© 5 August 2016 Revive Israel Ministries

Introduction to Apostolic Ministry Teams

Asher Intrater

The idea of the restoration of apostolic ministry teams around the world raises a certain degree of controversy; and even more so Messianic apostolic ministry here in Israel.  Consider a few thoughts in approaching the topic:

1. NT Churches – 100% of the churches mentioned in the New Covenant were connected to an apostolic team. What about today?
2. Jerusalem – 100% of those apostolic networks were connected to the Messianic Jewish community in Israel and Jerusalem. Why?
3. Kingdom – The apostles in general, and particularly in Israel, maintained the vision for the coming kingdom of God on earth, with its capital in Jerusalem.  Without that connection, the churches would have had only a vision for the “Ecclesia” itself, without a clear understanding of the Second Coming and Millennial Kingdom.
4. Warfare – There is intense spiritual warfare connected with Messianic apostolic restoration.  The context of Paul's description of spiritual warfare in II Corinthians 10:5 is the general controversy about his apostolic ministry, covering four entire chapters, II Corinthians 10 through 13.
5. Authority – One of the underlying issues is spiritual authority. It might be easier to have congregations with no eldership at all, just a kind of egalitarian fellowship.  However scriptures clearly describe the role of elders.  Along the same line of reasoning it might be easier to have just pastor-led congregations with no involvement of apostolic or prophetic ministry. Most congregations in the world are that way today. 
6. Teamwork – In order to have teamwork, there must be awareness of different roles for different types of leaders.  The scriptures describe at least 5 functions: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher (Ephesians 4:11).  If everyone tries to be a pastor, there will be competition and division; the pastor will have to fulfill all 5 of the functions himself; and will be tired, lonely and frustrated.  
7. Action – Most of the "action" of ministry in the New Covenant came out of apostolic teams: first of Yeshua and His twelve in the gospels; then of Peter and the first congregation in Jerusalem; then of Paul and his church-planting team.  Yeshua is Himself the chief apostle (Hebrews 3:1) and the first one to start an apostolic team (Luke 6:13).

Cody Archer

A core value we seek to walk in as a team is, “people before projects.” The health and spiritual character growth of our team members comes before our work, our ministry projects. This emphasis can slow down the professional development side of our work, but in the end when we stand before Yeshua, the condition of our heart will be much more important than the projects we worked on. In adopting this approach, we are not afraid to give the time needed for someone to begin learning and doing work in an area with no prior experience. This is precisely what has happened in the birthing of our media team.

In 2011 our international media department did not exist. After repeated requests from Christians from around the world who wanted to have access to our team's teachings online, Liat (my wife) took it upon herself to go to media school for two years to learn how to film and edit. Around the same time Andrew took it upon himself to begin learning how to code and work with websites in order to help us update our out of date website. Anja also began developing teams of translators for our weekly email update. Each of them had no prior experience, but we gave them time and space to develop these areas.

In 2012, through Liat and Andrew's efforts we opened our own YouTube channel and Facebook page and began inconsistently posting the little bit of content we had. In 2014 Cody began overseeing the weekly email update and our social media pages. In 2015 we tasked Cody with directing all of our media work with Jakob assisting him. Since Cody, Liat, Andrew, Anja and Jakob have begun working together as a media team we have seen incredible growth in them as individuals and in their work.

Since 2013 our email update has grown in popularity and is being translated into 16 languages each week. Over 2,800 have subscribed to our YouTube page with our videos now having 300,000 views. Last week we passed 7,400 followers on our Facebook page. Our website is translated in five languages and is about to receive a major update this summer which we have been working on for a number of months. We are pushing forward with our live web-stream capabilities and so much more. All of this growth has come with a small budget and minimal equipment.

OUR VISION: Is to prepare the global church to stand steadfast with Israel in the end times.

OUR MISSION is twofold:
1) to make the most of modern technology to get our teachings in the hands of the global church and its leaders on critical subjects as they pertain to the relationship between Israel, the church and the end times.

2) to develop and nurture a global online community built upon loving personal relationships, mutual partnership and support, volunteer work and intercessory prayer.

Our vision, strategy and experience is growing with these media platforms. We want to invite you to take part in this story. Would you partner monthly with us to expand our ability to reach the emerging generation through our ongoing media work? To give, click HERE!

In this message Asher Intrater shares a message at Baruch HaShem Messianic congregation in Dallas, Texas about seeing ourselves as one connected spiritual family around the world and about the spiritual inheritance we have when we come together. To watch in English, click HERE!

Recently Cody Archer & Andrew Ben Arii were interviewed on the "Rise & Shine" radio program on KKMS from the Twin Cities, Minnesota about how they came to be a part of the Revive Israel team and about what they see God doing today in Israel. To listen, click HERE!