
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who you are matters. But we are only a piece of the
mosaic telling the story of God.Amen, Amen.
Let's pray together. Let's Commission each other.
Maybe that you need to just takea moment to say, actually, God
sorry for the ways that I've notused it well or God help me to
use it well. Let's go and then be released
and we'll see you back in the other venue.
So we're going to introduce ourselves, give you a bit of an
idea of direction of travel. We do want it to be a little bit
interactive today, but we have an hour.
We will not be able to cover everything that you could
possibly cover in this hour, butwe do want to spark some
conversation. And we're really, really happy
to stay around at the end for some questions or to connect
after Els on a Zoom call with some people if you want to
(00:22):
continue to explore it. So my name is Sarah.
I have the privilege of leading Elim Pray.
I also have the privilege of being on team at Elim Life
Church in North Birmingham, the center of the universe, and we
as a church community have been exploring this together over the
last three years. I'm really excited to get to
share some of that with you today.
And this is. Good morning.
My name is Lloyd. I lead the team in East Gateway,
(00:45):
Elim Harb, which is in East London and Essex.
And we've been on a journey for the last few years, which I'll
share a little bit more about later of, of looking to see how
we, we work as a group to support and serving the church
Better Together. So, yeah.
And I just want to say yesterdaywhen we did the Apostolic as our
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primary grace, we did the session yesterday.
It was the most scariest group of people I have ever spoken in
front of in my whole entire life.
Having a group of primary apostles, you know, I mean, it
was tough. It was a tough.
I think this lot are gonna be kinder.
They're. Gonna be much kinder.
Look, there's definitely more smilier guessing this.
Yeah. Shepherds.
Yeah, I think so today. So we're really looking forward
(01:29):
to being with you this morning. Thank you.
Yeah, great. And as I said, we won't be able
to cover everything. And if you do have Apostolic
grace in your mix and you're here because of that, then by
the time we finish, you will have thought about 25 ways we
could have done this better. That's absolutely fine.
You may keep your feedback to yourself or send it to Sarah
Bale because we're really great at receiving feedback.
No, no, no, no genuine. So I just want to kind of let
(01:52):
like let the ear out of the room.
That's absolutely the way that some of you will be thinking
this morning, and that's absolutely fine.
So we're going to be thinking about the Apostolic as your
secondary grace today, and we'regoing to have a little chance to
explore it and learn together. I want us kind of be helpful and
give us some things to apply to our own lives and in the teams
that we're part of and in the mission that God has called us
(02:15):
to. And we're aware that we will all
be at different stages in exploring and understanding or
rediscovering some of what the APES graces could mean for us.
And as a kneeling movement, we're going to be journeying
together over the next few yearsthinking about this and packing
it together in different ways. But as I said, what we don't
want is for everyone to leave Els and go, well, that was all
(02:36):
right, but now what do I do about it?
So if there's any way that we can help serve and support,
continue the conversation as we go home from Els and please get
in touch, use the hub. Thanks.
Thanks so much. If you can get in, use the hub
and get get in touch with us andwe would love to help you.
I'd love to continue the conversation because I think
there's so much that we're goingto get to learn with each other
(02:58):
and from each other. So here's a bit of the direction
of travel for this session. We're going to be thinking about
how a pest is a model of grace for life.
It isn't just about what shapes how we minister and what we do,
but how we live and lead in all areas of our life.
It's been one of the most impactful things as we've been
(03:19):
journeying together as a church for people to realize, oh, this
isn't about signing up for a rota.
This isn't about fulfilling an obligation.
This is who I am and how God's made me and what God's grace to
me wherever I am. And so it makes every day, I
think, a little bit more exciting.
But my secondary grace is evangelistic.
So I would say that then we're about thinking about equipping
(03:41):
the Saints. These graces exist to build each
other up. It's not about elevating
ourselves, it's not about titlesor positions, but this picture
of collaborative and community discipleship.
I've got a whole kind of thing in my heart at the moment as I'm
seeing this quiet revival. What would it look like to be
intentional and intergenerationally discipling
(04:03):
one another? There's no hierarchy of graces.
All are needed and all are valuable, and we need each other
because what we bring is uniquely ours to bring.
And the body of Christ needs ourperspective, our input, our
investment, our ideas. And sometimes, if we've got then
(04:24):
absolute grace, our silence. Jesus lived all 5.
So Jesus was Apostolic and prophetic and evangelistic and
shepherding and teaching. We carry a measure of that.
We carry an expression of that. So the grace gift mix that we
have is our way of expressing the life of Jesus, sharing the
(04:46):
life of Jesus with others. But we get to continue the
ministry and the mission that Jesus began through the grace
gifts and all the other things that make us who we are in the
world. And I think it's a great model
for shared leadership for this idea of team based spirit LED
ministry. We're going to explore that a
little bit today. And so when we're thinking about
(05:09):
primary and secondary graces, one of the ways is a couple of
ways we can think about it. One of the ways is which one is
your dominant hand? Are you right or left-handed?
