Episode 6

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Published on:

16th Feb 2024

Leading Differently Together | APEST Series Introduction With Zach Manntai



Join us for Decadent Care, November 8-9 in Winnipeg, MB:

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Description

Join host Wendi Park in the inaugural episode of "Leading Differently Together," a captivating series inspired by Ephesians 4:11-12. In this enlightening conversation, special guest Zach Manntai, hailing from Calgary, Alberta, delves into the profound impact of apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching qualities within Canadian communities.

Zach's unconventional leadership approach challenges conventional church norms, igniting a thought-provoking dialogue on the significance of embracing diverse leadership styles and spiritual gifts for cultivating a more vibrant and inclusive church community. This episode lays the groundwork for an exciting journey of exploration into APEST gifts in the coming episodes. Discover new perspectives on leadership and spirituality!

Time Stamps

(00:00) Disruptive, questioner, seeks god's intent, challenging norms.

(08:17) Embodying beliefs, led by the Holy Spirit.

(11:26) Tension between office and priesthood in church.

(15:23) Nonprofit scarcity mindset, disruptive leadership types needed.

(18:41) Balanced relationships with God and community need.

(22:03) Challenging church norms, seeking reconciliation and reform.

(27:15) Prophets speak truth and point people to God.

(34:22) Different approaches to evangelism, passion for sharing.

(38:24) Genuine evangelism is rooted in love.

(42:12) Empowering women with pastoral and shepherding hearts.

(45:27) A teacher conveys information effectively, embodying expectations.

(47:59) Teachers role in church: understanding, explaining scripture.

(50:50) Ephesians 4: Gifts work together for healthy church

Guest Links

https://www.forthecty.com

Other Links

Wendi's recommended resource:

Q5 by Alan Hirsch: https://fivefoldministry.com/

Reach out to us! https://journeywithcare.ca/podcast

Email: podcast@careimpact.ca

Listen To Journey With Prayer - A prayer journey corresponding to this episode: https://journeywithprayer.captivate.fm/listen

or get both podcasts on the same RSS feed! https://feeds.captivate.fm/n/careimpact-podcast

CareImpact: careimpact.ca

About the CarePortal: careimpact.ca/careportal

DONATE! Help connect and equip more churches across Canada to effectively journey well in community with children and families: careimpact.ca/donate

Editing and production by Johan Heinrichs: arkpodcasts.ca

Mentioned in this episode:

See the gift-giving catalogue!

https://careimpactchristmas.com

CareImpact Christmas

Transcript
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What does loving your neighbor actually look like? This

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is Journey with Care, where curious Canadians get inspired

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to love others well through real life stories and honest

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conversations.

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Hey, curious Toejourners. We're kicking off a new series today,

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Leading Differently Together. I'm so glad you're coming on this journey

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as we meet up with some fascinating Canadians who embody our new

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series Leading Differently Together. Ephesians 411

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and 12 says he gave some to be apostles, prophets,

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evangelists, shepherds, and teachers To equip the saints for the

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work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. So what does

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this look like for Canada? You'll have to listen to find out because we're gonna

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gain new imagination and appreciation for the ways our

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featured guests are boldly impacting their communities across

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Canada living out these exact qualities that Ephesians

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4:11:12 talk about, the apostles, prophets, evangelists,

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shepherds, and teachers. We often refer to it in our series as APES,

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the the acronym of all those 5. I'm your host, Wendy Park.

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And in studio today, we have a special guest from Calgary, Alberta, Zach

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Manntai. To kick us off in the series, Zach, welcome to the

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podcast. Thanks so much, Wendy. Love to be with

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you. And how are things in Calgary today? You know

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what? We're a blustery blooming 10

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degrees Celsius. It is a beautiful day. And you know what?

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I think that there's some amazing conversations happening across

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the country. And here in Western Canada, there's Just some amazing stuff that

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god is revealing and opening up people's eyes to, and I'm grateful to be a

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part of the conversation today. Well, I'm so glad to have you. I know

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we were introduced, not too long ago within this last year.

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And when I looked up your profile On LinkedIn, and

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we we did have that conversation. What grabbed my attention right away

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was your description of disruptor You're extraordinaire, and that

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resonated with me. And I'm like, yeah. This guy, I do

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want to meet. You are doing some extraordinary things in in Calgary,

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Specifically for the city and whatnot, can you tell us a little bit more

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about what gets you up in the morning? You betcha.

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Disruptor extraordinaire, Canoe Tipper. Often when you're with

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me, things don't stay, simple. And I

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think that When I look at the world around me and the way that god

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has wired me, a lot of the conversations

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are about saying You've heard it said. And I think that when

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Jesus did that throughout the gospels, there was a lot of

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trying to really Bring back what god's intent was.

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And there's been this amazing opportunity in my life, in my vocation, and in my

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personal life to be able to ask the questions.

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Well, that might be the way it is, but is that the way it's supposed

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to be? Is that the way it should be? Is that the way that brings

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blessing and hope into the people's lives around Me and

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sometimes the answer is no. And are we willing to

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wrestle with that and understand it? One of the things that kind of always

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makes me chuckle when I think about The early church fathers,

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they didn't have this long list of things. They only had the old

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testament. They had the Torah to Kind of reflect on. And so today,

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we have, like, literally 2000 years of additional

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conversations and additional things. And when we acknowledge the fact

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that people have been wrestling with the truths of God as as they've

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revealed through scripture and through creation over the years

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that sometimes we need to sit back and wrestle with it a little bit more.

