BOOK REVIEW

by Simon McIntyre
October 2000

CHURCH QUAKE – C. Peter Wagner

How The New Apostolic Reformation Is Shaking Up The
Church As We Know It

CHAPTER ONE. THE WHY OF NEW WINE SKINS.

Wagner states that “New Apostolic Reformation” is the most radical change in the
doing of church since the Protestant Reformation. It is a worldwide phenomenon
and crosses all denominational boundaries. He defines it: “The New Apostolic
Reformation is an extraordinary work of God at the close of the twentieth century,
which is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity
around the world. For almost 500 years Christian churches have largely functioned
within the denominational structures of one kind or another. Particularly in the
1990’s, but with roots going back for almost a century, new forms and operational
procedures began to engage in areas such as local church government, inter-
church relationships, financing, evangelism, missions, prayer, leadership selection
and training, the role of supernatural power, worship and other important aspects
of church life. Some of these changes are being seen within denominations
themselves, but for the most part they are taking the form of loosely structured
apostolic networks. In virtually every region of the world, these new apostolic
churches constitute the fastest growing segment of Christianity.”

A dysfunctionalism has set into the historic church structures, and their
effectiveness is evidenced by rapid numeric decline. From a worldwide
perspective three positive things have happened that caught Wagner’s attention.
First is the independent African churches that are experiencing staggering growth
– so much so it is considered that south of the Sahara the population is 50%

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Christian. Second is the massive growth of the Chinese church via house groups –
up to 100 million active Christians. Third is the growth of the South American
churches that have grown largely with indigenous leadership in place. Many
large influential churches populate South America.

The decades of the 1950’s to the 1990’s was the era of the Pentecostal church,
regarding growth. This has stopped essentially and now the real growth is coming
from the New Apostolic churches. Some of these are traditional Pentecostal, but
many are Pentecostal in practise.

Many are looking at leaving their older denominations so they can link in with like
spirited networks of churches and leaders. Lyle Schaller comments. “In the first five
or six decades of the twentieth century, the initiators and the key players were
denominations and denominational officials. During the last two decades of this
century, that has shifted to pastors and congregational leaders with an especially
visible role for the senior pastors of large congregations.”

Much of the rest of the chapter is given to looking at the factors that have
caused and perpetuated decline in the denominational structures of the historic
churches. Wagner cites these as: denial, liberalism, tolerance (re beliefs and
lifestyle), aversion to evangelism, suspicion of growth, and distrust in strong
leadership.

CHAPTER TWO. PROTESTANTISM’S NEW LOOK

“The radical change in the sixteenth century was largely theological. The current
reformation is not so much a reformation of faith, but a reformation of practice. A
major difference was that the sixteenth century reformation came in reaction to a
corrupt and apostate church. This current reformation is not so much against
corruption and apostasy as it is against irrelevance.” Wagner admits that this
wasn’t at first easily seen as they were looking for a renewed church rather than a
new way of doing church altogether.

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Three things identify these new churches. They seem to more closely approximate
New Testament Christianity, than do many of the traditional churches, in structure
and practice. They prioritise reaching the unchurched, and they believe in the
role and present function of apostles/apostolic ministry. This last identification is in
Wagner’s words, “the most radical.”

He lists “nine salient characteristics of the New Apostolic reformation.

1. New Name.
2. New Authority Structure.
3. New Leadership Training.
4. New Ministry Focus.
5. New Worship Style.
6. New Prayer Forms.
7. New Financing.
8. New Outreach.
9. New Power Priorities.

George Hunter lists, “ten features of apostolic congregations.”

1. Strong Biblical Content.
2. Earnest in Prayer.
3. Compassion for the Lost.
4. Obedience to the Great Commission.
5. Vision for what People can Become.
6. Cultural Adaptation to the Target Population.
7. Small Groups.
8. Strong Lay Ministries.
9. Every Member and Every Seeker Receives Regular Pastoral Care – from a
Lay Person.
10. Many Ministries to the Unchurched.

