The subtitle reads: How the New Apostolic Reformation Is Shaking Up the Church As We Know It (Regal, 1999). Let’s look into it even at this late date because it is still a primary source and influence on the NAR. And let’s see if we can define the terms apostle and apostolic biblically.

First, Dr. Wagner (d. 2016) was highly educated and trained in church growth principles. He was a missionary to Bolivia for many years with a traditional denomination. He criticizes traditional churches because they are in decline because they are ossified and cannot find their way out of their slow death march. Of course he backs this up with facts and stats. Excellent researchers in the social sciences do.

I give him full credit and respect for his service and heart for God.

Further, this book shows he was a magnificent researcher, well versed in church growth literature. Throughout the book, numbering 268 pages, he deftly draws from books in that discipline and inserts them into his chapters which have multifaceted, complex arguments. There are many block quotations and summaries of the best of the literature. He also draws insights from present-day apostles (as Wagner sees things), like John Kelly and David Cannistraci. Wagner seems to know everyone. “My friend, pastor so-and-so.” They are usually mega-church pastors. “I visited such-and-such churches in these countries around the globe.” They are usually mega-churches.

He exerts a huge effort to defend his thesis that apostles, as he defines them, exist today and without them the church will decline. His methodology was to assess countless numbers of non-traditional churches around the globe, most of which were charismatic, though some were not. How could he describe them? He thought about various names and told us which ones he rejected, but after careful consideration he decided to name them as the subtitle of his book says: the New Apostolic Reformation. He writes:

As I explained in the last chapter, I came to this movement [movements, plural, would be better] as a distinct outsider. I needed a term, though, to describe it because I was organizing a new course on the subject at Fuller Seminary, and courses need names. The name I finally chose was “New Apostolic Reformation.” Will it stick? History will tell. (p. 34).

So he did not start the NAR movement, but he wanted to explain to his readers that he is the one who came up with the name. And then he spends the rest of the book in a strong defense of it.

Not surprisingly, then, the noun “apostle” and adjective “apostolic” appear everywhere and can be applied to just about everyone. Here is a list of church offices or churches or ministers or ministries to which he applies “new apostolic” or “apostolic,” scattered throughout his book:

New apostolic (church) leaders, apostolic leadership, new apostolic churches, new apostolic networks, new apostolic pastors, new apostolic models (sociological models), new apostolic ministries, new apostolic senior pastors, new apostolic training schools or institutes, new apostolic mega-churches, new apostolic perspective about giving (basically the tithe and generosity), new apostolic worship, new apostolic worship leaders.

If we take out “new apostolic” and “apostolic” and leave the terms as-is, we would get more clarity. Or at best, we can swap that term out and insert modifiers like “biblical” or even, if you wish, “charismatic” because those are most of the churches he describes. There would be a lot less confusion in the Body of Christ. But he seems to take it on himself to rename these numerous churches as he sees fit. He seems to be co-opting already existing movements and renaming them with ill-defined and confusing terms. Can one man (and very few others before 1999) do this unilaterally? Will the new label stick? I hope not, for the health of the Body of Christ.

Then he adds this overkill:

New apostolic leaders take their roles as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, as found in Ephesians 4:11, very seriously. (p. 210)

So it looks like every leader can be apostolic, even apostles! Apostolic apostles. I don’t recall that he called home group leaders new apostolic, unless they fit under new apostolic leaders.

Nonetheless, despite his extra enthusiasm for his thesis, he embeds gold nuggets in his book. Here is one example:

Some studies of the most vigorously growing churches have grown precisely because they are full of high quality members. One study done by Win Arn quantified the level of love and care in each one of a significant sample of churches across denominational lines, and found that, by and large, the faster the church was growing the more love and care it exhibited. (p. 13).

Note how he easily references a church growth study (from someone I never even heard of because I’m not in the field, happily), which provided the obvious truth that love and care are essential for church growth.

But the book has more flaws than strong points, even fatal flaws.

