What are the characteristics of an apostolic people? What are the foundational values that characterize the apostolic church?
* One heart and one mind
The unity we hear so much about is found in a people who are of one heart and mind. To be “apostolic” is to desire unity. The purpose of unity is to have personal intimacy with the Father and to bring that intimacy to bear in every relationship within the corporate interaction of believers. It is from the outflow of this intimacy among the brethren that we will show the world the love of the Father for the Son and the Son’s love for the Father. Our goal in the unity of the faith is the maturity of the church, for which the Father purposes to display His goodness in the earth.
* Humility, teachableness and submission
These values of personal conduct exemplify the heart and nature of the spirit of our Father and His Son, the Lord, Jesus. As we receive Him and the work of the Holy Spirit among us, we are enabled to live our lives in the same way He lived, to represent His Father accurately in the earth. Without these qualities, we cannot be an apostolic people. Without them, there can be no real unity, no true visitation of the Holy Spirit and no growth in grace and maturity.
* Heart to heart relationships
In the traditional church, relationship is mostly one of convenience. The relationship is convenient as long as it serves personal agenda, but when it no longer meets those criteria, it is discarded easily. Apostolic Christianity beckons us to give ourselves to relationships based on faithfulness and loyalty to one another, a relationship of the heart. We give our lives not only to serve one another but for one another.
* Honor for spiritual fathers & mothers
An apostolic people honors their spiritual father and mothers because they know this is the way of God to establish and receive life and blessings which God has purposed for His sons. The ability to give proper honor to those the Father has sent into our lives to give us oversight is a genuine trademark of maturity. In apostolic community, the mutual honoring of one another establishes a culture of peace and joy in the experience of this life we live.
* Accountability, transparency, openness, and honesty
Accountability is found in real relationship. Transparency is released in the reality of real relationship. This is the place of trust in and for one another. The love that always trusts can only be experienced in apostolic community, where issues that tend to divide us are worked through and our hearts are at rest because we have come to accept one another as family. An apostolic people do not pursue private and personal agendas at the expense of others, but they are honest about themselves and their motives and they live for the good of all.
* Love for one another
Believers and non-believers recognized the apostolic church in the first century as being a people of devoted love for one another. They were committed to fulfilling the law of Christ, to love one another as He loved them. Those who opposed the church were grieved by this love, and yet, this love was the foundation for the power that was evident in the lives of those in the church. They turned the world upside down in one generation by walking in this love. This is the need and the call for today’s church, to be an apostolic people who are known for their selfless love for one another.
* Laying down lives for others
In loving one another as Christ loves us, the spirit of an apostolic people is exemplified in the sacrifice of our life for that of our brothers and sisters. This is the love that emanates from our hearts toward one another in that we count the life of another as more important than our own and worthy of our sacrifice. This is the heart of an apostolic people.
* Not a democracy, but a community
Democracy has never been the government of the church. The apostolic church is meant to find and display community. An apostolic people functions within the confines of relationship, by its people knowing and trusting one another deeply, not through the politics of who has the most numbers or the greatest influence. In community, it is not the majority opinion that counts but it is the Holy Spirit among us bringing peace to our hearts that guides us. The voice of one can bring direction, correction, and instruction and all whose hearts are right with one another sense and inner witness to the truth. Leaders who are gifted by the Father to carry the responsibility for understanding the heart of the people and the mind of the Holy Spirit, no matter through whom it is being expressed.
* Rights, but no rights
An apostolic people must give up their rights. If we are not prepared to do this, we are not walking in the way of our Lord, Jesus. The Father honored Him because He gave us His rights and trusted Him instead. We are called to be like Him in spirit and purpose with one another. We are called to look after the interests of one another as we would our own interests. We are instructed to have the same values as Christ when He made Himself of no reputation and did not choose equality with God as something to hold onto, but He humbled Himself to become a servant to others. An apostolic people does not demand its rights, but trusts in the covering of the Holy Spirit and seeks to be servants of all. We are a people who must be content with nothing, knowing that our Father will exalt us in His way and in His time.