CHAPTER THREE. CHURCHES DRIVEN BY VISION AND VALUES

Traditional church leaders tend to be heritage focussed and therefore past

looking, whereas new apostolic leaders are future oriented - visionary. The only

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denomination that has been able to renew itself is the Australian Assemblies of
God, according to Wagner’s research.

There is a tremendous variety in the new networks of churches, each one

expressing its own DNA. Interesting Wagner quotes Tony Campolo, himself an
advocate of denominationalism, saying in response to his own admittance
(Campolo’s) of the decline in most all the major protestant denominations in
America, “Too much diversity within any denomination paralyses its growth and
development.”

Wagner sees five non-negotiables of value in these movements/churches.

1. Theology has absolute norms. It is a fact that strict churches grow better
than lenient ones. “Those who are serious about their faith do not confuse it
with other beliefs/loyalties/practices, or mingle them together
indiscriminately, or pretend they are alike, of equal merit, or mutually
compatible if they are not.” In some circles the issue of heresy has
disappeared because of the relativising of the faith. The Bible is true and
normative, Jesus is absolute Lord, and heaven and hell are real destinations
– the one to be gained the other spurned. From a moral perspective life
begins at conception, homosexuality is a sin as are extramarital
relationships. “New paradigm churches are high demand institutions,
however relaxed and contemporary their music and organizational
structure may appear.”
2. Ecclesiology looks outward. When churches no longer believe in hell there
is no compelling reason to look outside their own doors.
3. Eschatology is optimistic. This is a visionary eschatology that sees the
advance of the kingdom of God, and the fact that spiritual victories are on
the rise. Schuller is quoted as saying, “don’t let eschatology stifle your long
term thinking.”
4. Organization emerges from personal relationships. Relationships are more
central to the organizing process than control and top heavy/top down
organizations. This is some way also reflects the post-modern era. “The best
way to spend time, most new apostolic leaders will agree, is in building
relationships.”

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 5. Leaders can be trusted. This is one of the most radical moves in Wagner’s
mind. Individuals are invested with authority, not committees. “As any new
apostolic leader will tell you, suspicion and distrust feed the status-quo; trust
and empowerment shape the future.”

CHAPTER FOUR. THE PASTOR LEADS THE CHURCH

In the American church Wagner estimates 90% of the pastors are employees of
the church. It seems the kind of church government this reflects puts more trust in
a committee than in an individual. The new churches require a high level of trust
in their leaders. The traditional leader is called by the church, paid to do the
ministry, unlikely to stay long, and subjected to performance reviews.

No so the leaders of new apostolic churches. They are characterised by:

1. The pastor casts the vision. Frank Damazio describes them. “He can fire
the imagination and create a sense of dedication for a vision which
motivates followers into effective, meaningful service. He guards the
identity and direction of the congregation, clarifying and emphasizing
purpose. The visionary is a spiritual pacesetter. The visionary develops
strategies for implementing the mission of the church and constantly
generates momentum to achieve goals.”
2. Pastors major in leadership and minor in management. In early days they
may have to do both but with growth the leader soon shifts away from the
burden, to them, of administration/management.
3. Pastors make top drawer policy decisions and delegate the rest. In other
words democracy has little place in these churches. In fact it can be
argued that cultural democratic imposition has been a contributing factor
to the decline of denominations. Pastors of larger churches don’t know
everything that is going on in their churches – they don’t need to, as their
job isn’t about control, it is about leading and vision.
4. Pastors build a solid, competent management team. George Barna says of
historic political and revolutionary leaders something applicable to the
leaders of new churches. “These leaders invariably surround themselves
with a small cadre of intensely loyal. Zealous, capable, driven peers who