Have a little reminder of yourself.
OK, great. So your primary grace is a bit
like your dominant hand. It's the one that you lean to,
it's the one that you go to, it's the one you're leading
edge. It's the one that you kind of
would rely on a little bit more.And your secondary secondary
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grace can be thought of as like your non dominant hand, still
useful and helpful and wonderfuland brilliant, but maybe not as
leaning in as quickly to that. Another way to understand it is
that your primary grace is your perspective, your lens, your
motivation, how you see the world, how you perceive the
world, what it looks like. And your secondary grace is
(05:52):
often how you're received or perceive what you sound like,
what that expression can look like.
And it's a really interesting mix to think about your primary
and secondary graces working together.
You will be able to motivate andmobilize and encourage and care
for people in such unique ways. So thinking about your first as
(06:13):
your motivation, this thing thatfuels your passion, and the
second as this expression of motivation.
So for example, if you're like ashepherd Apostolic, then you
love this idea of expanding the Kingdom, but you're also really
good at looking after people. Does that make sense?
If you're kind of Apostolic, evangelistic or evangelistic
Apostolic, you're really good atthinking about multiplying and
(06:35):
building, but you're also reallyenthusiastic about everything
and love telling good stories. So what we thought would be
really lovely is to have just a little bit of an idea of who
we've got in the room. I know I'm going to ask you to
raise your hands. Thanks.
Go with me. Because I want us to think about
like how we can work and serve one another.
So if your primary grace is Apostolic, give us a wave.
(06:56):
If you don't be ashamed. It's good.
It's great. Brill.
Fab. If your primary grace is
prophetic, Oh, quite a lot of PAS in the room.
Great. Brill.
If your primary grace is evangelistic, come on, See,
there's a woo. If it's shepherding, bless your
hearts. And if it's teaching, Oh, so I
(07:19):
called him just. It's OK.
Lloyd now owes me money. OK, so just in this space, in
this room, how uniquely graced are we to be able to be an
expression of the body of Christto others?
So how can we know more how God has made us?
Well, we know, don't we? This reminder that this
(07:40):
Apostolic grace is based in Ephesians 4.
We've been thinking about because of who Jesus is, because
of what he's done for us, because of who we are.
Now we get to Ephesians 4. Hang on.
No, let me go back. Let me go back.
There we are, me and the tech. That's not such a good
combination. We get to Ephesians 4, and Paul
(08:01):
has spent 3 chapters in his letter as we receive it, telling
people who Jesus is, what he's done for us, and who we are now
because of him. And then we get to 4 and he
says, therefore, in response to because of all of this, you now
are to walk worthy of the calling you've received.
So in other words, these are graces that we receive, not
something that we're striving for.
(08:22):
These are elements of the nature, the, the responsibility,
the ministry, the mission of Jesus that we receive in order
to bless others and for the fullness of the Kingdom to come,
the fullness of the body of Christ to come because of Jesus
through Jesus. And in Jesus we get to
participate. So as he, Jesus ascended, he
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gives these five graces to the church with his invitation to
unity, diversity, and mission. And so these graces are given
for the equipping of everyone todo the ministry of Christ.
And I think each of us has a role in the Kingdom, a
vocational role, whether we are paid to do a job that is
connected to the church or an organization or not.
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I believe that there's a walkingworthy that we get to do that.
What you have to bring matters, but who you are really matters.
And you get to bring this grace,this mix of grace, to wherever
you are, all the spheres and theplaces and the spaces and the
people. And so when we're thinking about
the Apostolic grace, we're thinking about the fact that it
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is connected to the mission of God.
So this is one of the ways I have been understanding it over
the last few years. Apostolic is connected to the
mission of God, Prophetic is connected to the heart of God.
Evangelistic is connected to thestory of God.
Shepherding is connected to the people of God, and teaching is
connected to the wisdom of God. And don't we need all of those
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in our communities and in our church environments and wherever
we are? And so we need each other's
piece of the puzzle, piece of the story that we carry.
Often people with Apostolic in the mix will be kind of sending
and extending, starting and stretching.
Those are some of the words and the ideas.
You'll have like 25 ideas beforebreakfast or not quite know what
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to do with them all. And so this is kind of part of
how the Apostolic grace can work.
Our kind of responsibility is like new places, new strategies,
new people developing new things, bringing sort of
missional energy and direction. Words like visionary, builder,
pioneer, multiplier. 1 of the things I think is really
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interesting is that we see the Apostolic grace working in a
couple of different ways. In the New Testament, we see the
apostle Paul, who I think is your classic apostle.
He sees new opportunities, he sees new places, he goes and
starts something new. He builds up a bunch of teams,
he releases them and he moves on.
And so we see that grace and I think we maybe have only
understood the Apostolic to meanthat, whereas I also think we
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see Peter and Peter is an Apostolic grace in a different
way. His grace is within community.
He stays with the Jewish community.