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And whether you like me or not is sometimes dependent on whether or

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not you like to wrestle with me. Sometimes, like, with Jacob being God,

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you don't walk the same afterwards. But, you know, hopefully,

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we're all better for it. Well, Zach, I think we're a dangerous combination to

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kick off this series because there's a lot we could dive into that Ephesians

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4. You have background in in church ministry,

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a lot of background in that. You have been a pastor prior

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to the work you're doing now. Can you tell us a little bit about

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your journey into faith and where it's led you

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today? Yeah. One of the struggles when I think about,

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you know, let's get, somebody's testimony is that it it

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feels like you're looking for a a single point in time where

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God did something and life was always perfect after that.

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And, I accept the mess, I think, in my own

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life. I come from a a broken home. I come from a a

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family that both tried and

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failed often at being What god intended.

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My mother has dealt with many different things

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over the years. I'm adopted into a a new family. And When

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I was grafted into a, Pentecostal charismatic church

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at an early age, I had already felt the sense of

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god's hand on my life. There is this understanding of

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my father, both earthly, my adopted and biological were

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not necessarily Perfect. But there was this intimate

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relationship with the creator, with the heavenly father that I think

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really formed a lot of the ways that I now view the world.

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But a lot of that sense of god, where are you moving and how do

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I follow in your footsteps? When Jesus

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says, Why were you worried? I was just about my father's business. That's been a

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bit of the foundation for a bit of my life where sometimes I

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like the disruptor extraordinaire, I'm found to be outside

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of the box thinking Wendi really all I feel like I'm doing is is doing

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my father's business. And so, I was raised up in Edmonton,

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in a in a Pentecostal church that that really tried to

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anchor itself in good strong teaching, in good

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strong worship. Music and the word were anchors

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in our life, but There always felt like there is this sense of

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and then what. And I think that while I was raised,

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the the language in the in the early nineties was a fivefold ministry.

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That mindset of taking all 5 of these gifts into practice,

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often it didn't fully see itself realized in

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the, priesthood and kingship of all believers.

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It was more akin to there were some that were given these

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gifts. There were some that were elevated to the office of apostle

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or prophet, And they were put on a pedestal. We would do these

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things called presbytery where, I know that

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terminology is used differently in in different denominations. But in the Pentecostal

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tradition I was raised in, it was akin to, a prophetic ministry coming

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into town, and you sitting under these prophets that were seen as God's

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anointed man APEST like in the Old Testament rather

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than what I would say some of the more nuanced

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expression that you and I will talk about a bit Today is that sense of,

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like, we were called in a leadership capacity, I believe,

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you and I today and and others in ministry and not,

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To encourage and empower all members of

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the church to understand their giftings in these ways. And so

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that wrestling I had Really pushed me into

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both a practical ministry where I was serving in

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social services, in emergency medicine, in different

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spaces is where I was hands and feet of Jesus, but also

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always trying to hold my faith and works

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intention And saying, god, you are moving in the way I

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am serving in your church with the people in my community as

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well as in the way that my vocation and the way that my Paycheck and

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my mortgage is paid. So would you say you sort of

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naturally fell into or fit into

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some of these wirings of leadership styles, that apostolic,

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possibly prophetic. We can go into that. Or did you try

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Other forms that just didn't fit and it rubbed you the wrong way. How did

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you come to really live in this outside the box thinking and

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embrace it? Because it let's face it often in the church that

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is a bit threatening, speaking as one like you,

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that it it might not fit within the teaching, shepherding

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kind of context of a comfortable

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congregation. Very good point. I would

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say I have always attempted to,

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by wearing my heart on my sleeve, Say,

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like, I am fully embedded into my beliefs. And

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so I never would have used the language of apostle or prophet

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or evangelist in who in identifying who I am because I would

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see more the outputs. And in the

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charismatic sense, it's like, Where is holy spirit leading? Where am I

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flowing into? But it was more a matter of

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saying I am, some would say, naturally

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More a helper. But when I would do things like in,

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you know, when you do those personality tests or you're doing vocational assessments

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before you're Going off into colleges, it's like, who am

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I? And it would almost always come to, like, this sense of helper, but more

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than just helper. There was a, Myers Briggs that I

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did probably 20 years ago, and the name still the the title

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for my personality type, I say, with scare quotes, was a

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teacher idealist because I would see myself both as someone who

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saw what was possible, the potential, And

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seek to be there, but also to raise up and walk

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alongside those to help create that potential. And

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so about 5 years ago, I did Alan Hirsch's

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five q assessment. And I think when you and I were talking

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about where we scored on that, I am high

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apostolic prophetic scoring based on my responses, and

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it fits when you start thinking about it through the lens of APEST.

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But at the time, it was, it was a natural

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expression of my identity, of who I saw god making me

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and giving me those skills, Those affinities. And I think it

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was a very interesting way to then say, like, vocationally and

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spiritually, it's easier to just say you're this

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job. This is you're an evangelist or you're a bricklayer

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and just leave it at that. And I think one of the things that

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I know you and I Probably would say is that

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in that sense of focusing as the church

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often has done over the last 2 centuries, Focusing

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on shepherd and teacher as really the office of APEST,

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where someone's job in a

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Role is to either be educated as a theologian

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or to take care of a congregation.