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 form a tightly knit leadership team. Much of the revolutionary activity is
delegated to and conceived by members of that team. Through verbal
skill, emotional resonance, and strategic effort, revolutionary leaders
blatantly defy that which contradicts their own doctrine, exhorting others to
follow suit.”
5. Pastors are called for life. In some of the new apostolic churches the
founding pastors are “pastors for life”, meaning they have a say in the
church for life, even if they aren’t doing the day to day leading, and that
they will receive a wage until they die. One of the implications of long
tenure in one place is the growing sense of spiritual authority in the church
and community granted to that leader. ‘The principle is that serving as
pastor for life carries with it a strong territorial commitment, which is
accompanied by awesome new levels of spiritual authority.” These
churches are also, often, accompanied by husband and wife ordination
and involvement. Except for the Salvation Army, more couples are in joint
ministry in the new apostolic churches than any other denomination.
6. Pastors choose their successors. This has often been a father to son
arrangement, but not exclusively.

One observation that Wagner makes about these leaders is that they tend to be
much more task/vision oriented than people oriented. These are called sodality
leaders as compared with modality leaders that tend to have a higher people
orientation in them.

These pastors are also unlikely to take too much into account from people who
wish to disagree or dissent. They will often suggest there is bound to be a church
somewhere more to their liking – please feel free to leave.

Accountability concerns Wagner. These leaders aren’t directly accountable to

their people, and even though they say they are accountable to their co-
leaders/elders this rarely works out in practice. He concluded they are
accountable to other apostolic figures that they are in relationship with (their
network for instance). These leaders are keenly aware of their need to be in an
accountable relation and in some cases structures are created to facilitate this.

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But for all the safe guards “pastoral accountability stands of falls on personal
relationships, not legal decrees.” Wagner seems to conclude that risk is always
going to be around when strong leadership is practiced, but the upside of the
church moving forward far outweighs the occasional leadership problem – such
as dictatorial imposition etc, that reasonable autonomy can produce.

CHAPTER FIVE. FIVE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS ABOUT APOSTOLIC MINISTRY

In this chapter Wagner discusses the validity of the apostolic ministry, and its
applicability to the church today. He repeats his assertion that “the most radical
difference between what I am calling new apostolic Christianity and traditional
Christianity revolves around the amount of authority the Holy Spirit is perceived to
delegate to individuals as opposed to groups such as boards or committees.”

He contends that apostles are very much alive and necessary for the growth and
health of the church, and that the rejection of apostles and prophets “does not
derive from biblical exegesis, but rather from entrenched ecclesiastical traditions.”
Wagner holds to the reformation being a kick-start to the church realigning itself
with New Testament life and ministry over the proceeding centuries to the point
today where God has largely restored truth to the church. But he also realises that
the centuries of church history recognises apostles although they may not have
been titled as such.

Apostles are charismatic leaders that have their ministry validated by fruit. They
are parental towards other ministers and have influence.

However in describing the idea of an apostle Wagner doesn’t clearly state that
they are church planters by nature, or that they are senders of church planters.
This may reflect the fact that he lives in America where churches who send and
plant hasn’t been the norm, amongst even the Pentecostals. His description of
apostle is usually in the context of a person who has a number of churches that
relate to him via networks, rather than being descriptive of a church planter per
se. (Chuck Smith of Calvary Churches, and John Wimber and Vineyard may be

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an exception to this rule). The fierce individualism of American Christianity may
account for this; churches are more likely to build one large church, than grow as
well as send. The apostles he talks of seem to be men who have linked with other
independent churches and/or churches dissatisfied with their denominational ties
to create networks of relationships.

CHAPTER SIX. THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF APOSTOLIC NETWORKS

These new networks are proliferating at a staggering rate – two to three are being
formed each day in Africa, alone. They are defined as churches that “voluntarily
decide to affiliate with the network”. Words used to describe the nature of these
churches and networks are “autonomous, voluntary, relationships,
interdependence, and apostolic oversight”. One of the most common means of
connection is through pre-existing friendships; there is a minimum of legal and
financial control imposed, and the purpose of the networks is to serve and
encourage individual churches/congregations.