They loop in the Gentiles, yes, but like they, they stay in
community. And Peter brings change from
within. So if you've got an Apostolic
grace in your mix, it might meanthat you have a desire to go out
and plant some pioneer in that way.
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Or it may be that you just have so many ideas of how to make
things better or different or tomultiply or to make a change
within. We have a capacity for
adventure. Oh, that's exciting, isn't it?
People with an Apostolic grace tend to be less risk averse.
There's a pioneering instinct tous and empowered by Holy Spirit
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and Apostolic grace has this bigpicture purpose that we keep in
mind. The big picture, the mission of
God, often with a motivation andthe invitation to help keep
people mission focused. Here are some characteristics to
think about. We're comfortable crossing
boundaries, intellectual, socialand cultural.
We might have entrepreneurial interests who's got like a
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couple of side hustles on the go.
Yeah, look at it. I do it.
Come on. We love starting something new
and it's quite energizing to us.I'm looking at Pete over there.
We're strategic decision makers.We are innovative in our
approaches and our solutions. Quite often we're uncomfortable
with the status quo. And if you have a shepherding
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grace alongside an Apostolic grace, then sometimes for you it
will feel like this. You'll bet the mission of God,
the people of God, the mission of God, the people of God.
So like just that awareness thatthat in the mix that God has
graced us with. Once we know that we can do
something about it, we can understand, oh, when do I need
to lean into that shepherding grace?
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Actually, when do I need to leadin to that pioneering change?
Making Apostolic grace not 1 is better than the other.
We can see things holistically. We understand multiple dynamics
and components, and we may need to move occasionally to pursue
something new, whether that's within our context to move roles
or whether that's to start something new.
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We're imagineers and problem solvers and innovators.
Some of us with an episodic grace love setting up systems
that create sustainable change. That's one of the ways that the
grace can be expressed. We have somebody in our
community called Lise, and she'sa businesswoman.
She's one of our voluntary leaders.
She's brilliant and we did a pest together with her and all
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of a sudden she found language for what she's been her whole
life. She's like, oh, I didn't.
I just thought I was being annoying because I kept coming
up with new ideas and I kept telling people how I think
things could be better. When I kept trying to multiply
and build things, I just thoughtI wasn't.
And I was like, no, no, no. You have a way of seeing and
being in the world that we need.We need that perspective.
And so how can we do that together?
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Let us have that perspective so we can grow in these areas, so
we can focus, so we can move into these things.
And it's given her language to be able to understand.
Oh, that's not just through church related activity.
That's in my professional life, that's in my household, that's
in my friendship groups. I get to bring some of that
energy wherever I go. So what I would love you to do
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is we're going to give you, I know this is difficult.
We're going to give you about 90seconds to have a little look at
those words and turn to a coupleof people next to you.
Which ones of these really feel like they resonate with you and
which ones of these you like? Yeah, no, I'm not sure.
That's part of the Apostolic grace mix that I've been given.
So we're going to give you maybe2 minutes.
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I'm kind, I'm wondering if Dan might put us some nice vibe
tunes on. So yeah, 2 minutes off you go.
And then I'll call us back and we'll continue.
OK, so we're going to continue and we'll give you a little bit
more time to have conversations.Plus after this we get a big old
coffee break. So, you know, plenty of time.
So I think when we're thinking about the episodic grace, I
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think some of the benefits that we bring to the body of Christ
is that we can prepare people for innovation and
entrepreneurship, that we can develop capacity in people and
in teams for appropriate risk. We can paint the bigger picture.
We can say, hey, we're just out the corner of my eye.
I think the Spirit is saying something here, let's go.
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And so we can prepare people forthat appropriate level of risk.
I think we can maintain and develop this commitment to
mission. And when I say mission, the big
picture mission, but also the mission of whatever your church
or organization or team are a part of.
Hey, This is why what you do matters.
So it's not just that you're looking after children on a
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Sunday morning. You're discipling the next
generation. And so we help keep people
focused on the bigger picture ofwhat they're a part of.
We're pretty good at championingthese core ideas.
And DNA or culture is another word.
We're not too bad at networking translocally, and like I said,
we have a sense of the big picture, which makes sense of
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the rest for others. OK, prepare yourselves.
We also have some blind spots. And so Lloyd and I are both
going to be very honest about this today because I don't think
we're always that honest about it.
If you have an Apostolic grace in your mix, we can be really
dogmatic about vision. We can be autocratic,
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domineering, bullying and controlling because we have a
picture of what it should look like and that's where we're
headed. We can get super frustrated with
people who don't get it. Come on, please don't put your
hand up. But like in my there, I can't
tell you how many conversations I've had with people over the
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earth. Why don't they just get it?
Like, why can't? Because they don't.
And that's great because they get a piece of the puzzle that I
don't get. And so they need mine in health,
in love, and I need this. We want to use these grace gifts
in health and in holiness, I think.