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Left much of these other gifts as

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outside of the box. And coming back to that disruptor

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extraordinaire, Not something that people wanted because you had a system

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that worked. You had a system that was predictable. You had a system that allowed

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for those things. And when I would sit with church leadership

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and say things like, we believe these things

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aspirationally in scripture, we we feel called to live in this

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way and yet we don't, let us

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encourage and equip and release, well, then

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We don't have control over those people. We lose our

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volunteers. We lose our our, tithe base sometimes.

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Right. And we we have this tension too of the office

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of pastor and the institutional church, which It's just a

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an organizational way of bringing the church together. That in itself

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isn't bad at all, but we also have to look at the tension with

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the Priesthood of all believers. And when we talk about the apostolic

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gift, we're not necessarily talking capital a, coming

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apostle, Coming through town and doing some

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signs and wonders and great things, there may be some APEST

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specific lens of how we look at, And and we are all kind

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of part of the body of Christ. And going back to Ephesians

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411 and 12, why do we have these 5 things, the

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apostles, prophets, Evangelist, shepherds, and teachers thinking priesthood

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of all believers, it's to equip the

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saints for the work of the ministry. It's not to sit on our pedestals

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and say I am this, and I'm gonna sit in this office. And it also

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says for building up the body of Christ. And One of the

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things that I'm excited about this series is that we're gonna dive into

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those 5 different titles that Ephesians 4 refers

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to and hear people's stories Zach they've lived

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in these giftings and what it looks like and what

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maybe in immaturity it might look like as we need to mature as

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believers, but have A place in the church to

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exercise these needed gifts because one of the things that you and I have

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talked about in the past is that we need all 5. Absolutely. To be a

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healthy church, to see any good revivals happen,

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to see any movements happen, there's always elements of all 5

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things. And so I know this is gonna touch on some of our audience's heart.

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They want a healthy church. We want healthy communities where the church is attuned and

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vibrant and And alive and well and impacting their

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cities, but then we're gonna have to pay attention to where do we fit in,

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what is god creating me to do And, b, more than anything,

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and how does that affect how do I live out my theology and my

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understanding of who god has created? So really looking at that

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Leadership diversity around the table that there's a place for

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everyone, not just the the typical one that we often

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hire, that we vote in to leadership. But what does it

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look like for you and for I and that other person listening in

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thinking, k. Where do I fit in? Do I fit in? And how can I

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best serve, equip others, and build up the

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body of Christ for the service of others? Any thoughts on that?

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Well and I think that this is this is what it's been really difficult for

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someone like myself. So some Some of your listeners might

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be familiar with the the language of bivocational or co vocational

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pastoral ministry. I have sat in Church planting

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roles. I've sat in formal pastoral roles in in congregations.

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And more recently, I've spent a lot of my time more in

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the, quote, unquote marketplace where I work

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and and employ myself to do a job, where at the

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same time, I'm Serving in a local congregation,

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helping build up a small community of of believers to try and walk

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this out. Because of that, It is easy for me

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to throw shade against someone whose job is to

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be a traditional pastor within an evangelical church in

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North America, Where your job is to functionally

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act as both CEO for a congregation, for a business,

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and prepare things like sermons and manage staff, and

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that's your job as a pastor. And yet I

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acknowledge that the tension then that sits in is

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Any of the conversation about trying to create a leadership

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diversity that has more apostolic when we talk about

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apostolic, we're talking about lifting up, Envisioning

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pioneering ideas. Well, that challenges,

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perhaps, maybe the budgetary requirements of the church pastor.

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Maybe it requires more volunteer hours or or things that

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are not easy to manage when you're stuck

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in a nonprofit Scarcity mindset. And

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so whether you're trying to simply keep the ship that you

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have as a pastor in a local church Afloat, whether

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you're trying to keep your healthy people in that

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shepherding mindsets present, The tension is any

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of these more, I think you use the term disruptive

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often, leadership types Will make it

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actually difficult for the existing

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status quo. And so what has been very interesting, I think, when I

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look at A lot of what we call disciple making movements or

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DMMs around the world, much of their

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focus is around these disruptive, leadership types, the

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apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic personalities,

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because the skill sets within those individuals are the ones that

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create Shifts. When we're talking about the the house churches in

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China, when we're talking about some of these beautiful expressions of faith

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in Africa, When we're talking about missionaries living in Muslim majority

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countries, you won't survive as a shepherd

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teacher in those environments. You won't. And so when

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we look at the Western church in Canada and in in Europe,

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there is a a question around, How do we

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bring in a a different style of leadership,

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both bringing a pest in, in a more holistic

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approach to How we hire, what skills we need at the table, but

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also perhaps away from a single

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pope within a church, A single bishop, a single pastor

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who has the full authority of of god

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in that space. And there are many denominations that work

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very hard to remove that. There are some denominations that have

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gone so far as to make the pastor almost more of a

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employee of a board that tries to manage it, to try and make sure that

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they don't have a single, I guess point of

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failure, but also a single responsibility. Like, I I've been an

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executive director, and I can tell you, It is not easy to try

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and manage an organization. And if I was also thinking

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about their spiritual health and And all of the performances

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that go into a Sunday gathering, my goodness. Like, that that is a

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lot of weight to place on somebody, and that is what many of the pastors

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across North America are doing. They're effectively an

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executive director of a nonprofit and the performance

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manager for a small play and performance theater

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Every Sunday. And so when we're expecting that of

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them, I don't want them to feel like they are

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Failing, but I think our expectations are wrong.

