Turns out, there is a coalition of apostles.

ICA is currently the largest professional society of apostles known with nearly 500 apostles as active members who pay dues, attend an annual meeting, connect with each other, and provide mutual support and accountability.

And, they have a definition...

An apostle is a Christian leader gifted, taught, and commissioned by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the church within an assigned sphere of ministry by hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches and by setting things in order accordingly for the extension of the kingdom of God.

And, we are in a new era:

The Second Apostolic Age began roughly in 2001, heralding the most radical change in the way of doing church at least since the Protestant Reformation. This New Apostolic Reformation embraces the largest segment of non-Catholic Christianity worldwide, and the fastest growing.

Hmm...

Regardless of whether you will be joining the coalition any time soon, there is an increasing interest in the subject of apostles and apostolic ministry.

Skye Jethani has written a good article here. In it he points to a middle-ground perspective. "The middle-ground viewpoint acknowledges there is a difference between being gifted as an apostle (little "a") and possessing the authority of an Apostle (capital "A")." Alan Hirsch writes in the same issue here, and argues that the apostolic ministry is a missional, "initiating" work. "[Apostles] ensure that the faith is transmitted from one context to another and from one generation to the next. They are always thinking about the future, bridging barriers, establishing the church in new contexts, developing leaders, networking trans-locally." (Alan and I have talked at length about the subject and Alan even posts an apostolic job description here.)

Skye and Alan are not from the Pentecostal, Charismatic, or Third-Wave traditions where the term and emphasis is more common. (Skye is Christian and Missionary Alliance and Alan is part of the Restoration Movement.)

Those from the Pentecostal / Charismatic traditions tend to see the roles as a bit different than described by Alan and Skye, though often not the same as the "coalition" view described above.

Adrian Warnock writes extensively on the subject on his blog, reflecting on a recent conference, Together on a Mission.

One of the links is his video interview with me where I indicate my belief in two church offices--and I see apostolic as a function and not an office.

Some want to have a more apostolic function (or even office) in the missional conversation. Alan may represent the non-charismatic version. For a more Charismatic view, Dave Harvey, of Sovereign Grace Ministries, evaluated the "missional" movement with a criticism that, "Missional Churches Tend to Have an Insufficient Understanding of Apostolic Ministry."

In Breaking the Missional Code, we wrote about apostolic ministry after explaining several missional shifts:

These [ten] shifts [to missional thinking] are both helpful and challenging. They challenge the church and leaders to be apostolic. By "apostolic," we are not speaking of the authority, power, or oversight of the first-century apostles. That office has passed away. However, the meaning of the a word apostolic is best defined as one who is "authoritatively sent." We are sent to proclaim the gospel from Christ, who, before giving the Great Commission, began by reminding his listeners, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been give to me. Therefore go . . . ." Jesus authoritatively sends us to proclaim the gospel and reach people in the name of Christ, not to lord it over in new structures of church life. Some claiming "apostolic" focus on their authority, but our focus is on Christ's authoritative commands to go and transform the world for the gospel--in our church, community, and culture.

Thus, these shifts are forcing the church to focus more sharply on its apostolic mandate. We are rediscovering that to be a biblical church means to be missionally engaged . . . and those shifts help us to think biblically and missionally in our world.

Three questions come to mind:
What is apostolic?
What is an apostle?
How can the church regain an apostolic focus?

I would love to get your input...