Apostleship: Spiritual Gifts Definitions, Scriptures, and Ways to Serve

[If you have not already done so, please take a moment now to take this free spiritual gifts assessment. Once you have your results, come back to this and the corresponding 22 blog posts for a detailed description of each of the gifts, focusing on your own as well as becoming familiar with all of them so you can spot and call them out in others.]

 

Apostleship

Those with gifts of Apostleship introduce new ministries to the church. These are people who blaze new trails, pioneer new endeavors, and step out into uncharted territory. They may have a great desire to reach out to unreached peoples, to establish a new ministry, and to spread the vision of the mission of the church.

 

Scriptures that reference Apostleship or show someone exhibiting this gift: Ephesians 4;Acts of the Apostles; Romans 1; 1 Timothy 2 (Paul);1 Corinthians 12; Colossians 1; 2 Peter 1 (Peter).

 

Questions on the assessment that pertain to Apostleship:

  • I have been successful in starting new ministries.

  • When I see a need in the church or community, I envision how to create a ministry to meet the need.

  • I have been told I exhibit an entrepreneurial capacity.

 

Some words that describe people with this gift:

  • Starter

  • Entrepreneur

  • Pioneer

  • Culturally sensitive

  • Adventurous

  • Risk-taker

 

Potential negatives to this gift:

  • May get bored easily with existing ministries/programs.

  • May always be advocating change and innovation without recognizing people’s capacity for change or spotting change exhaustion.

  • Vision may conflict with that of other key leaders in the organization.

 

Some possible ways to serve using this gift:

  • Short-term missionary

  • Long-term missionary

  • Planter of new church ministries

  • Planter of new churches

  • Starter of new community outreach/non-profit organization

  • Involvement wherever there is a need for a new ministry or a new approach to ministry

  • Vision committee

  • Strategic planning committee

  • Early adopter of new ideas

 

Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with hundreds of faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for four decades. She currently serves as Catalyst for Equipping and overseer of Local Missions at her church.

 

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis.

All rights reserved.

 


 

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