Pragmatically, there is an evident need for the continuation of many of the functions of the original apostles. This would include church planting, laying good foundations in churches, continuing to oversee those churches, appointing leaders, and handling difficult questions that may arise from those churches. There are really only three ways for churches to carry out these functions:
- Each church is free to act independently and to seek God's mind for its own government and pastoral wisdom, without any help from outside...
- Churches operate under some sort of structured and formal oversight, as in many denominations today, where local church leaders are appointed by and accountable to regional leadership, whether 'bishops', 'superintendents', or 'overseers'. It is hard to justify this model from the pages of the new Testament, though we recognize that bit developed very early in church history...
- We aim to imitate the New Testament practice of traveling ministries of apostles and prophets, with apostles having their own spheres of responsibility as a result of having planted and laid the foundations in the churches they oversee. Such ministries continue the connection with local churches as a result of fatherly relationships and not denominational election or appointment, recognizing that there will need to be new charismatically gifted and friendship-based relationships continuing into later generations...
I believe that a strong case can be made for apostolic ministry continuing today, while also recognizing the unique role of the original apostles who witnessed the resurrection, and while thoroughly submitting to the truth revealed in the pages of the New Testament and seeing that truth as God's final revelation. There is surely more support in the pages of the New Testament for the relational oversight of churches than for denominational structures, and it seems to me preferable to use the Ephesians 4 terminology of the fivefold ministries equipping the churches, rather than to resort to Episcopal designations or their equivalents in other denominations.
David Devenish, Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission (p31-34)