First, in the book biblical exegesis is nonexistent or too brief to be seriously considered. I’m convinced that if authors, particularly of the church growth variety like Wagner, would do proper exegesis, we would have a lot less confusion about everyone being apostolic or some other novelty. Sound exegesis will diminish the endless search for innovations and fads.

Second, as just noted, he is looking too hard for innovation and novelty. He writes: “The rule for naming local churches and apostolic networks appears to be infinite creativity!” (p. 46, emphasis original). This is the fatal flaw in the Charismatic Movement at the present time. It is one thing to dim or brighten up the lights on Sunday morning, but endless quests for novelty that outdoes the previous novelty is now becoming ruinous to proper, biblical ministry. American church leaders, especially of the charismatic variety, look for the Next Big Thing, and this relentless search is misguided

Third, he easily dismisses the real meaning of apostle in the NT: missionary (pp. 105-06). Worse, he misdefines apostle. This can be seen when we first look at his definition of missionary, as follows:

The gift of missionary is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to minister whatever spiritual gift they have in a second culture. (p. 106, emphasis original)

I can’t necessarily disagree with it because I have not been a missionary for years (just sixteen months), and it seems benign enough. But in comparison here is how he misdefines apostle:

The gift of apostle is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to assume and exercise general leadership over a number of churches with an extraordinary authority in spiritual matters that is spontaneously recognized and appreciated by those churches. (p. 105)

Pastors and other leaders cannot just form, for example, a network out of already existing churches, and exercise “extraordinary authority” over them and call themselves apostles. But if various churches want to form an association because they share the same doctrine and ministry practices, then it seems best for the leader of the network to just encourage the other leaders in the other churches, but not exercise “extraordinary authority” over the other churches. That latter term is too vague in comparison with what an apostle really is. “Spontaneously recognized” is also too vague because it takes hard work to plant churches in unevangelized regions

So now this question can be asked: who or what are apostles?

At this link here:

Do New Testament Apostles Exist Today?

I concluded that the NT describes only these apostles. I cannot find where the broad definition of modern apostles fit.

Here is a summary list of the kinds of apostles:

1.. Jesus: he is the sent one from heaven and commissioned by the Father. He is the Apostle of his church.

2.. The twelve: they form an exclusive class. They were foundational. They became itinerant, after leaving Jerusalem. They are also called the “apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:14)

After their time in Jerusalem, establishing doctrine and planting the church there, they became missionaries. Even Peter traveled outside Jerusalem to preach the gospel (Acts 9:32-10:48). No doubt other apostles did too, even much like evangelist Philip did (Acts 8:5-13; 26-40), even though their travels were unrecorded in Acts.

3.. Apostles of Christ: Some of them were foundational; Paul, Barnabas, James (Lord’s brother), and Silas?, Andronicus and Junia. They were itinerant, possibly except James

4.. Messengers of the churches: they were sent out by the churches to deliver messages and letters and establish order, under apostles and the sending churches.

The first three are out of reach for anyone today. The fourth one may not appeal to modern apostles because it takes away their “extraordinary authority.” “Apostles” today. must also meet the additional criteria under IV and avoid the bad criteria under VI.C and D, here.

10 Apostleship

Fulfilling these stringent requirements is extraordinarily rare. They must not see themselves as foundational, either.

The one factor that unites all of them is that they were on the move. Even Jesus crisscrossed Israel, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, building his early movement (“The Son of Man has no place to lay his head”; Matt. 8:20). Do apostles today want to be itinerant missionaries and plant churches, living in discomfort and deprivation that comes from an unsettled life? Do they meet the other criteria?

A fatal flaw is the methodology of jumping from the study of Scripture to the title. For example, just because I study and copy King David’s kingship principles does not make me a king of Israel or even literally royal. Just because I study Paul’s apostleship in the epistles and Acts and emulate it does not make me an apostle or apostolic. Studying and implementing numerous leadership principles in Scripture does not confer the literal title king or apostle or governor (Nehemiah), maybe except leader, broadly defined. For apostleship, other factors have to come into play; the main one is actually being a pioneering missionary and church planter in unevangelized areas, just like Paul and Barnabas were, in Acts 13-14.