Wagner asks the question, “Do apostolic networks become denominations?” Max
Weber, the sociologist, terms the problem of new groups becoming institutional
and administrational as “the routinization of charisma”. In other words, for a group
to survive beyond the passing of the charismatic leadership that spawned it the
group must inevitably become more institutional and team/committee led. In the
American AOG a crossroads is apparent. The emphasis “on ‘magical charisma’
supported by the prophetic leaders to priestly or more routinized forms” is all too
evident as is the stagnation of growth and vitality.

However Wagner doesn’t believe this process observed and commented on by

most sociologists is always inevitable in the church, provided some steps are
taken. “Routinisation of charismatic authority in the post modern religious world
appears in this instance as an ongoing, developmental option which the
movement can elect not to pursue rather than an inevitable, post charismatic
crisis survival response which, if it wishes to be successful, it must inevitably make.”

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In his prescription for preserving vitality Wagner suggests:
1. Keep a ceiling on the number of churches in each network. It was seen in
one church group in America that when the number of 70 churches in a
district was reached the growth rate tended to decrease. This is due to the
limitations any one apostolic overseer is capable of. It was for this reason
that John Wimber formalised membership in the Vineyard churches early
on – relationship alone wasn’t enough to sustain vitality, as he could
personally only relate to a finite number of church leaders. But if an
apostolic team can be developed more than 70 churches in an effective
network becomes viable. One of the prerequisites for keeping in touch is to
personally visit the churches regularly, and, “An apostolic network that has
a highly efficient administrative staff, which has developed a well-oiled
communications system throughout the network, can be larger than the
one that leans more toward the chaotic side”.
2. Constantly cultivate new charisma. Chuck Smith cultivates charisma
through the means of the mega churches in his movement. He
acknowledges the leaders of bigger churches and allows them to develop
their own smaller networks that may include ministry training schools and
different styles etc. One perceived problem with this has been the
increasing difficulty to discern the issue of genuine accountability as this
form of diversity proliferates.
3. Multiply apostolic networks. Wagner reasons that as children grow up in
your home, taking all the resources energy etc that they do, sooner or later
you have to let them go. He sees this is one way to avoid the routinisation
of charisma – start new smaller networks.

The renewal movement that hit the churches in the 60’s thru 70’s hasn’t renewed
the denominations that most of the renewed Christians stayed in, to change.
Wagner can only cite one instance where this actually happened – the Australian
Assemblies of God. They were a traditional wineskin by the 1970’s. David
Cartledge commented, “Most conferences from 1937 to 1977 were characterized
by adding rules, changing the constitution, and eroding the autonomy of the
churches”. As the renewal hit the churches its leaders went into overdrive to
prevent the new measures being employed, especially the new worship styles that

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came from New Zealand. The big change came when in 1977 the conference
heard voices demanding apostolic ministries lead them, and that these people
should comprise the National Executive of the Australian AOG. From that time
they have grown from 150 churches to over 800. The new leaders have been
mainly the leaders of larger churches. They have allowed the creation of
movements within a Movement, and to this point this has only contributed to the
overall growth of the Movement – far from being a negative move.

CHAPTER SEVEN. PLUGGED IN WORSHIP

“New apostolic worship is wired and inspired.” It is electric, contemporary and

spiritual. A church growth expert stated that 8 in 10 churches are stagnant or in
decline because their meetings are culturally irrelevant.

There is no music form that is superior to another according to the advocates of

the new churches. But many of the denominational music directors are horrified
by what they consider the loss of genuine musical artistry and spirituality. An
American pastor recorded these objections about contemporary worship. “There
are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it is often worldly, even
blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established
style. Because there are so many new songs you can’t learn them all. It puts too
much emphasis on instrumental music rather than on godly lyrics. This new music
creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The
proceeding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scene and
some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.” He was referring to no
other than Isaac Watts in the 18th Century. Little changes when it comes to
change.

