Radical Change And The New Apostolic Reformation

"Are you ready for radical change?" C. Peter Wagner began his talk on the new apostolic reformation. "This is the most radical change on how we do church since the Protestant reformation," Wagner continues.
C. Peter Wagner, despite his ordination as a Congregationalist, has become an observer and chronicler of the recent moves of the Holy Spirit in both the charismatic renewal and now the "new apostolic reformation"(Wagner's own term). Wagner, having been a professor of church growth for almost 30 years, had his interest piqued when he discovered that this movement was the fastest growing movement on six continents. He believes this is due to their exercising the power principles and missiology found in the book of Acts. David Barrett, a statistician, has also noted this fantastic growth stating, "Of the five megablocks of Christianity 'neoapostolic' is the only megablock growing faster than Islam."
In a recent alumni meeting of the Dove Christian Fellowship Church Planting School, Wagner outlined four major changes taking place in the church today. They are as follows:
1) The church is moving from denominational government to apostolic government. We must remember donominationalism is only a little over 200 years old. Denominationalism was born in America the same time democracy was being born. (Before that we had state churches, and before that we had the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.) Denominations have a philosophy that says never trust an individual, always trust a group. The church is moving from strict controls to more flexibility and networking. We're moving from democracy to trusting an individual.
2) The church is moving from internal reform to apostolic renewal. Since 1960, almost every denomination has had a "charismatic renewal." The charismatic renewal peaked in 1977 in Kansas City. Today the second generation renewal leaders are finding themselves stonewalled by denominations that welcomed their predecessors. The result is that many are pulling out of those denominations and forming apostolic networks (new wineskins for what God is doing).
3) The church is moving from church vision (let's build our denomination or megachurch) to kingdom vision. The new apostolic churches are much less exclusive than say the Baptist Church. There is none of that "you don't baptize the way I do, so I can't associate with you" kind of attitude. The apostolic churches bless everybody that preaches the name of Jesus and will work across denominational lines with anybody to reach their communities for Christ.
4) The apostolic church is moving from expansion of the church to the transformation of society. It begins by winning souls, planting churches, taking care of the poor and needy, and ends by transforming society one soul at a time. The apostolic church is less pessimistic than the traditional church. They believe things can change. They live with their eye on the future. Wagner notes, "The Kingdom of God can't overthrow the Kingdom of the World until its government is in place."
The new apostolic reformation reminds me of the birth of the Evangelical Association. At that time, our structure was more of a network. We were bound together much like the apostolic church, not by doctrine or tradition, but by shared experiences and a passion to reach our (at that time German) communities for Christ. To find out more about the new apostolic reformation you must read Churchquake by C. Peter Wagner. It is a clarion call to individual churches and denominations to wake up. Though he is pessimistic about the future of denominations, he does speak of individual churches within denominations and a whole denomination in Australia that have moved and are moving into the apostolic. One final caveat the new apostolic reformation is not exclusively charismatic, though in the United States, it maybe 80 percent charismatic.