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Unrealistic. Right? And we're gonna go through what those five

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types of leadership are in a little bit of detail. We're gonna,

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obviously, in the the subsequent series, interview different people with those

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giftings and get their insight. Lovely. But What I hear you saying and

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what I I've been doing some research myself and experienced in in church

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settings, not only do we want balance, but to have a Healthy

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ecosystem within a church and a community and expression,

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all of it is relational. Absolutely. Any one of those that foregoes the

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relationship Of each other and with God and with

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community, there's always unhealth in that area,

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and and there's a need to be relationally integral. And it

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is hard. Apes, like, I like to refer them, the the apostles,

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prophets, and and evangelists. Yes. They're naturally

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the disruptive APES, but When in relationship with

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others that are comforting the shepherds and the teachers, it actually creates a

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really balanced ecosystem where there's times for

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comfort, but there's also times to be pushed beyond our our own

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comfort towards what could be and towards what god is calling

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us to do, and so I think that's beautiful. So let's just

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go briefly through each one of them. We won't have a lot of

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time today, but let's go through each. For the apostle, how can

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we describe apostleship in a contemporary way? What

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would you say that looks like In the marketplace, in the pew,

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on the pulpit, what does a apostleship look like?

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Well, like you said, sometimes when we think about these terms, We go

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straight to a title. So the title of apostle

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versus the role and the function or the gift of an

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apostolic mindset and approach. And so sometimes we

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think about people within scripture like Paul, where it's like the apostle

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Paul did these things. But When we talk about it in a more

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contemporary perspective, sometimes we're talking about a more entrepreneurial

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perspective. But also somebody who is, I I often

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find apostolic in a coaching mindset because

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they're trying to catalyze change,

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Which is almost always what apostolic ministry comes around,

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and then lift up and bring alongside those

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that are going to create that change with them. They don't need to

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own it. They can be a vision caster. They can

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try and create systemic change by bringing

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the right people to the table. And like Paul,

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I think over 3 years, he planted 7 churches. You don't

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do that as a single individual. You do

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that as a team. And, sure, when you think about him going through

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Asia Minor and and launching these things, he is lifting

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up. He is empowering. He is creating

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new furrowed ground so that others can come alongside

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him and do the other pieces. And so I often think of the apostle

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as someone who is is willing to be the tip of the spear,

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who is willing to take sometimes the brunt of the things because it

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It is it is something they see and believe in and they wanna

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create. And I think that one of the beautiful pieces of that apostolic

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ministry is one that A true apostolic ministry

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requires a sense of community. Much of

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these, like like you said, are healthier when they're in community,

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But some of them can be done more so than others

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as individual. I have the ability in this role to

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do more of this. And so When you have an apostolic individual

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within organization that is like a nonprofit, often they're

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gonna be okay with things like Skunk Works, where you're developing new

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ways of creating the change that you're trying to

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to craft. You're okay with the uncertainty because

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What you see drives you forward. Mhmm. Well,

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Care Impact is a case in point. I lead with apostolic

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vision. What you're saying is, like, uh-huh, uh-huh, And always feeling a sense

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of maybe being a little too much for the church because my mind drove

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me outside the walls and, like, what could be done? Systemic injustice,

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Systemic racism, denominational rivalry, and

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and things like that that I'm apostolic minds can tend to

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Notice those things and say, what could we do differently?

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Always pointing back if we're healthy, always pointing back to the cross and

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to To what we are called as followers of Jesus,

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but thinking, our child welfare system, our social

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construct, What would it look like if the church were equipped and

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connected in this area Yep. To do things differently? What would it look

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like What if Yep. We could do

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reconciliation in a way that was equitable, that was

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just honoring To our indigenous brothers and sisters and

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to the lord Absolutely. What could that look like? And so, yeah, we

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we try new things, and we're okay k to be that awkward presence in the

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room, and so I think that will resonate with a lot of people. And and

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one of the fears that I have is that some people will feel that

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urgency, But be conditioned to not say too much because

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that's not being Christian or not being nice to rock the boat and saying what

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if. We need the what ifs, Obviously, to grow in maturity.

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Because if we're not growing in maturity, but we've gotta start somewhere.

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Right? Let that be nurtured and discipled within the church. We gotta

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find people that can can nurture. I I found those people that

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supported me growing up into this what if

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feeling I've always seen something out there. But without that, we

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can be bulldozers. Without that, we can just be impatient

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entrepreneurs and say, Who needs a church? They're too slow to

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just do this and that on our own. No. We do need the the the

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body of Christ. And so it's just that call into relationship

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with others Who might rub you the wrong way, but they may be the people

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that we need. So I would say we need diversity to

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mature us, but we also need to see other people further along

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In our giftings of the apostolic gifting to help nurture that

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and not think that we have 3 heads because sometimes that's what it feels like.

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100%. And I think that that unhealthiness can sometimes be a

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bulldozer that takes out people and lets the

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the dream of the vision of the what if Destroy

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relationships. And and this is where that sense

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of interdependence something I was thinking about earlier.

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I've been talking to somebody about when we collaborate

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with others, whether we agree with them fully or not, There's a sense

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of that mutual submission and interdependency that comes from things.

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An unhealthy apostle will not have that. They will simply

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say, My will be done. I know what's best.

