‘APEST’—shorthand for
apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers—proposes that human
beings bear the image, or likeness, of God in a combination of five ways; and
that, collectively, these give expression to five functions of human community,
culture or society. These might be described as:
the impulse to
innovate, to explore, to push (beyond) boundaries, to create and populate new ‘worlds’…
the impulse to
agitate, to reform, to call into question, to oppose injustice, to paint
alternative futures…
the impulse to
connect, to recruit to a cause, to tell stories, to share news…
the impulse to care,
to attend to wellbeing, to pursue communal health…
the impulse to
instruction, to gather and systematise knowledge and wisdom and pass this on to
the next generation.
These are the five
functions of human community, culture or society, as expressed (for example)
in:
innovation in all
forms of technology, the sciences, music and art…
civil rights
movements…
sales and
recruitment, story-telling in all its forms…
health-care and
hospitals, peace-keeping and stability…
schools and
universities…
While any
organisation might have a primary purpose, it must attend to all five functions
if it is to flourish. The primary purpose of a university is teaching, but it
must also attend to pioneering research, to investing in alternative futures
beyond the university, to recruiting new students, and to the well-being of academic
and support staff and students as well as nurturing links with alumni.
Or to give another
example, we are seeing Google, as a pioneering company, come under fire for their
performance in relation to care of their employees, and the level of tax they
pay (a prophetic concern of justice and injustice), and their perceived need to
tell a good news story about themselves…
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