I think we can get disillusions and impatient when we either
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don't see the results that we want or we don't see them
quickly enough. I think if we're honest, we
sometimes see people as a means to an end, and at times we can
sometimes struggle with accountability, which is why
this invitation is part of the body of Christ.
And remember Mark's encouragement to us on that
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first day? Humility, patience, bearing with
one another. At our church, we have a saying
when we're thinking about this that it's about completion, not
competition or comparison. It's about completion, not
competition or comparison, because we are in the business
of continuing the ministry and the mission of Jesus through the
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body of Christ for the fullness.And Jesus was Apostolic.
He was sent by the Father. He was sent to accomplish God's
mission and ministry here on earth.
He came Incarnate, embodying themission of the Kingdom,
declaring it and demonstrated it.
He lived the mission, but then he recruited and he trained and
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he released a team of disciples to go and do the same.
As you read through the New Testament, you see them kind of
wandering off to different ideasand what does Jesus do?
He brings them back to why they're there, what they're
about, who the king, what the Kingdom is, who God is.
He helps them to be open and moving towards new things.
There was such an idea of who Messiah would be and of what
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that would look like, and He hadto help them open up their
thinking to realize that it was Him.
He laid the foundation of the Kingdom.
He sent them on missional opportunities, and then he did
feedback and training and sent them back out again.
As he's laying these foundations, whenever they kind
of would veer off it, He would invite them back to it when they
didn't get it. Aren't you grateful for that?
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And that's something that we canoffer in love, because then
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to help us do the same.
Holy Spirit is continually working to cross boundaries, to
reach everyone, and we get to join in as the church, the body
of Christ. As I've already said, in Acts,
the church is growing among the Jews in Jerusalem.
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And then God gives Peter this vision from Acts 10, in Acts 10
to loop in the Gentiles. Go and read that.
He takes a team with him. This is not a solo pursuit.
This is a collaborative effort. And he brings that change.
He's open to that change. I mean, he needs a wild vision
to get in there. If that's what you need, then
ask the Spirit for that. And then we see Paul this sort
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of more classic picture of this expanding the gospel to the
Greek and Roman world. How strategic is God?
Because as he does that, it thencan get carried in the
structures and the setup of the Roman and Greek world to the
entire known world. The Holy Spirit knows what he's
doing. So Paul would start something
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and once it was solid enough to stand on its own, he would move
on to the next thing. But he didn't just like leave
them in the Destin like see you later bro.
He also then would check in withthem and connect with them and
continue to encourage them. An expression I think of the
Apostolic grace is that we can maybe take the DNA of a church
or an organization or a ministry, and we can look at
what isn't necessary in order for the thing that God is doing
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now and preparing people for perhaps what God want to do in
the future. In one way, I think the
Apostolic grace can be ambassadors of the mission of
God, creating systems and structures to mobilize people.
And we remind ourselves that is part of the body.
We use this grace with the help of Holy Spirit wherever and
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however we serve. The Apostolic grace will be a
part of that mix, that perspective that we offer.
And awareness helps us in how welead.
Awareness that we don't have to bring every idea that we think
of all the time. And awareness that while we
might love change, not everyone else does.
And so with more awareness and understanding, we see more
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potential being released. We're reminded that none of
these are about titles or jobs or functions, but they're about
the way that we exist in the world with Jesus, through Jesus,
and for Jesus. So as we begin to understand
that more in our own lives, we can then look to release that in
others. And that's part of an Apostolic
gracing. A key kind of part of maturing
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in this is learning to call thatout in others.
It's not just something for us, but it's a lens through which we
can bless, encourage, and develop others in their graces.
I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to give you a few
ideas and I'm going to hand overto Lloyd, who's going to share.
We started some of this APES journey in our church community
a number of years ago and we started it around my kitchen
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table. You might have seen it in the
little promo we did yesterday. I got a lovely wallpaper.
But anyway, we we started it around my kitchen table.
We asked a bunch of people, Hey,we're exploring this.
We do explore it together and wedid it on a Sunday evening in my
home. And the one kind of week I asked
everyone, as you came into the space, as you came into the
kitchen this evening, what were you all kind of thinking about?
What was in your mind? The person with the shepherding
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grace was like, oh, it's a Sunday.
I bet you've had a really long day, Sarah.
I wonder if you've had a chance to eat.
I wonder how tired you are. I wonder, should I have brought
a cake? The shepherd and grace, the
evangelistic grace in the room was like, who can I bring with
me next time? Who can I tell about this?
This is amazing. I need to get my friends and my
colleagues and everyone to understand.
This is brilliant. The person with the teaching
grace in the room is like I'm I'm not sure.
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I don't understand. I need to know more.
Show me more. How do I how do I fix this thing
to this thing? And then what does that look
like to really live it out practically, How do we apply
this thing? Great, you told me.
Well, what does that actually look like?
And the people with the Apostolic grace in the room were
like, how many of these can we start tomorrow?
Could we multiply a bunch of them?
Who could we train up to lead? Like how many can we manage?
So you see that we need each other's perspective.
