It was published by BILD International, 2022. I also glance at his 2014 self-published booklet An Anthology of Essays on Apostolic Leadership, published by createspace.com, and at the website US Coalition of Apostolic Leaders (USCAL), which he modified from C. Pater Wagner’s International Coalition of Apostles.
At the time of this post, Dr. Mattera does not tell us where he got his doctorate on his About page at his website, but see here. The foreword by Jeff Reed says that Dr. Mattera got a doctorate at BILD International (which Reed heads), and this book is his dissertation.
Let’s begin.
Nontraditional Review
His 2022 book is thirteen chapters long, at 325 pages, not counting the short bibliography and the endnotes, which make it go on to 371 pages.
After about Chapter Three, each subsequent chapter contains list after list after list, adding up to many chapters with long lists, except for passages of prose to introduce the lists or explaining each point in the numerous lists.
Some lists even have sublists under the points. The book also has long sections of lists about figures in church history with short writeups, and even a long contrast list of Hebrew thought v. Greek thought. Why have such a list in a book about apostles?
Since the items in each list are so numerous, I imagine that even the harshest cessationist critic could find something to agree with (e.g. a Christ “central” or centered ecclesiology).
The lists at least show he did his homework and studied various models or movements for what a church should or should not look like.
Further, the takeover (or leadership) of the church by apostolic leaders is the thesis of the book, as seen in the title. With apostles or apostolic leaders taking the lead, the gospel can progress. The restoration of the church can happen, and then the world will be reached with the gospel.
Let’s leave aside the countless mechanical errors, like irregular capitalization, sometimes from one paragraph to the next (e.g. Apostolic Revolution / Apostolic revolution), the confusion over it’s / its, cessationist / sessationist confusion (once, on p. 321), and the endnotes being in shambles. Also, he does not offer enough signal phrases to introduce a long block quotation, (e.g. “Dr. Wagner writes:”), so the reader has to sort things out in his unusual endnotes.
Happily, in his self-published booklet An Anthology of Essays on Apostolic Leadership, the errors here in his 2022 book have disappeared. Maybe the editor was better at createspace.com, than at BILD international.
In contrast, Dr. C. Peter Wagner, an excellent church growth historian and social science researcher, at least provides his readers with streamlined books, which were much easier to read, though I disagree with the premise of his books, too.
And so Dr. Mattera’s bulky book could have used a major paring down and thorough editing. It is surprising that it passed as a dissertation, per my experience with writing one at a university in the University of California system (see it here, which was turned into a book here). I’m not even clear the graduate divisions, not to mention the committee of professors, would accept a dissertation with so many lists. For sure they would have sent it back for revisions. Maybe BILD International is not set up to demand higher standards for its doctoral dissertations. Let’s move on
Next, the book is not a traditional dissertation-turned-book, which normally has a central thesis with focused evidence to back it up. In place of this tradition, the latter chapters are an unwieldy compendium of his thoughts about countless subjects like ecclesiology and models and the qualities of apostles (taken from the virtue list in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 for elders) and long compare-and-contrast lists of such things as a church led by an apostle or an apostolic leader and a church led by a pastor and elders, who must take a back seat, so that all churches can be led by apostles or apostolic leaders. Apostles or apostolic leaders must rise up and lead the church!
Dr. Mattera tries to soften the jarring noun apostle as a title in front of names (e.g. Apostle Wagner) and instead counsels the apostolic revolutionaries to just use the softer adjective apostolic. The reason is that he sees it as a function and not an office. This is slightly better than Wagner’s heavy-handed push of the noun, but the change is still confusing because the noun appears everywhere in his unwieldy book.
Ironically, though, the Greek NT actually uses the noun and never the adjective, though the NIV translates Acts 1:25 with the adjective (apostolic), even though the Greek word is a noun. But then the promoters of the apostolic movement(s) are not known to be exegetes, as I have come to find out. If they were, maybe they would rein in their sweeping innovations and novel definitions, or so I would hope.
So even his corrective is not biblical! This happens when one promotes a movement that is not built on and tied to the NT and proper exegesis.
I was hard pressed to find Dr. Mattera’s succinct and summary definitions of his key terms, outside of the glossary, so I had to look for them at the website he started, USCAL website, under definitions.
