A Critical Study of the Newfrontiers Apostolic Network and the Impact of the Transfer of Leadership on Structure, Unity and Mission

Abstract

Newfrontiers is a modern apostolic network of churches. It not only has its origin in and developed from the apostolic gift of Terry Virgo, but also grew rapidly into an international movement based on Virgo’s apostolic ministry and an ‘apostolic team’ of Ephesians 4:11 ministries he had established. As Virgo approached his later years, the international apostolic network faced the question of apostolic succession. A decision was made to release several new apostolic spheres under new apostolic leadership. This amounted to the multiplication of the erstwhile single apostolic sphere into several apostolic spheres rather than simply replacing Virgo with one apostle and maintaining Newfrontiers as a single apostolic sphere. The latter has been the approach of the modern apostolic network known as New Covenant Ministries International, which has led to that movement splintering into several independent apostolic spheres. Newfrontiers has expressed the hope that the Newfrontiers spheres will remain relationally and organically connected as a movement in order to avoid becoming a bureaucratically formalised organisation. The aim of the study is to analyse Newfrontiers’ transition and the factors that had an impact on Newfrontiers’ transition. It compares the dynamics of Newfrontiers’ transition with biblical teaching on apostolic succession in the Pastoral Epistles and applies Peppler’s Christocentric principle to the Gospel of Matthew. Bridges’ theories on how to manage leadership transitions in organisations are used to further evaluate Newfrontiers’ leadership transition, whether the transition conformed to Bridges’ principles of best practice. Together, these methods form the lenses through which the impact of Newfrontiers’ leadership transition on the mission, unity and structure of the movement is evaluated. The study concludes that the multiplication of Newfrontiers into several new spheres is indeed in accordance with the leadership teachings of the Pastoral Epistles and Peppler’s Christocentric principle. It shows that Newfrontiers could have done better if it had a specific transition plan in place for the period of transition from the old situation to the new. The question of whether women can be apostles and elders is also raised, together with how the lack of female engagement in the process at the highest decision-making level may have affected it. Finally, there is also the question of whether Newfrontiers’ sense of theological and

ecclesiological certainty, its call to pioneer the restoration of the church to its New Testament glory, and the movement’s male bias might produce a movement that is cognitively closed to outside theological and ecclesiological perspectives and therefore may not remain receptive to changes that would sustain the movement in future.