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You're in my way. But a healthy

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apostle is Using that kind of coaching metaphor

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is seeing success through the eyes of those

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walking with them. And their success is as

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important as the end result that you're trying to

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create. Paul could not have been the apostle that

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he was by forcing others to conform

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and bulldozing through them. He could only be APES

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successful as those that he poured into and lifted up as he walked

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this out. And so much of our, I

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think, disciple making, brokenness

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within the North American church comes from a lack of understanding,

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of the apostolic gifting, where within a healthy

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church, The APEST mindset says, I

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see where we are going and where we,

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have Hope towards, and I draw those

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along with me, and we co develop this vision

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together. And we all grow through this In a way that

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simply a a teacher that tells everybody to sit and take notes,

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won't. Or a shepherd whose focus is on everybody being happy and

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safe, Won't. The the apostle says things

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might be rough. They won't be perfect. It won't even be

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a perfect Vision of what things might

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be won't be revealed to us right now. But because we're doing this

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together, because we're coming alongside, where god is

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revealing themselves here in our neighborhood, in our city, in our in our

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context is worth going, and that is something that then they work

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along they bring together, and it's beautiful.

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And they speak courage into a congregation. They speak courage to

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try new things, And we need the apostolic vision amongst us

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to be courageous, to try new things, and for the

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the flourishing of that congregation that they will then in

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Turn, look, and say, wow. We just did that. I would have never thought of

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it, but the apostolic will do that. Hey, prophet. Let let's go

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through the prophetic. What do we mean by the prophetic? I know that word can

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be thrown around in a numerous different ways, but for

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context of understanding this passage, what are we referring to in standing this passage. What

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are we referring to in prophetic? So one of the

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tensions, again, like with the apostle, is that we often think

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of prophet in the sense of someone who has a word from God and

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is they're speaking a revelatory piece of of

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text or language or vision To the people. And that's not always

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true. Often, what prophets did in the

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Old Testament and I think what Paul is very much trying to highlight

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is their ability to speak truth. And so they see truth

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where others might not. They see into a thing and a

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place and a people That sometimes is a direct revelation

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of god like that, where it's like I see, someone

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coming down the road as As a metaphor of of

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what's coming, and this is now going to help us understand what the

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deeper truth of God is. But it's almost always trying to point people back

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to the truth And pointing people back to god. And so that

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truth and understanding of our identity in god

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becomes such a beautiful thing. And, absolutely, god uses

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prophetic revelation throughout church history, throughout the Old Testament

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to draw his people back to himself. But

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sometimes in our current state, we we forget what does it mean to

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be that. So we talk about John the Baptist being one of these great

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prophets And really last prophets

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in the Old Testament style. And so he spoke truth to power

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whether it was to Herod, Whether it was to the Pharisees calling out their

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hypocrisy, he spoke truth to Jesus

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saying, you are The son of man. You are the one who

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I've been calling these people to to look out for. And so

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there's that crazy wild hair with,

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The big shoulders kind of mindset. But I think one

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of the things that's really interesting is when you think about other prophetic,

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expressions were more akin to Anna and how she Mhmm.

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She heard the voice of god. And so this this sense

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of how She was waiting for the truth. She

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was sitting and waiting for the Messiah to come. And

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when she saw Mary and Joseph coming To

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dedicate Jesus at the temple, she knew that to be true,

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and she was able to see past what is sometimes

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our earthly haze. There is a sense of saying,

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god, where are you moving? Where are you showing me

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truth? And, again, when we see this in concert

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With these other giftings, it's how are you revealing yourself to us, god?

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And then the action becomes often through the other giftings. They're good

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learners. Like, they're they're more students Then they are the the teacher

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teaches another gifting. They're all listening to what god is saying and to

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what they're reading can read culture. They can read

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environments, And they're very attuned and sort of point us to

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the true north. I think of it sometimes you know those speeches you think

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of when you're maybe in the shower or Or walking the dog, and it

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just comes out perfectly. Like, I think most people can relate. They're like, oh,

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this is how I'm gonna tell my boss, or this is how I'm gonna Speak

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this thing out, and it just comes out perfectly. What I say about the

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prophetic often is that those with this gift that have honed in on it, They're

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not just thinking it in the shower. They're able to say it in the moment.

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And sometimes we have to bridle that and learn how to do with gentleness and

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tactfulness or whatever, but what we're saying is probably write. We just

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sometimes people aren't ready to hear the truth and can come out sharply, and

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so I'm learning to figure that out. But that prophetic

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voice will cut right to the chase and say that shower speech

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right dead on. And sometimes I get mistaken, like, oh, could you teach this class?

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I'm like, I suck at teaching. I'm just a student telling you what

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I'm thinking. We still need to lean into those other giftings.

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Absolutely. And this is why it's so easy to think about these

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as, as we go through them as a single

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entity. Wendy is x, and that is all

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she is. And I know it's very

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easy to do that. It's binary or or just

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easily compartmentalized. I think that one of the things that

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maybe we could have talked about earlier is the reality of most of us flow

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through these things in different capacities, That's right. Strengths

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throughout our life. And so if you are truly healthy,

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being a prophet that spends time alone with God that listens to heavenly

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father, that is listening to Holy Spirit, that is actively looking for

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the truth in the spaces that you inhabit, You're

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able to then have that shepherding mindset when you come and speak

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that truth. And and we talk about thing speaking truth to power, but it's

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also speaking truth in love And saying, this is what I

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see, and I love you. And sometimes that's hard.

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It's funny. Being obedient to the truth,

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like you said, doesn't always just mean blurting out the truth.

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Obedience in this role and this responsibility is

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saying, god, how best can I bring forward your

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truth and revelation? And I think that that is such an important thing

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because I know that it it it can easily go the inverse

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and become a completely Disruptive in a harmful

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way to the group and actually undo,

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perhaps, what you were attempting to create. That's right.