Then which term should we use to describe networkers and movement leaders exercising general leadership over the movements or networks?

The answer is leaders in Romans 12:8 and 1 Corinthians 12:28.

As to Romans 12 8, BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, defines the term leader as follows (edited to fit this format): (1) “To exercise a position of leadership, rule, direct, be at the head (of)“; (2) “to have an interest in, show concern for, care for, give aid.” The first definition fits v. 8 here. Nearly every translation says leads or leader or leadership. One says administrative ability. Older ones say ruleth or rules. An older one even says sovereign (!).  (Source).

In 1 Corinthians 12:28 the Greek word has been translated as follows: guidance, guides, administrators, administrating, administrations, governors, government, organizers, organizational gifts, managers, and of course leaders and leadership.

Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and 12:28

Gifts of the Spirit in Romans 12:6-8

See this post especially:

Observations on New Apostolic Reformation and Christian Nationalism

Therefore, let’s narrow down and reserve the term apostle only for pioneering missionaries who plant churches in unevangelized regions. Networkers or movement leaders or those who exercise general leadership in organizations or denominations in America or other gospel-saturated regions are not apostles or apostolic. You can pick the terms listed above to apply to these leaders. Not even church planters in evangelized areas are apostles. They are probably pastor-evangelists.

Don’t casually dismiss the two terms Paul offers us and hungrily claim the confusing title of apostle or apostolic.

Maybe the name of the movement or network Dr. Wagner and other promoters are looking for is something like these: the New Leadership Reformation or the New Leadership Revolution. The only problem with this suggestion is that in their books they denigrate these two perfectly biblical gifts as nothing more than managerial, administrative paper shufflers who get in the way of apostles.

To conclude ….

As I have written elsewhere, as I see things, Wagner has gone off the rails because he did not correctly define what an apostle is. Even his excerpted definition swings and misses. Just to be clear, I see his book as sowing and throwing the church into confusion (though Wagner’s book cannot take the sole blame).

At 268 pages, the book was a slog. Yes, Dr. Wagner was a real scholar, an expert in his field (and I won’t question his field going too far right now), an excellent researcher, he and included interesting ideas in his book, but I can in no way recommend it, unless a researcher needs to expose these newfangled apostolic restoration movements.

In my opinion he had no mandate to fish around for innovations and novelties and define apostle and apostolic too broadly. His discernment has proven to be broken when, for example, he appointed Todd Bentley to lead some sort of revival in Lakeland, Florida, and an ill-defined broader movement, back in 2008. Again, no mandate, no wisdom in this book, either. Apostles are popping up everywhere now, and that’s a pity because this deception is spreading and deepening. 

Men and women who call themselves “apostles” or “apostolic” must drop those terms immediately and submit to Scripture. They are not apostles or apostolic, unless they have been missionaries in totally unevangelized areas and planted churches there. The Scriptural definition of those terms is just that narrow.

Repentance and humility to break self-deception and arrogance are needed right now. Publicly renounce those terms immediately, and publicly admit you were wrong! Humble yourselves, now!

I have observed four men of God who stepped outside of their lane and fell. They got too big for their simple calling. Watch out for others like them to fall.

Paul wrote: “We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us …” (2 Cor. 10:13, NIV).

I’ll leave it there.

RELATED

Review of C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Apostles and Prophets’

Review of C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Apostles Today’

Review of Joseph Mattera’s Book ‘The Global Apostolic Movement and the Progress of the Gospel’

Observations on New Apostolic Reformation and Christian Nationalism

Observations on the Early Vineyard Movement

Analyzing the New Apostolic Reformation

Do New Testament Apostles Exist Today? (longer treatment on what a biblical apostle is)

Check Out What Two Genuine Apostles Did and How They Lived (Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13-14)

Yes, Junia Really Was a Female Apostle: A Close Look at Romans 16:7

Don’t Make Excuses for Unsound Christian Leaders

Do New Testament Prophets and Prophecy Exist Today?

New Testament Restricts Authority of Modern Prophets