Here are some terms:
APOSTOLIC: To be apostolic is to be gifted by God for apostolic ministry, whether the title is used or not. It can also be used to describe a person who aligns with the apostolic gift and embraces the present functioning of all Five-fold equipping gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-12. For instance, there are apostolic prophets, apostolic evangelists, apostolic pastors and apostolic teachers. All these gifts developed under apostolic influence in the New Testament starting on the Day of Pentecost which made them apostolic in their function. Paul said, “If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord (I Corinthians 9:2).”
In reply, I cannot find in the NT that the other ministries like evangelist or pastor are apostolic. Where is the apostolic influence of the ministry gifts to earn the title apostolic pastor or apostolic teacher? It appears Dr. Mattera is making things up as he goes along.
APOSTOLIC LEADER: An Apostolic Leader is a builder and influencer, manifesting apostolic grace, whose mission is tonations. God is a King who has chosen to expand His Kingdom on earth as a colony of heaven. Individual Christians are its citizens and the local churches are its representation. Jesus said at His ascension, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name (knowledge, understanding and life) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded (placed within) you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The definition is too vague. What are “tonations”? Everyone on social platforms nowadays claims to be an influencer. And his idea about Christ the King expanding his kingdom, and the quotation of the Great Commission–who can disagree with this? However, an evangelist or pastor or elder or Christian youtuber can fit the first half of his definition. So I still have no clarity about an apostolic leader. Once again, he seems to make things up in his definitions.
In his much-clearer 2014 book, which also has many lists, he spells out these twelve kinds of apostles he has observed: (1) the connecting apostle, (2) the truth apostle, (3) the prophetic apostle, (4) the military apostle, (5) the cultural apostle, (6) the signs and wonders apostles, (7) the community apostle, (8) the missiological apostle, (9) the shepherding apostle, (10) the entrepreneurial apostle, (11) the statesman apostle, (12) the intercessory apostle.
Some of those points Wagner had already come up with, but Mattera’s 2014 book has no endnotes or footnotes or bibliography to credit Wagner. I’m not sure what to say about that, so let’s move on.
In any case, note the epistemology: these kinds of apostles are based on his observations; that is, the list does not come from his exegesis of the NT, which would not support those complicated, open-ended subdivisions. The NT would not even support putting apostolic in front of the nouns and omitting the term apostle. As usual, the NT itself is wisely streamlined. I get the impression that he and other promoters of restoring apostles to their rightful place are making things up as they go along. Observations and imagination and visions are too shaky for a global movement. With those broad job descriptions, who would not qualify to be an apostle or apostolic?
But maybe that’s the point of the apostolic revolutions. Just about anyone with good Christian qualities can be apostolic. And that’s why men (and women) are now claiming the title. They get to have super-charged authority over segments of the body.
I will argue below that Paul uses two Greek verbs in their participle forms (presumably to denote action) to describe leaders in the church. Just remove the term apostle in the twelve-item list and replace it with leader, and things work out much better, without complications or stretching the term apostle or apostolic to include almost everyone. The term leader is much broader, by definition, yet even his definition of this ministry at USCAL is too vague (here).
In his 2022 book, he also summarizes and quotes long passages from others who promote the apostolic movement(s) (e.g. David Cartledge of Australia and John Kelly and Jeff Reed, none of whom I know). If Dr. Mattera’s summaries are accurate (and I don’t doubt that they are), then it is clear to me that they too suffer from the same fatal flaw: apostles and apostolic leaders are defined too broadly. Too many novel complications. As noted, no wonder apostles are now popping up everywhere. They give themselves permission to become an apostle or apostolic.
To conclude this section …..
Since Dr. Mattera’s 2022 book is so sprawling and bulky, lacking clear organization and a central thesis that he sticks with, I could not really review it in a traditional sense. But here is my sense of the book in a nutshell: it consists of countless and needless complications and overwrought descriptions via lists.