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Yeah. And it it could be weaponized, any of these in isolation. Sure.

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And we tend to vacillate in certain areas, and

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and I'll put some links in the show notes For people to listen to if

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they're curious about their own giftings. Some of this might be relevant,

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Tori, just through listening. They might like, oh, yeah. I I fall into these

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kind of Areas more often, but you're right.

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We we can have a variety of giftings,

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together. Let's look at the evangelist, briefly. I have

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a mentality of what an evangelist looks like. I think of Billy Graham. I

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think of the the crusades and Zach. And some of it

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adds a little cringe value to, like, oh, no. Lord, please don't give me

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evangelist giftings. But when I look it through scripture,

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it actually has so much More than that. Absolutely. How would

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you give a contemporary version of what an evangelist is or

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somebody with that gifting? So sometimes

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in the business world, they actually have started hiring,

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roles for, like, a brand evangelist. And it's interesting.

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What I find the best way to describe a contemporary evangelist

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would be to think of someone who embodies the

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ethos and the the desires of a concept

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and can't wait and just innately

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exudes that to those around them. Sometimes my

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friends talk about me as, like, a a technology evangelist or or

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even an Apple evangelist, but one of the things that's True about it

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is that I believe in, in the thing that I'm talking about,

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and I do it in a way so that when you and I are talking

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about something going on in your life, It's natural for me

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to talk about how I might come up with a solution because I saw something.

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I heard something. It's embodied in me. Mhmm. And because of

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that, I can be a natural salesman. I can see those kinds of

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things. And when we talk about, like, these these evangelists, like Wendi

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Peter brings these Thousands of people to bear on on

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something. I don't actually think that that's always the best version of what

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we would consider an evangelist. A good friend, Bill Hogg,

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he's working on a project where, actually,

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this month, they're having An evangelist conference here

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in Calgary called, The Message Advance. And one of the

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interesting pieces about it is that you have different people with

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different ways of being an evangelist, but the one

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core thing through all of them is that you can't stop them

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from talking about the good news, And that is what's

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core to them. It it is bubbling over, and

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every conversation somehow, some way Comes back to

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Jesus, and it is beautiful, and it is not

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necessarily for everyone. There are some people who are

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just They APES put in that way that

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because of their passion and their love for the

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individual, for the situation, for the people around them, It it is

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just amazing. And, like, you think about the, street corner evangelist,

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and it's like they're just yelling truth. That is not

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A good, healthy evangelist. That is somebody who wants to tell you everything that that's

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wrong with you. A true, healthy evangelist is saying, I love you,

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and because I love you, You need to know this truth.

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And I got the cure to cancer type of thing. Like, there's just something

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good. And I think the the operative word here is good news and

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Sharing good news. Sometimes we've limited it to fire

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insurance Uh-huh. To I can keep you from hell, can keep you

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from condemnation to good news as being good news

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for all people in all circumstances. Jesus spread good

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news. He operates in all 5, by the way. But Jesus

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shared good news in how he healed the leper, how he spoke to that

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woman That was condemned and how he was just there's

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social good news. There's technical good news. Like,

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there's ways of just bringing Alignment and

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kingdom values to what we do that galvanizes people for the

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flourishing of community, that is good news. And it

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doesn't take away from salvation. It doesn't take away from Christ. It's just like

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Christ is so much more than those 4 points

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on your Zach. It's so much more. It's funny though

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because my mom and I I I used to drive,

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like, thousands of kilometers a month, and I would just call my mom

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sometimes. And as someone who who was raised Catholic

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and then became a charismatic Pentecostal later on in

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life, she really embraced some of that. Like, I

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was raised on thief in the night and kind of like that.

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Like, Premillennial dispensationalism was, like, core to it. She

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was, like, feeding me. Left behind books as soon as they were coming out. But

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there was this this thing about, like, That was the point was that

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I was supposed to go out and tell people about Jesus so they don't go

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to hell. I was supposed to go out and tell people about

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Jesus Because if I didn't, it was their end

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of life. One of the things that I'll say God revealed to me was

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this mindset of, So when Jesus sent out the 72,

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what was the gospel that he was calling

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Them to proclaim what was the good news. What was

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it? Because guess what? He hadn't died yet. It wasn't Jesus has

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died for your Zach, come to heaven. It was

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something different, and this mindset of the good news should be

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the first thing. An acknowledgment of a brokenness of

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creation, a reconciling redemptive god who

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comes into creation to make right what was

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wronged. That was the good news. I have come

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to give life and life more abundantly. Well, that's

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beautiful. And if that was the guy on the the soapbox on the

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street corner yelling at people saying, you are loved.

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Jesus loves you. Guess what? There'd probably be a slightly

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different response to it Yeah. Than you're going to hell, you

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sinner. And I I I just I struggle with that because

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If there isn't love underneath it, the evangelist is just

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unhealthy and broken and is is not actually doing

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a good job at Proclaiming the good news. And it it's like it

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almost becomes like a bait and switch, where it's like, what are you actually

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selling me? Because if it's not the good news of a redemptive

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reconciliation creator coming to Earth to make

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right all of creation and offer us a chance at

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Restoration. Then, really, what is this

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all about? And so, like, that, like, forceful,

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like, Handing out Zach and yelling at people in the face. That

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isn't being an evangelist. Sorry to say that, guys. If you if you turn off

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the podcast now because I've I've offended you. I'm sorry. But I I'm telling

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you, that is not it. And when you think about that value within the

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church, it's saying it's infectious.