Whereas once people went to church because of its denominational affiliation,

doctrine and location, they are now going where the action is and where their
needs are being met. Once church was about performance more than
participation. It seems that being there was enough to express your faith. Hymns
have given way to songs/choruses. And with change so evident the style of music

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will more rapidly change than ever before. Wagner suggests that the traditional
music performer in church life often rivals his/her love for music with their love for
God, as they are more given to pure performance than much of the worship
leaders of new apostolic churches – therefore their criticism’s are invalid.

The cultural background of many of the Protestant denominations is European,

where “Christian faith is understood as an intellectual assent based on God’s
faithfulness, rather than an emotional feeling of security or well being enhanced
by the presence of God”. Times have changed, as have people’s responses and
needs. These days in the new churches silence, generally, isn’t golden – it tends to
make people uncomfortable because great swaths of silence etc don’t surround
their lives. Worship has bodily attitude, clapping is common, and the meetings are
characterised by flow – some are better at it than others. A sense of planning is
highly valued as is the intrusion of the spontaneous. Meetings are more mission
oriented than meditational. This is obvious in both the seeker sensitive churches as
well as the worship centred ones. Wagner doesn’t hold to the conviction that
seekers and worship don’t mix. But he also wonders if the reason some people go
to the seeker sensitive style of church is due to their secular orientation, and little
previous sensitivity to anything supernatural. Others that go to worship style
charismatic churches he deems may have had connections with the occult,
supernatural, New Age etc prior to their conversion.

CHAPTER EIGHT. OUTREACH IN OVERDRIVE

New Apostolic churches have the desire to grow and the will to do so.
Outreach is intentional and takes the following pattern: expand the local
church, plant new churches, mercy ministry, and cross cultural missions.

This chapter has many examples of Wagner’s points. These alone make the entire
text worth reading. In one example he cites the case of a church in Thailand
where the criteria of a genuine Christian life is personal participation in at least
one church plant in their life.

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Rick Warren, of Saddleback fame, believes anything healthy grows of its own
accord. “If a church is not growing, it is dying”.

“The new paradigm arising from the more apostolically inclined denominational
churches is that the congregation initiates outreach rather than supporting
denominationally initiated programs”.

Pragmatism is the modus operandi for the new churches. This is something that
constantly catches the ire of denominational executives, believing pragmatism to
be too crude and worldly to be of any value expanding the kingdom of God.
“New apostolic church leaders constantly seek ways to update and contextualise
their outreach ministries”. The goal of a transformed life is high on the agenda of
these leaders, rather than conversion to a set of cultural values.
In America the ways of doing new church life are via the medium of seeker driven
churches that revolve their public ministry around the felt needs of the
unchurched, seeker sensitive churches that modify the former by eliminating from
church life anything they know will turn the unchurched off, and the power
oriented churches that believe the presence of God and the evidence of the
supernatural will over come most objections. The seeker sensitive churches are
growing as are the power oriented churches, but outside of the USA, “a large
majority of growing churches are of the power oriented philosophy of ministry, far
from being ‘seeker driven’”.

Church planting is the most effective means of evangelism. ‘Research shows that
young churches grow faster than old churches and that small churches grow
faster than large churches. That is why multiplying new churches is such a
dynamic growth principle”.

One area of concern among the new American churches is that quite a lot of
their growth is from transfer. Three church groups were looked at and the
following results were the result: Calvary Chapel had 44% conversion growth, Hope
Chapel had 39% conversion growth, and Vineyard showed only 18% conversion
growth.

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How do the new churches start? They normally come from an existing and
sending church. The church planter and team are usually from the home church.
The senior pastor normally commissions the new church planter/plant. Relocation
of the church planter and his/her family is normative, as is the relocation of any
team members sent as well. Bible studies begin in the home before buildings are
rented, and when and if the church grows significantly they purchase their own
property/buildings. Regardless of the form of official connection to the
mother/sending church the new pastor remains in close connection with the
senior minister/apostle. Training tends to be on the job, rather than prior
seminary/academic training.