Let me also offer another impression. The book is very short on NT exegesis, as noted, and long on novelties and innovations, so rampant in the American church nowadays from “visionary” and “hopes-and-dreams” leaders, who are also popping up everywhere. American church leaders, especially of the charismatic variety, look for the Next Big Thing, and this constant search is misguided
The fatal flaw in all apostolic movements today is that the promoters define the ministry gift of apostle or apostolic so broadly that just about anyone with good character and some leadership abilities can become one. Sometimes the promoters actively recruit them too.
I see all of this as a danger to the church. The rapid growth of the number of apostles and apostolic leaders sows confusion and deception and self-promotion, because the promoters do not do sound exegesis and therefore do not base their definitions on the strict and narrow biblical view of apostle and apostolic. (Let’s run with the adjective, even though the Greek NT does not have it.) Maybe if they did proper exegesis, they would have to renounce their apostleship or the adjective (I would hope).
Another 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, which I define narrowly (and biblically), 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.
Biblical Definition of Apostle
So now let me define apostles more biblically, as I see things. Most of this section comes from my long article, here:
Do New Testament Apostles Exist Today?
At that link there are other NT qualifications of apostleship, like doing signs and wonders and seeing the risen Jesus and receiving a commission from him or receiving a commission from the Spirit. Also, a few times an apostle is just a messenger or representative in the Greek NT. But would these new apostles accept this title? It seems so common. There is no extraordinary authority or unusual authority or exceptional authority (terms that are rampant in the apostolic restoration movement/s). But let’s keep things simple for this review and focus on the core NT definition of apostleship, as follows.
The definition is limited to pioneering missionaries who plant churches in unevangelized areas, just like Paul and Barnabas did in Acts 13-14. Only on that basis can a person begin to be called an apostle. Only then, just as we see in Paul’s letters, especially 1 and 2 Corinthians, can an apostle begin to exercise authority without lording it over people (Matt. 20:25-28).
Therefore, if you want to see apostles in action, just read about Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13-14. They went into unreached areas.
Check Out What Two Genuine Apostles Did and How They Lived: Close Look at Acts 13-14
There are 3.2 billion people who have never heard the gospel. Plant churches in those areas, and then come back and claim your title.
Further, at the same link here:
Do New Testament Apostles Exist Today?
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:
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?
In Paul’s day, super-apostles were claiming they had authority, while he was supposed to take a back seat to them (1 Cor. 3:10; 2 Cor. 11:5, 13; 12:11). Let’s hope that today’s apostles or apostolic leaders are not becoming like these super-apostles by setting up their own authority outside of being a missionary church planter in unevangelized areas!
In reply to the super-apostles, Paul said that he may not have been an apostle to other churches, but he was surely an apostle to the Corinthians, in whose city he was the first to plant a church (v. 2; cf. Acts 18:1-18a). Therefore, 1 Corinthians 9:2 teaches that this requirement of being an apostle is to be a church planter by breaking brand new territory and is necessary for today, at a minimum (Rom. 15:20). And so in today’s churches, missionaries might be able to claim to have the “apostle” title on some level, but they better be pioneering missionaries.
Worst of all, today’s apostles or apostolic leaders are setting themselves up without a commission from the Lord or the Spirit and without reading Scripture more carefully. If they were to read it more carefully, they would deny the titles (or so I hope). “I’m not qualified. I’ll just be a pastor.” Or “I’ll just be a teaching elder.” Instead the apostolic revolutionaries of the movement(s) major in complications–complicated novelties and innovations.
Moreover, missionary-apostles are often thought of as “garbage” and “scum” (1 Cor. 4:13), probably because they disrupt the religious status quo. Paul and Barnabas disrupted Judaism and paganism. Think of a Christian today going to a Japanese city, where the gospel is unknown and Shintoism is dominant. Think of areas in India where Hinduism is widespread, but Christ is unknown. Consider Africa, where satanic witches lord it over people, where Christianity is unknown. Even “peaceful” Buddhists sometimes attack Christians. In those extreme circumstances missionary-apostles could (wrongly) be called scum or garbage. Do men (or women) who call themselves apostles today in America, evidently so they can lord it over churches or enjoy extra status, want to be considered garbage and scum? Do they really want to go through the same itinerant lifestyle as Paul and Barnabas did? Suffer persecution as they did?