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And so in teams with this kind of interdependent community,
aren't we? Malcolm was helping us think
about that yesterday. So I just want to give you 4
words. And then Lloyds to come and
share to to help us in that. How do we do that?
Identify what are the graces? What are the graces in you and
in your team? Look at it, have this long term
view. This is not, I don't think, kind
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of one hit wonder. This could be something that
changes the way that you move and work together as a church.
Hang on. Yeah, that's going to be Lloyd.
Celebrate like a firm in community.
It's given us language for the strengths of people, but also
our shadow sides. So we'll borrow something.
We in our team, we don't have a lot of people with the
shepherding grace. What a surprise.
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There's a bunch of apostolics there.
And and so we asked the people with the shepherding grace, hey,
we've we've got this idea. We're thinking of doing this
thing. Give me a shepherding
perspective and they'll go, yeah, you've done something for
the last 14 weeks on a rose hereand they might be a bit
exhausted and we go, Oh yeah, you're right.
Good, we'll do it next week instead.
So, but celebrate that, affirm in each other, collaborate, work
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together, learn from each other.No one has the full picture.
And then keep it centered on Jesus, his mission and his
mission. We get to literally embody Jesus
and continue his shape for the church that he has left with us.
We join in with the Kingdom and we get to be an expression of
that through our grace mix. Thank you for listening.
I'm going to hand over to Lloyd and then we're going to have
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some time to chat together. Thank you, Sarah.
That was fabulous. Thank you.
I was smiling when you were mentioning about the blind
spots. We were sat stood next to each
other this morning during the praise and worship and there was
a couple navigating down the side of the the auditorium and
they were moaning about the amount of bags that they were
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having to get through. And, and we heard it and we just
looked at each other and said and just said to each other,
just open your eyes, you know, come on.
Just just see where you are. I mean, really, why are you?
Yeah. So that's the kind of the, the,
the, the frustration of the Apostolic grace upon, upon both
of our lives. I'm just going to share a little
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bit about my own personal journey.
A few months ago, Mark asked me when did you begin your
Apostolic journey? And I kind of looked at him a
bit way out, I guess, because for me, I've kind of felt like
it's just always been there. I I I don't recall a moment
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where someone has said or where I've been prayed for or where
I've suddenly felt like this grace gift has come upon me.
I've just felt it's just been a natural part of of who I am at
At the age of 6, I became the founder and the president of my
local skateboarding club. Come on.
(25:45):
Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah, President and our family gatherings, you know, the family
gatherings that some of us have,I would I would ensure that me
and my cousins were, were, were performing this, this, this,
this play in front of her and I was directing them and showing
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them what to do and telling themwhen you've got to come on and
all that kind of stuff and what act I want you to do.
At a very, very young age. When I went into primary school,
I, I set up a a, a comic club where we would share comics.
I know that's quite sad. Hey, when I what when, when I
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went into sixth form and and andand gave my life to Jesus.
Not long after that I was asked to lead the 200 strong Christian
union at that school. When I was in the sixth form, I
directed two major productions within the within the school
that I was that I was at. By the way, when I was leading
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the the school sixth form, we asked Gary Gibbs to come and
speak at our events. So I am, I'm very grateful to
you, Gary, for that. So I'm not sure when that grace
gift actually began, but for me,it's just been a natural part
of, of who I am. And, and perhaps I'm not sure
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whether whether it's the grace gift or whether it's just
because I like being bossy. Probably the latter as well.
Some of you are nodding at that one.
Throughout my working life, I, I, I began working in Tesco's
after I left school and I couldn't just be the, the, the,
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you know, a check out supervisor.
I had to become on the regional,on the, on the retail management
course. I had to kind of push myself to,
to do more and more of, of that.I, when I went in to work for
you for Christ, where I worked in my local centre just
developing and, and, and pushingpeople and, and, and becoming
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the director and then working for regional within Youth for
Christ. And then later coming into Elim.
I've always felt myself pushing forward, doing new things,
pushing the the norm, never feeling quite satisfied, just
wanting to get to the next level, wanting to get to do the
the new thing, wanting more, wanting to improve myself more,
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wanting to improve the environment that I was around
more, wanting to see change. My wife's here today and she
will testify the fact that in our house I'm always moving
things around. I like change.
I can never settle. I like to move stuff around.
Anybody with me on that one? Yeah.
(28:37):
OK, that's good. We're in good company.
That's good. So wanting, wanting to stretch
myself further, I'm wanting to stretch other people.
And I acknowledge that, that when I'm wanting to stretch
other people, that's not always reciprocated.
It's not always something that is, that is good for them.
But nevertheless, that's one thing that I try.
I, I was a prison chaplain for 18 years and wanting to see the,
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the young guys coming into our prison, wanting to see them
desperately wanting to see them change, wanting to see them get
saved. And we put on Alpha and we, we
were trying to, in trying to geteverybody to come and, and, and
just wanting them to leave better people, wanting to see
them equipped to be on the outside, wanting to see.