In China young people (late teens to early twenties) are purchasing one-way
tickets to destinations on their hearts and planting churches - on the average
between 3 and 6 months after their arrival. Due to this the gospel is spreading very
fast, and thousands of churches are being planted.
Mercy ministries characterise many of the new apostolic churches. “I am referring
to the deeply ingrained desire on the part of new apostolic church leaders to
reach out with compassion to the poor, the needy, the homeless and the
oppressed of their communities”. Wagner believes the single greatest factor of the
decline experienced by the mainline denominations was prioritising the cultural
mandate of the gospel over the evangelistic mandate. However, and having
said that, he maintains that preaching the gospel must also include social action
and acts of kindness.

The new churches believe mankinds deepest problems are due to human
selfishness, and because of this they doubt lasting change can ever be affected
by more social agencies and change. Real change is only ever possible when
people cease to serve self and begin to serve God. But this does not stop or
invalid help to the poor (of whatever hue, their poverty). One writer believes that
real kindness is the prerogative of God whereas humans can be nice to each
other. “The bible seems to distinguish between the divine quality of kindness and
the human quality of niceness. In short, if kindness originates in the heart of God,
then only Christians have the ability to be kind in the biblical sense of the word”.
Wimber argues that social justice, not to be confused with the social gospel of the

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twentieth century, isn’t another gospel but is the direct result of the influence of
forgiveness and love upon us – we simply want to help and bless others. This is
better called social service – not social action. New apostolic church leaders
don’t normally promote or involve their churches in politically motivated
demonstrations, etc.

Sooner or later the new churches involve themselves in some form of cross cultural
mission work. Today however Third World countries do most of the missionary
sending. In these places there is less bureaucratic structure, more trust in
individuals as opposed to boards, experience which is on the run and not
particularly theoretical, and it costs much less per missionary.

CHAPTER NINE. MULTIPLYING MINISTERS

Everything tends to rise and fall on leadership or the lack thereof. In the new
apostolic churches the training is happening more and more outside of the
context of formal training institutions, and in churches and especially the larger
ones who have the resources. The empowerment of believers is high on the
agenda in these new churches.

Wagner notes that, “The apostolic theology of lay ministry is a fairly recent
discovery in church history – namely, a discovery of the last 25 or 30 years. We do
not find this in Martin Luther or John Calvin or John Wesley or other classic
theologians, either Protestant or Catholic.”

For the traditional denominations to make any progress they will have to see the
pastors give up their ministry and the laypeople give up their leadership, so that
the pastor can lead and the people can learn to minister.

One of the best ways to describe a modern pastoral model is to use the word
coach to describe the role of the pastor.

“The two major structures for organizing lay ministry … are ministry teams and small
groups.

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Church staff is usually, but not exclusively, homegrown. The advantages of this are
many: They already agree with the vision of the church and pastor, they are loyal
to the leader, they are conversant with the philosophy of ministry in their particular
locale, and they are normally proven in their sphere of gifting and fruitfulness. All
the groundwork has been accomplished before they ever assume a staff position.
Ordination in these cases has more to do with character and gifting than
academic achievement. Much of the training of these staff members is on the
job – after ordination and not before. “Apprenticeship has been a chief form of
training pastors in Third World churches for some time, and it is now gaining much
more of a place in the Western world”.