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It's saying these are people that cannot stop

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sharing the love of God to everyone around them I want what they have.

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In novel ways. Exactly. That's what brings

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life sometimes into the church is the evangelist. Because it's like, you know

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what? When you're around them, Everything seems a

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little bit brighter because they're just like, have you heard the good news?

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This is amazing, and that's beautiful, I think. I can't wait to

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get into that conversation. I have a wonderful guest that, will

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exemplify this well. Let's move on to shepherd.

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We Think of a a shepherd with sheep, but we also think of a

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pastoral shepherd. God is the good shepherd. But as

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a gifting within the church, we've already alluded to that that That is

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often, the person in care ministries or pastoral

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ministries within the church. Can you give me a little bit of a synopsis

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of of what shepherding could look like today.

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Totally. And in different translations, that that

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title, like, pastor has been, like, Often aligned with

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Shepherd. And so the concept of coming in and being a shepherd within

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a a congregational setting is very different than I

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think what the shepherding ethos is. Those that are drawn

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towards, like you said, care ministries where they're going into nursing

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or going into social work or simply saying, I want to be a

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part of the the health and the

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Sometimes mundane parts of life, they matter

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to those people. They're the ones that set up the meal trains when a

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family is is having a new baby. They they're the ones that are the 1st

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to check-in on you after, a loss of a family member because

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they are content And happy to sit with

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you holding your hand and say, I am with

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you. You're not alone. And so sometimes that, like, that can

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come into, like, encouragements and empathy, but it it really

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embraces that sense of I am with you. And I think

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that when we turn Shepherd into I need to protect

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you from everything in order to make that, like a helicopter parent, It

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can become difficult because I know working in a psychiatric

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hospital, one of the biggest things is that you need to challenge people. You

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need to give them Opportunities for growth, and a healthy

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individual, a healthy shepherd Zach accepting of that and is

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challenging people in the spaces that they are To say, hey. Healthy

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might look like this. Let's go for a walk. You don't wanna get out of

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your house. I'm gonna show up at your house, and we're gonna go for a

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walk. Right. They have this healthy sense of really nurturing and making

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people safe. Yep. Yet, not just being the massage therapist, but they're giving

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them exercises to to work through some of those tensions, to work through their

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anxiety, through those difficulties so that they have agency as

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well rather than just enabling codependent.

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I'm not strong in shepherding, I would be the 1st to admit.

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However, I think this is, appropriate. I just feel A

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call out to women. A lot of women have a

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shepherding pastoral heart that may not feel they have

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office of pastor within their denomination Or on the

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stage, shepherding is so much more than what we have delegated it

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to in a in election process. If you have a shepherding

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heart, a pastoral heart as women, we need you

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because the female pastoral heart Sees things and nurtures in different ways,

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and I don't wanna get too gender stereotypical. Mhmm. But I think sometimes we

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pigeonhole it into a masculine Office

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job of caring and some there's obviously many males that do it

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well, but I feel like we're missing half the church If we're

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we're also not calling that out in people that are already doing it,

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they they just need to live in that and own it. Obviously, with

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humility, but own it as a pastoral. We need these pastoral

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hearts. Well, going back to what we said earlier, This is not

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meant to be a leadership in the sense of I'm a

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staff member. I have a title. I have a an official role.

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These all of these, every single one of these is a gift

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meant to enrich, empower,

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Engage the entire body of God. And and I think

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it's hard when we think about that shepherd in the sense of it's It's

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my job. I'm gonna be the chaplain for this hockey team. I'm

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gonna be this chaplain doing these jobs

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Versus someone who says, no. I'm just I'm

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I'm not mother hen within the church. I want to

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care about you. I noticed you weren't there. I I'm wanting to

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check-in on you. And this is an important part where

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often With the prophetic and the apostolic and the evangelist

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without shepherding mindset either there or someone

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strong in the shepherd, you will Burn people out.

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You will push them away, and you will not

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not care about their current and long term

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health In the same way. And I think that this is one of those things

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that, like we said before, much of the North American

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Western church is Staffed by shepherd teachers.

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Shepherds and teachers. And, oh my goodness, coming out of the the

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pandemic and the need for care, We're gonna go into

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this in that that episode yet, but the need for self care

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beyond just the stereotypical self care, that

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soul care Of a good shepherd. That is so needed. We need to

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uphold these people that are sometimes overused and and

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abused. But Let's go on to teacher, our last one. We're

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running a little long here, but I can't stop us because this is good.

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As far as Teacher, I think it's self explanatory. It's a contemporary

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word we use already, but let's expand our imagination a little bit

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of what do we mean by having that teaching Ability in the

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body of Christ. So one of the things about a teacher is

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somebody that simply sends information,

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one person to another, is not necessarily a teacher. They may

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have the office of teacher, but that doesn't mean that they are gifted in

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teaching. One of the things that's beautiful about the understanding of this in standing of

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this in its in a gifting mindset is that a teacher is someone

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who understands how to convey information

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and expectations in a way that causes the

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individual receiving that information or that expectation to be

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able to act on it, To be able to embody it, to be able to

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take it in. And one of the things that's really interesting is that there are

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websites like rate your professor and and you get to see these

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Amazing professors and and the the world of podcasting,

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again, dating myself. I remember with my 1st iPad

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Listening to podcasts of teachers from across the world

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that were extremely gifted in conveying

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this information. We have the ability to say, like, there

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are some amazingly gifted individuals that we

