The Apostolic Intelligence You're Not Developing
You probably had an idea this morning before most people were fully awake.
You see opportunity in places others walk past. You find yourself recruiting people to things that don't exist yet. You feel the pull of the frontier, as something more like compulsion. Like you were made for it.
And if you're honest, you've also left some wreckage behind. Projects started and not finished. People who gave you their trust and felt, somewhere along the way, more used than developed. A trail of good ideas that somehow didn't become the things you saw so clearly at the beginning.
In 5Q, Alan introduces the concept of Apostolic Intelligence — AQ. Each of the five APEST callings, he argues, carries a distinct form of intelligence, a particular way of perceiving and engaging the world. AQ is systemic, entrepreneurial, adaptive, and synthetic. It sees patterns others miss. It reads the horizon before others know there is one. It is, when mature, one of the most generative forces in any movement.
You are not disordered. Perhaps you are unformed. And that is a completely different problem — with a different solution.
Alan's diagnosis in 5Q goes deeper than individual character: the reason AQ so often runs without formation is not because apostolic people are inherently chaotic. It is because 1700 years of a church built around the Shepherd-Teacher template left no pathway for it. No framework for developing it. No culture that knows how to hold it accountable without suppressing it. So the church tends to do one of two things — deploy apostolic people for their capacity while ignoring the immaturity, or quietly sideline them when things get messy. Neither serves them well, and neither is the way of Jesus.
What does it look like to develop your AQ toward maturity? Alan offers diagnostic questions that are worth sitting with slowly:
Am I distinguishing between good ideas and God ideas? Your mind generates a constant flood of innovation. Discernment — learning to wait for the God idea in the sea of merely good ones — is the discipline that changes everything.
Am I finding my identity in Jesus, or in what I build? This is the deepest question. Probably the one you most want to move past. Don't.
Am I using the project to develop people — or using people to accomplish the project? You can do both at once. That's what maturity looks like. But it requires noticing the difference.
Am I connected to a community that can tell me the truth? AQ without accountability doesn't stay generative for long.
The AQ Cohort exists for leaders who recognize themselves in this. A cohort specifically for apostolic leaders, people who recognize themselves or their calling in this description, who are ready to move from raw gifting toward the kind of maturity Alan describes in 5Q.
Here's what past participants have said:
| "My time in the Apostolic Accelerator opened my eyes to something inside me that had never been unleashed or invested in. Not only did I learn what it means to walk through ministry as an apostle, I also learned that I am one!"Jacob Poettker — Creative Director, Pop Culture Redemption; Creative Arts Director, Serve Community Church |
| "The apostolic leadership AQ accelerator has helped me to see the apostolic calling from a new set of eyes. I now see why 'mission' is at the forefront of my leadership. I was challenged to reflect on my personal apostolic gift as well as equipped with the language and framework to help me begin building 5-fold leadership teams."Mauricio Hernandez — Strategic Leader, Coach and Executive Pastor, Melbourne, Australia |
| "I believe that the teachings we learn from 5Q should be an essential and critical part of any Christian leader's journey. I felt like we had an almost immediate sense of mutual trust, openness, and growth together."Richard Turner FCCA — Executive Transition Coach / Career Coach Mentor / Executive Leadership Advisor |
More details on future AQ Cohorts can be found here. If this landed — if you saw yourself or someone you lead in this — stay close.
— The 5Q Central Team