Wagner spends some time discussing the role and problems of formal seminaries.
He identifies seven “tombstone markers” common to them.
1. Their curriculum is 80% theory and 20% practice. They place more
importance upon academic achievement than on ministry skills.
2. Academic one-upmanship is normal, as is political correctness, which has
opened the door to liberalism. Many seminaries are now seen as places to
discuss religion rather than places to raise ministers/leaders.
3. Academic tenure sees people in place that have long lost their relevance.
4. Rarely have seminary faculty been pastors themselves and almost none of
them have been successful pastors. They often retreat to their institutions
after failure in the local church, as they are more inclined to be
theoreticians.
5. Seminaries are accountable to licensing bodies, not the churches
themselves. “Notice that accrediting associations have never developed a
way of testing member schools for effectiveness in ministry in their
graduates”.
6. The nature of the academic world is to produce a critical mindset in the
student. Skepticism is valued over belief, losing is valued over wining,
pessimism is valued over optimism, and complexity is valued over simplicity.
7. These schools are becoming too expensive for the average person.

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In the new apostolic churches the training is returning to the domain of the local
church. Wagner suggests ways to ensure that the above listed problems are
circumvented. Degrees are an option rather than a necessity, although he isn’t
suggesting that people shouldn’t be encouraged to study. Those that teach tend
to be visionary practioneers rather than historians and critics. The courses taught
are broad ranging and include a lot of practical church life teaching and
leadership skills. If history is taught it is often the history of revivals. There is a
flexibility that fits in with people’s busy life styles re hours of college, e.g. Thursday
and Friday evenings and Saturdays. The accountability is to local church needs
and other churches of the same apostolic networks. Many of the graduates of
these colleges are expected to get involved in leadership – at various levels.

“Interestingly enough, academic and scholarly achievement is not ordinarily a

characteristic of leaders in general. I recall reading a survey that indicated that
most leaders of Fortune 500 corporations were B and C students in college”.

CHAPTER TEN. MONEY? NO PROBLEM

The giving patterns in new apostolic churches are considerably higher, and
especially when it comes to honoraria.

Patterns in denominational churches have been increasingly getting less and less.
In1968 members were giving 3.14% of their income, and in 1993 this had dropped
to 2.52%. One of the biggest loses is in missions giving, where it is common for
traditional churches to have seen 40% less available for missions.

Wagner gives numerous examples of the giving patterns in the new churches and
quotes John Osteen, “The church is a good investment of your money”. He
teaches that generous givers normally rise on the economic scale.

Wagner lists four axioms of giving in the new apostolic churches.

1. Giving is Expected. The first 10% goes to the ministry of the local church.
These people display regular church attendance, confession of sin,

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 faithfulness in marriage, prayer, and they tithe. Stewardship is taught as a
life style and not an occasional event. Preaching a series on money is
more beneficial than the occasional stab at the subject. The pastors model
generous giving and in many cases the congregations are aware of this
fact. Without doing it they are reticent to teach on it, as it impinges on
integrity.
2. Giving is Profitable. “The primary motive for giving is to obey the will of the
Lord. Once we agree to do that, God comes back with some rather
astounding promises”. Whilst Wagner takes some exception to the
excesses of prosperity theology where people displayed opulence in a
rather garish manner, he acknowledges the debt owed to the church by
great faith teaching, and he wisely comments, “Going to extremes while
re-emphasising a half-forgotten Christian truth is not unusual”. Prosperity to
Wagner is having more than merely enough. He considers having just
enough as a veiled form of selfishness. In churches where reciprocity with
God is taught there is also a much higher level of giving.
3. Giving Responds to Vision. “The traditional denominational funding crisis
related directly to the matter of vision or lack of it”. Wagner comments that
democratic church government is a dysfunctional form of leadership and
stops aggressive growth, and this is obvious when money is in the picture.
Robert Schuller is quoted, “In order to raise money, you have to have a
bold vision. It has to be dramatic and exciting. No one has a money
problem – only an idea problem”. Pastors should know who their main
givers are and give them attention. Parachurch groups give this to their
donors, and very successfully.
4. Giving is Cheerful. Testimonies of financial blessing and provision are used
as inspiration to giving. Offerings should be a joyful part of our worship
experience.

Simon McIntyre Oct, 2000

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