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have access to around the world that are able to help both take

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complex and difficult topics and make them accessible

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and understandable to the masses. And sometimes

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that puts a lot of pressure on somebody within a local church to say, so

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then what's my job? If I can't be, I don't

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wanna name names. Pick church leader that you listen

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to their podcast. I can't be that, So I'm not

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really that good. It's like, no. Are you in your

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context? Whether you're a Sunday school teacher where you've got 10

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men On a Wednesday night going through some material, do you

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feel empowered and engaged by taking

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in the information and then Bringing it out into a way that

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engages these individuals. And I think that's a really important

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role because a teacher is not just information, it's

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action. And if we want to really go back

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to, healthy disciple making disciples as a

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mindset within our churches, We need teachers who are

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able to say, this is the information in front of us. This is how

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we can can eat it, And this is how we can walk

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it out. Because one of the biggest struggles, I think, has been that

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we have reduced teacher to pulpit ministry

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And listen to me for 45 minutes on a Sunday. And I've

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inoculated you against something, and

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that's all. But, truly, we need our teachers to to

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understand their role within the church as one's taking and

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understanding the Bible, understanding scripture, And being able to bring it

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into a context. One of the the phrases I remember in

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seminary that we used was we were like mother birds at

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times, And we would help preprocess some of this stuff.

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But much in the same way that Paul talks about it, we don't want

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people to stay on milk. We need people to learn how to

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take this and grow. And so as a teacher, sometimes your

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role is saying my role changes over time, or

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I focus on those that are younger in their faith, that are learning about what

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it means to understand their their identity as a follower of the the

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king, And and that is different than someone who is teaching

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university and needs somebody who is gonna be more engaged in a different

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way. And so we need that diversity of both teachers and

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explainers who are able to take that scripture that they

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themselves have processed and and gone through and sat

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in and come into it and say, god,

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where, how, what Do you want me to say

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and do with this? And that, I think, is a beautiful, very

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important part of this because it can easily turn into

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something that is simply Read this and memorize it

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and do a sword drill or or something like that, and that

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isn't truly teaching people anything. It becomes

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a cerebral exercise, and and sometimes that's where we've reduced

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theology into cerebral exercises. And and the teacher at the Front

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knows the Greek or or something some fancy word, and yet if it's not

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disseminated, if it's not something actionable, we we need depth

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of knowledge. But if we can't be brought down to Helping

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transformation, helping that rejuvenation and that

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awakening within the church, we're missing the point. And so I've

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sat under, the Teachings of good teachers,

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and my goodness, do they bring the word of god alive? Do they make

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cultural anthropology alive? Do they make sociology,

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psychology, all these things that we don't have to be afraid of knowledge.

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We just need good teachers from within the body of Christ that are

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centered on Christ To bring it into alignment, what does this

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mean for me as a follower of Christ? We we went through

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a lot, And I feel like there's so much more,

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and there will be so much more in the subsequent episodes. I I'm looking

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forward to hosting new guests, each week,

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And I hope that you can follow with us. Thank you so much, Zach,

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for unpacking a wealth of information, giving us a

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lot to think about. Any last words of wisdom? I'm

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gonna put your your links in the show notes as well as some some links

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to some good resources that people might be interested in. But Any final

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words for you? I would just draw us back to

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Ephesians 4 and and really this understanding of This

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is meant to create I'm reading the NLT right now.

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The responsibility of these gifts is to equip God's people to do

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his work and to build up the church, The body of Christ. And

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if we see each of these as both

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equal and necessary parts of a healthy

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body, We understand then the need to have

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each of these working in unison together. And without

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that, it it is an unhealthy, Broken

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church. And and I'm not just talking institutional. I'm not just talking

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local. I'm talking about the the whole body of Christ becomes unhealthy.

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And I think as we continue to explore this over the the

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coming weeks, I encourage people to to really wrestle with

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How do I engage people that are not like me, that are

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gifted in other ways without it being an adversarial relationship?

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And to allow for disruption and encouragement

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to come from these other gifts. Because as we do that, we

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are So much more healthy. And

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just as the the trinity is an expression of the interdependence

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and and mutual servants Of god themselves,

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I want us to view these kinds of giftings in the same way. As

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each of these serves and lifts up the other, We

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will be a more accurate representation

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of God on earth. And that, my friends,

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is how we are gonna lead differently together.

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Thank you for joining another conversation on Journey with Care,

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where we inspire curious Canadians on their path of faith

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and living life with purpose in community. Journey with Care is an

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initiative of Care Impact, a Canadian charity dedicated to

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connecting and equipping the whole church to journey well in community.

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You can visit their website at CareImpact c a, or visit journey with care

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dot c a to get more information on weekly episodes, journey with

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prayer, and details about our coming events and meetups. You

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can also leave us a message, share your thoughts, and connect with like

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minded individuals who are on their own journeys of faith and Purpose.

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Thank you for sharing this podcast and helping these stories reach the

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community. Together, we can explore ways to journey in a good way,

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and Always remember to stay curious.

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About the Podcast

Journey With Care
Equipping communities and the Church to love neighbours well
The conversations that inspire curious Canadians on their journey of faith and living life on purpose in community. Join us for thought-provoking conversations that inspire you to live a life of purpose and connect with like-minded individuals. Discover actionable insights, practical tools, and inspiring stories from leaders who are shaping the future of faith, business, and community. Together, let's disrupt the status quo and create a world where faith and entrepreneurship intersect. Become part of a community that is passionate about making a difference.
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