Authority, Accountability and the Apostolic Movement

I don't know if I'm going to attempt to write a book review, but few books have come into my hands in the last few years that have made me want to get other people to read it. I might be better off just jotting down a few notes and saving them for a potential podcast discussion, rather than trying to pen a few thoughts knowing I won't do justice to the material covered. But when I read a few reviews about this book by Dr. Stephen Crosby stating it would cause 'uproar' and 'explosion' in the modern charismatic and apostolic movements, I thought it was just melodramatic hype trying to sell the book.

I was wrong, this book is very solid Scripturally, very powerful, very relevant in many circles I'm acquainted with, and just plain liberating to hear someone say what many of us are thinking, but yet not writing off the 'apostolic' and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I got my hands on it from a woman in my church fellowship who were searching for Biblical answers in the aftermath of our recent horrific church split last August. She had stumbled across a chapter of this book online, it made an impact on her so she bought it. Then she and her husband bought boxes of it, in the hopes of being able to give a copy to every person, couple or family on both sides of our church split, since the very issues that precipitated that falling out were over apostleship and church government. I had little desire to read it since I had to read a good half dozen like it in Bible school, but since it was being offered for free, and I appreciated that this couple wanted to sow this into all of us, I decided to give it a read.

Boy am I glad I did. It was refreshing.

Wherever you're at in your local fellowship or denominational roles, or even opinions on the subject, this book will be a valuable study on what the Scriptures say, and the roles of the modern day 'apostle', 'prophet', and 'elders' within the modern Body of Christ, in contrast to what their intended roles are as stated in Scripture.

One thing I knew before going into this book is that despite what we'd all like to think about our own ideals of how we do church, and maybe our own denominational stances are--the Scriptures still don't give a blueprint in the Bible on how church structure and government should be handled. We merely have principles. Yet, there seems to be no bigger cause of church splits than this very issue. I have to admit, that after the last 6 months I've grown sick of hearing the word apostle, but now I've been forced to admit--I'm just sick of the abuse of the concept, not the actual concept. I of course see Scripturally the idea of modern apostles and prophets. I just don't see much of what passes as those things in the contemporary church as actually genuinely being Biblical or what Scripture is teaching.

It's like in the Body of Christ, not just charismatics, we latch onto a concept, and it may be biblical. In fact, we get an understanding restored, and in the midst of seeking to restore something to Christianity, we fill the void with whatever comes along purporting to be that. Such is what I think of modern day apostles and prophets. I'm not against them being for today, I'm just against most of the ones that call themselves those titles when they're really not. We've filled the vacuum with substitutes in a desperate attempt to get those things back in their place in our church structure, and it's caused untold damage in the process.

That being said, Crosby seems to have a lot of the same concerns as I do, but speaks with more authority, experience and insight than I have a right to speak from which makes me refer his book to you. That's about all I will say in my recommendation of reading it. If I decide to write more about this book and subject, it will probably be on Fire On Your Head where this subject seems to keep coming up.

Blessings!