Apostolic vs Pastoral Church Modeling

From Kris Vallotton:

"The truth is, a pastorate form of government is not designed to transform cities. It is developed to attract people, to create a culture where flocks gather to get healthy and happy. Pastorates are, to some degree, irrelevant to their city's culture because their governmental structures are built to congregate, not to deploy. This principle is evident when you look at American cities statistically. Demographically, the U.S. cities that have the greatest Christian, church-going population density also have some of the worst social statistics in our country (with the exception of a few cities). In other words, the cities that have the highest crime rates, the most divorces, the greatest amount of abortions per capita, the highest levels of poverty and the poorest health statistics ALSO have the best church attendance. What we need to understand is that gathering believers for two hours on Sunday morning is NOT synonymous with cultural transformation! Pastorates are simply culturally ineffective by design"

"Apostleships, on the other hand, are developed around the principle of training, equipping, and deploying the saints to radically alter society. The primary message of apostleships is that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and their main strategy is to demonstrate the raw power of God in the darkest places on the planet. The apostolic government, like Ezekiel's river, creates a supernatural atmosphere that affects everything it touches, from the fish (people) in the river to the trees (nations and states) along its banks. Wherever the river flows, things get healed, become fresh and are supernaturally productive (producing fruit every month instead of one season a year). This river is the perfect metaphor for the emerging apostolic age"

(Heavy Rain by Kris Vallotton, pages 68,69)

From Jeffrey Stewart
Jeffrey Stewart

That explains why the megachurches are largely ineffective at changing their cities- which is a real shame. If Houston can remain largely unchanged even though there is a church with 43,500 members such as Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, th...at is very sad. Imagine the difference if - rather than those 43,500 meeting once or twice a week to come hear sermons - instead, if each of those 43,500 were equipped to minister and move in the Holy Spirit and sent out into the city, the whole city would be saved in a short time, Houston's high crime rate, high abortion rates, and high poverty rates would greatly diminish. Instead, those thousands come to hear a man speak a message, they minister TO EACH OTHER, and leave. The fact that the megachurches HAVE SO LITTLE IMPACT on their home cities is glaring proof that the pastoral model is a complete failure to change the world.