Dr. Mattera and other claimants to the titles apostles and apostolic promote networks of churches and movements. If anyone leads them, then he is ipso facto an apostolic leader. I say no.
But if a movement or network or denominational head is not apostolic, then which term should we use to describe him?
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.
And so 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 Drs. Mattera and Wagner (and others) are looking for is something like these: the New Leadership Reformation or the New Leadership Revolution or the Global Leadership Movement (but not Global Apostolic Movement. Drop the term apostolic altogether.)
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.
One other important area of restriction. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus we have a prolonged job description of church governance, particularly in 1 Timothy 3 and 5 and Titus 1-2. In no place in the pastoral epistles do we read that visiting apostles led the church. Paul was the church planter-apostle in Ephesus, so as their apostle he oversaw the church, but he did not instruct Timothy to appoint more apostles in his absence. He was to appoint elders of the highest character. And the elder who works hard at preaching and teaching is singled out.to receive double honor (1Tim. 5:17).
Moreover, in Acts 20:17-38 Paul summoned the leaders of Ephesus. Did he call for any apostle? No, he asked the elders to meet him southward, along the Aegean Sea, in the city of Miletus. Also, overseers (= elders) and deacons governed (that is, served) the church at Philippi (Phil. 1:1). Paul commissioned Titus to complete what was left unfinished and appoint elders (not apostles) in every town on Crete (Titus 1:5-9). And he commissioned Timothy to do the same in Ephesus, including male and female deacons (1 Timothy 3:1-13).
Those biblical facts deny Dr. Mattera’s (and Dr. Wagner’s) thesis that pastors and elders must take a back seat and watch apostles or apostolic leaders take the lead. The pastoral epistles and Acts and other epistles say no.
Conclusion
After reviewing Dr. Wagner’s three books and now Dr. Mattera’s two books and USCAL, I believe they made things up as they went along, particularly their extremely broad definition of apostle or apostolic leader. They made things way too complicated and without deep and healthy roots in the NT. Their exegetical skills are lacking in favor of innovative and novel ways to interpret the NT or worse–to go beyond what the NT teaches.
I conclude that they do not have a mandate from God to push the New Apostolic Reformation or other apostolic revolutions onto the global church. The NAR and the other labels do not come from God, but from the minds of innovative men, big dreamers and visionaries (terms that are found throughout these new apostolic movements). They’re looking for yet another new thing, a novelty, the latest fad and trend. Of course, the movement leaders would say their motives are to be helpful and clarifying, and maybe so, but I say novelties are a major (and dangerous) obsession in American Christianity today.
Therefore, I urge anyone who claims the functional or official title apostle or apostolic to drop the terms immediately, unless he can prove he has been an actual missionary who planted churches in unevangelized areas, like Paul and Barnabas did in Acts 13-14 and can meet the other criteria listed here (under Roman numeral IV):
Do New Testament Apostles Exist Today?.
Self-denial is mature and humble, and so is following Scripture more carefully. Choose the way of humility and listen to Scripture.
To repeat, biblically the title apostle does exist today, but it is limited to missionary and pioneering endeavors in unreached areas or mere messengers or couriers.
Bottom line:
Apostles = Pioneering missionaries who plant churches in unevangelized areas and meet the other criteria.
Therefore, if anyone belongs to the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders or the US Coalition of Apostolic Leaders and does not fit the strict NT definition of apostle, he must unsubscribe immediately. Leave the newfangled dot orgs. Leave 5f (five-fold) churches.
I have observed four men of God who stepped outside of their ministry lane and fell. They got too big for their simple calling. Watch out for others like them to fall, who claim the title of apostle or apostolic leader.
Every time I pray about the new apostolic movement(s) and the restoration of apostles or apostolic leaders, I have this reaction, which I take to be the Spirit: stay away from it. Not of God. No mandate. Wrong. Warning!
Dr. Wagner’s three books and Dr. Mattera’s two have only confirmed my convictions. Now I firmly say no to their needless complications and substandard or absent biblical exegesis. No to their movements and novelties.
In no way can I recommend Dr. Mattera’s book, unless researchers need it to expose these trendy apostolic restoration movements. I hope the movements never take off in the global church more than they already have, wherever they may be found. I hope the movements die off.
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.
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