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But it was, I guess, when I was in Elam Missionary where I
really felt stretched in this whole grace area of Apostle.
I went to we, my wife and I and our three children went to work
in Swaziland, in Eswatini in Southern Africa.
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We're there for just over 7 years.
And I worked for a high, high, high Apostolic grace gift
person. And within that whole nation, we
worked together at wanting to change the nation.
We had that common purpose to bring transformation to the
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nation of Eswatini. Eswatini, for those of you that
don't know, it's just over 1,000,000 people.
So it was achievable to be able to bring change.
It was achievable to be able to stretch the nation so we could
bring in transformation. We had two Teen Challenge
centres. We had an orphan and vulnerable
care home for over 450 children.We had a church planting
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movement that began when we started with about 6:00 and then
moved to just before we left to about 30 and now it's just under
60. We were pushing the boundaries
together, wanting to see change as well as as being part of the
leadership of an over 2000 plus church in the capital of
Umbaban. We wanted to see Kingdom
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transformation. He and I, we wanted desperately
to transform the country. And so we set out.
One of the things that, that I had the privilege of doing was
some of you may have heard of the Global Leadership Summit.
And so I was sent from Swazilandto Chicago and meet with Bill
Hybels and the team over in Chicago.
And, and to bring back the wholemodel of, of the GLS that for
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those of you that don't know, Global Leadership Summit, it's,
it's, it's, it's main aim is to reach the, the, the top 7
mountains of leadership and, andto bring change and
transformation and Christian values into nations and into
businesses. And, and, and my, and what we
wanted to do was to bring that into the nation of Swaziland.
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And in our first year, we were meeting with the Prime Minister
of the country, the King that the, the, the members of the
royal family to bring this wholething into the nation.
And in the first year, we had the house filled, packed with
top business leaders and Prime Minister, the Prime Minister.
We were we, we met with the Prime Minister regularly to plan
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this whole event. It was amazing.
I kind of think to myself, did that really happen now?
But it did because we were aboutdesperately wanting to see
things change, to see the country go from a hopeless
situation, which at that moment was the, the, the, the, the,
the, the, the, the top HIV AIDS rates within the world and to
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see transformation. A nation without hope bringing
hope. Today I have the privilege, as I
said earlier, of, of leading theEast Gateway, Elim, Harbin, East
London and, and Essex. And we've been given the, the,
the, the vision by God to reach first of all, to reach out to
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smaller struggling churches and to help them and to support them
and to equip them and make and give them the passion that you
can do it. That together we are better.
That, that together we can change your community, that
together we can change and, and bring transformation to your
church. We can bring transformation to
your town. We want to see these smaller
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churches grow and thank God it'shappening.
We want to see together advancing the Kingdom of God.
And so we have a vision within the East Gateway hub that from,
for those of you that that know that there is a, there is a road
that runs from South End all theway into central London.
It's called the A13. We have the estuary and the
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River Thames that go all the waydown and run in parallel with
this a 13. And we have a vision from sea to
sea, from coast to city and either side of that that run to
be planting churches, to be planting communities, church,
Christian communities, Elim communities, Elim churches along
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that road. That is our passion.
That is our desire to see transformation and together we
believe that we can do it. Together we believe that we can
do it. So that's a little bit of my
journey from from six years old right up until today being I
think I'm 52. Just want to go on to the
(34:08):
Apostolic in teams. And I acknowledge that that most
of you here today, it's not yourprimary, but some of you I know,
put your hands up to say it was,but I acknowledge it's not your
primary. But I think if, even if it's in
your second secondary grace gifts, it's important to
recognize that if you're here and it's your secondary grace
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gift and you're part of a leadership team, it's not always
easy, is it when you're working under someone that has a
different grace gift to us because we want to push forward.
We, we want to bring change, We want to bring transformation.
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We want to do, we want to be, weget frustrated when things
aren't moving at the pace we want them to move up.
And so we're pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing.
But actually we're working undera leadership that maybe are not
that way, but maybe are more shepherding.
And so they're they're sometimesI'm shepherding is my least one.
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By the way, as you can probably guess, it was no surprise to my
team when they found out that shepherding was my least one,
but that actually you maybe feelheld back by your senior leader
because they're a little bit more cautious or they're saying
to you, you know what, we need to bear this in mind and we need
to think through this. And you're like, no, let's just
(35:34):
go and let's just do it. So recognizing that, that as a
as, as a team player, it's, it'soften difficult.
And I just want to encourage those of you who are in teams,
but yet you have a primary or secondary as, as Apostolic to
keep on submitting and being humble within your team and
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within the leadership structure of your team.
As frustrating as it might be. And I know I was there as well
for many years in Eswatini. It's important that we still
remain humble and we, we still remain submissive and, and, and
supportive of that senior leaderand that team that we're a part
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of and to work collaboratively. I also, for those of you who are
senior leaders, I want to encourage you as I encourage
myself to be, bearing in mind that there are members of your
team who have a primary as Apostolic.
