Who John Winebrenner was in APEST

If you watched the Nick and Dan's Bible Study Podcast Facebook live session yesterday, you saw their interactive conversation on prophets.

I watched it any interacted briefly.

What I liked most about the Facebook live session was their discussion on the importance of "mutual submission" and their comments about APEST in general.

If I heard correctly, Nick said that he took a well thought of APEST test and scored as Evangelist.

Actually, observing his fruit, I'd already strongly suspected that.

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But, that led me to think about something that I've thought about almost since the Spirit showed me APEST.

Because our body traces its history to the ministry of John Winebrenner, and because who we've become is dependent on who we've been, it's important for us to consider who Winebrenner was in the APEST spectrum.

I'll be happy to discuss this on or off the blog, but I'm convinced that Winebrenner was not an apostle.

In my opinion, and without a doubt, I'm certain that Winebrenner was, primarily, a PROPHET.

Part of that conviction is based on the obvious passion that Winebrenner had for SOCIAL justice (wink wink),...

...or to use the language of Jesus in Matthew 23, "justice, mercy and faithfulness."

I believe that Winebrenner's gifting as a prophet was edged up by a touch of gifting as an evangelist.

I say edged up because one important characteristic of both giftings is that they call for repentance.

Prophets call disciples to repentance. Evangelists call people who do not believe to repent.

On a Facebook discussion, Cindy Warner, who has sometimes commented on my blogs, said to me, "I'm sure John Winebrenner was a very nice man..."

I didn't make the point on Facebook, but I will here.

No, I don't think that John Winebrenner was a nice man. He was a man of love, certainly, and of spiritual passion and zeal and fire. But, nice?

I don't see much evidence of that.  Winebrenner was a prophet-evangelist.

Who we have become today is a response to who we were in our beginnings.

Who we were in the beginning connects significantly to who John Winebrenner was.

Based on what you know, what do you think?