And we need to be aware of that and enable that to come forward
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and to flourish and to develop and not to hinder and not to
stop that growth of that gifting.
So may I encourage you, Is that OK?
Senior leaders from one to another, please, please, please
don't, don't stifle the Apostolic gifting as you.
We shouldn't do that for any of them.
I know that, but I'm an apostle,so I'm pushing that one.
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We need to work collaboratively with the other graces as, as
primary leaders, particularly with primary leaders.
But finally, in terms of teams, I, I want to be a little
vulnerable. Is it OK to be a little
vulnerable? It's not going to go out of this
room. I know that.
So that's good. I acknowledge that as an
apostle, and Sarah touched on this just now.
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There have been times in my ministry where I have abused the
grace gift, where I've gotten frustrated with others in my
team, where. I've just wanted to.
Push ahead and get the task done.
I've wanted to see them. Do their best.
(37:51):
I've wanted to stretch. I've wanted to develop.
I've wanted to bring change. But in the process of.
Wanting better. In the process of wanting to
stretch, in the process of of wanting to do more, In the
process of wanting to achieve more, in the process of wanting
to plant more, I have ridden roughshod over them.
(38:18):
Some would say and I would. Agree.
I have been bullish in that desire, in that aim and to my
shame, that is the reality. That is the struggle that I
have. Had to walk.
(38:39):
And continue. To do so.
If I'm being entirely honest. I think we have to.
Bear in mind that even if we're primary or secondary Apostolic,
that is one of the blind spots that many of us have to deal
(38:59):
with. And consequently, I know.
Because of that, I have brought hurt.
And I have brought pain. To people in my team, did I
(39:27):
intentionally do that? No.
But that's what's happened. And to just just acknowledge for
a moment, but for some of us here in this room.
It may be that we need. To re evaluate how we approach
(39:47):
our team and. Maybe we need to and.
I have done this on numerous occasions and will continue to
do so. Apologize.
Don't worry, my senior. Leader is here today and he
knows all about this, so it's OK.
(40:17):
There are times when as. Apostles be for primary or
secondary. We really need to reach down to
that shepherd in grace and pull it up hello where we really knew
doing. It's no excuse.
The fact that we're apostles to abuse.
It's no excuse to to be frustrated.
(40:38):
It's no excuse. We can't use that as a as an
excuse. We need to be humble and we.
Need to show love. And however we operate as
apostles, primary, secondary, weneed to do it with humility.
And I'm coming on to that just now.
Sorry. I know time has gone, Sarah.
(40:58):
Finally. Cultivating the gift, we need to
understand this goes for all thegifts, I guess, but we need to
understand what our grace gift is and, and we need to read up
on it. We need to, if your grace gift
is Apostolic, if it's, if it's profit, if it's teacher, we need
to ensure that we're reading as much as we possibly can on our
(41:19):
Apostolic gift or our teaching gift.
We need to listen to podcasts. We need to ensure that we're
getting the training that we need in that area.
We need to secondly learn from others who are our grace gift,
whether it be primary or secondary.
We need to surround ourselves. I need to surround myself with
(41:41):
other apostles that I can learn from.
I was so blessed that I had seven years with a very high
operating apostle and I learned.From him I.
Continue to have the privilege of of serving under my regional
coordinator, David Redmond, who is a a great apostle.
And I make sure that I'm. Surrounded with with people and
(42:03):
men and women like him to learn from.
We need to humble ourselves and be teachable in that area.
We don't know it all, none of us.
And that's one of the things that Mark was pushing the other
day. We need to ensure that we are
continually being taught. Ask time to spend with other
people who have your grace gift.Go to them while you're here.
(42:26):
Why don't you? It's not not too late.
This is the last day. It's not never too late.
Why don't you go to someone and say, Hey, I see the gift in you.
Can we just spend some time together?
I'm having coffee with someone this morning after this
lunchtime because someone has said to me, I, I want to be able
to spend some time with you so Ican learn a little bit from you.
And that's the, that's the mentality that we all of us need
(42:47):
to have to, to be, to have mentors in our grace gifts that
we can learn from, that we can be teachable in.
So ask them if you're just beginning this, this primary or
secondary Apostolic gifting, then be faithful in the small
things, in the unseen things. Ask God to enable you to serve
(43:15):
in that gifting behind the scenes so no one sees you.
Be faithful in the small things.When we're faithful in serving
Him, be within our primary or secondary gifting, He will bring
the higher things, the greater things I believe, but serve Him
faithfully in the small things. Recognise that we need others to
(43:37):
be in the team we. Need others to be in.
Our team, we need all the grace gifts.
As Sarah has alluded to today, we need all the grace gifts
within our team. And if you're working within a
team, then ensure that you what we all should be working in
team. Let's face it, whether they're
full time, part time volunteers,we need to ensure if you're on
your own in a church, and as themajority of us are in church
(43:59):
leadership, we need to ensure that we've got other people
around us that are operating in the other grace gifts because
we're A-Team, we can't do it on our own.
And you need to. We need to stay.
In community, we need to stay inthat community of
accountability. Whether your grace gift is
primary secondary apostles, we need to ensure that we are
(44:24):
accountable. We are not above being
accountable as apostles. Hello in.
Fact. We need it even.
More so, I believe, because we have that tendency to go off on
one. We need to live in that.
Humility and humble ourselves I need to do every moment of every
(44:47):
single day we. Need to live in that humility.
And finally and particularly forthose of us that primary,
secondary, we need to try and switch off.
Our brains, Our minds. For those of us that are high
grace apostles, we need to ensure that our mind is switched
(45:08):
off, that we switch off our mindand that we because as apostles,
it's always working, isn't it? It's always on the go.
We eat, sleep, wake and it's always going.
We wake up thinking what's the next thing today?
What, what, what, what are we going to achieve?
We're in a meeting. We should be focused on
something and we're always thinking about what's the next
(45:29):
thing. Sometimes we just need to switch
it. Off and be still and know that
he is God. We need to enjoy that Shabbat
rest, that rest in God to find rest for our souls.
So we just sometimes need to just switch it off.
(45:50):
That's my journey. Thank you.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you so much, everyone has listened.
So well, so we're going to give you 10 minutes now and some
questions to have a little thinktogether with a couple of
people. You won't have time to do all of
those questions, but maybe you'll want to pick one or two.
What resonated with you? How does it show up in your
(46:10):
story? Where do you see this grace
needed more? And what's your main question so
far? So we're going to give you 10
minutes and then we're going to gather to pray with each other
as we close out the session. We're very conscious that at Els
you will hear lots of information, lots of ideas.
You will be buzzing with lots ofideas and information.
(46:33):
What do you do to process that, to think about that, to work
that out in your local context? So we would love to keep having
that conversation. If that's helpful, please get in
touch with us, use the hub. We really love to learn from one
another. We don't have all the answers,
We really don't, but we'd love to journey together if that's
helpful. But I want to finish by giving
us a little bit of a prayer practice, and maybe we'll just
(46:55):
pray with one another. And then we're released for
coffee back in the auditorium for 11:30.
Is that right? Yes.
OK. So has anyone ever been to
Ravenna? Give me a little wave.
Ravenna. Great.
One person. I accidentally ended up in
Ravenna a couple of years ago. I went on a walking tour of
Roman Empire churches. Come on, the geek in me, bring
(47:18):
on the Byzantine Empire. That's all I'm saying.
But I didn't realise that when we said yes to this excursion
that we would walk into so many churches and the churches in
Ravenna are world renowned for their mosaics, these mosaics
that tell the story of God, thattell the story of Jesus.
(47:38):
But I was talking to one of the guides and it's only been in
recent years that they've rediscovered so many of these
mosaics. For years they were covered over
with plasterboard and paint and building renovations, and
they've been discovered and painstakingly put back together,
restored, shined in the bits that need shining, replacing in
(48:00):
the bits they need placing, changing the shape of it.
And I genuinely was like jaw droppingly inspired as I walked
around some of these church buildings to think about this
picture of the mosaic, all the different pieces absolutely
necessary to tell the story of God.
And I think for those of us withan episodic grace in our mix, I
(48:23):
think there are two ways that that helps all of us with the
graces. But one of the ways is that we
get to be a part of the story ofGod, that what we have to bring
matters. We may feel like a beige mosaic
tile. We need the beige mosaic tiles.
That's all good. You may be like, no Sir, I'm
sparkly gold, thanks very much. Great.
We need you too, because withoutwhat each of us has to bring,
(48:44):
the picture doesn't make sense. But for those of us with the
Apostolic in our mix, we are only a piece of the picture.
We're not the superstars. We are telling the story of
Jesus, we embodying the life of Jesus.
We are continuing the ministry and the mission of Jesus.
(49:07):
So what we're going to do is give you 2 seconds to pray with
each other and then as you leavetoday, we'd love you all just to
take a little mosaic tile. They are all the same colour but
different shades. Because isn't that true that we
are different shades of the Apostolic grace in this room and
in this space and in our mix? And we'd love you to take this
little mosaic tile and put it somewhere that you're going to
see it. There's going to be a little
(49:28):
provocation, a little reminder, maybe to pray, maybe to thank
God for the grace on your life, maybe to look for the graces
that are in others, maybe to find a way to develop it.
It's only small. Don't lose it on your way home.
But I try and find somewhere to put it it just so that it
becomes this little provocation to pray, to connect with God, to
think about your grace, how you matter, what you bring matters,
(49:51):
who you are matters. But we are only a piece of the
mosaic telling the story of God.Amen, Amen.
Let's pray together. Let's Commission each other.
Maybe that you need to just takea moment to say, actually, God
sorry for the ways that I've notused it well or God help me to
use it well. Let's go and then be released
and we'll see you back in the other venue.
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