Retrofit or Reconfigure?

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If we could simply separate titles and positions from functional realities, abandon all humanistic concepts
of church and church leadership, and embrace abundant life2 in the Spirit,3 we would eliminate much of
today’s confusion over apostles and that which is apostolic.

In the earliest days of the current apostolic reformation, we tried to retrofit,4 when we needed to
reconfigure,5 not only leaders, but also the entire church. The body of Christ is to be configured to the
apostolic. In some sense of the word, all believers are sent.6

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all, (for the common
good of the entire body).7

Blessed with various functional8 and charismatic9 giftings, every member of the body of Christ is a
minister of Christ, and is to be apostolic in his/her configurations. The potential for being apostolic is
built into our sDNA, so that we might all function within the corporate unction.

I am ‘apostolic’ in my configurations to such a degree that, what matters to me is: “Let’s not just
declare it, let’s get it to work.” That’s why in part I do not fit the ‘standard’ definition of what a
prophet is. I am not just a seer of this and that. I want to get it to work (whatever ‘it’ is).10

At the time of this writing, many are still identified (some titled) as apostles who are not truly master
builders. Many are traveling, speaking and ministering from an apostolic configuration, yet their
overriding gifts are most accurately identified as prophets and teachers—some as evangelists and even
shepherds.

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From the “Closing Thoughts” of Creation’s Cry, Don Atkin’s latest book (260 pages.) Available in the Fall.
2
John 10:10b
3
John 6:63a
4
Retrofitting refers to the addition of new technology or features to older systems.
5
The aspiration of reconfiguring is to grasp the conflict, embrace new understanding, prayerfully explore
possibilities and find God’s solutions to global and personal issues.
6
John 17:18
7
1 Corinthians 12:7
8
Romans 12:4-8
9
1 Corinthians 12
10
Steve Crosby

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Many prophets, who are also gifted preachers and teachers, are defining themselves as “apostles.”
However, not all of them are master builders. What they are building is prophetic, through and through.
In the same way, teachers with apostolic configurations are traveling to the uttermost parts and teaching
what they understand to be apostolic doctrine. They are reproducing schools everywhere they go—not
apostolic churches, but schools.

Paul did not start a school in Ephesus. He gathered some disciples and taught them in the synagogue until
they were no longer welcome there. He then rented or borrowed some space in the school of Tyrannus.
It was not the school of Paul. It was not the school of apostles. It was not an apostolic training center. It
was a facility—merely a facility. The fruit of Paul’s discipling efforts in Ephesus continued for two years, so
that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus.11

Many of today’s committed and gifted ministers have unknowingly and unintentionally “painted
themselves into corners” by instituting and then replicating what began in the Spirit. They have built and
developed followings and, in many cases, established their financial bases, upon the strength of their
teaching and/or preaching gifts.

The loving, gentle and patient service of wise master builders must be the next step in reformation. We
must abandon all efforts to retrofit the traditional organizations with the emerging apostolic. This is a
new creation12 work that must be identified with the Holy Spirit and configured by the release of apostolic
genius. SDNA is within every believer.

Paul identified himself as a wise master builder.13 Master builders are instruments of the Holy Spirit for
the releasing of functional and charismatic gifts, the apostolic reconfiguring of the believers, and the
interconnecting of local expressions of the church in every location.

COMING THIS FALL

Creation’s Cry
The Heart of Apostolic Passion
Don Atkin

WATCH FOR IT
Check out the following endorsements

11
Acts 19:10
12
2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:14-15
13
1 Corinthians 3:10

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I love Don Atkin’s gift of simplicity. His latest book, Creation’s Cry, translates profound apostolic truths
into bite sized portions and practical principles – it is a brilliant compendium of new covenant apostolic
life.

He accurately and gracefully demonstrates how fathering and sonship are at the heart of the apostolic and
how this works practically through the functioning of giftedness in Christ’s body, particularly through
authentic discipling relationships. He shows how the apostolic message of ‘Christ in us – the hope of glory’
is designed to exponentially multiply through the apostolic mode of disciple making.

I especially love his unique grasp of spiritual DNA. This, in my estimation, will rescue the current
apostolic reformation from being stillborn – from being just another human authority structure. It
recovers the true essence of the new covenant as spiritual sonship and the apostolic as cultivators of this
seed – and thus, of obedience to the Father.

Don is at the forefront of those pioneering new covenant expressions of the apostolic in our day. Every
line exudes apostolic grace and is packed with wisdom distilled from a lifetime of learning and sacrificial
lifestyle – Don is the real deal. I cannot wait to get this book out to all our friends,

- David Orton, Lifemessenger - Melbourne, Australia

***
Don Akin has been a friend and admired colleague for many years. He is a man of the Word, of wisdom,
and a great love for Christ’s Church. His pen is a fertile source of revelation and deep spiritual insight.
However, this book, Creation’s Cry, captures his heart for the apostolic in a more extensive way than I
have seen in his earlier writings. It is a collection which contains some earlier writings along with newer
ones. Here for the first time they are placed together to give a fuller view of his extensive knowledge and
revelation of the apostolic.

Don’s deep concerns for the Church as God’s instrument of grace and salvation in the earth come through
on every page. He is passionate about the pending fulfillment of the cry of creation expressed in Romans
8. He longs for the time when the spiritual sons of God are unveiled and the redemption of all things takes
place. He rightly sees that it is the Church and God’s called ones who will bring this reality into existence.

I recommend this volume to all who preach and teach the Word. I believe that any thoughtful Christian
will benefit from its pages.

- Ronald E. Cottle, Ph.D., Ed.D.

Founder and President - Christian Life Educators Network

***
Creation's Cry is the most spiritually and biblically solid book on apostolic reality written to date.
Significant history is being made in this season of spiritual enlightenment, empowerment and change.
God’s people are stretched to cooperate with in-breaking intense spiritual light that dissolves some past
incomplete or erroneous concepts allowing more complete eternal truth to grow into place. Don Atkin
does not write from theory or good ideas. Don writes from a lifetime of real experience of continuous
living by the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. The reader of “Creation’s Cry” will be exposed to balanced
truth regarding apostolic reality without divisive doctrinal diversions. This is a book for today from an
author who was born for such a time as this.

- Ron McGatlin, www.OpenHeaven.com

***

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Creation's Cry is a far cry from the usual apostolic books and teachings. Don Atkin has brought forth a
work that fills in the gaps between apostolic genius and the disciplines of apostolic mission. Don brings in
elements from over fifty years of experience in apostolic function, insight and revelation. He gets away
from the titles and hierarchies, to reveal the servant in the apostolic mandate. I found the book refreshing,
and also biblically challenging to some of the errant messages of today that have brought confusion, more
than solution, to the way forward. Creation's Cry gives a solid blueprint for the next generation to run
with, and plumbline truth for the former generation to adjust to.

- Robert Ricciardelli, Founder, Converging Zone Network and Visionary Advancement Strategies

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It's a whole new baby! God is shifting gears in moving an entire church mesmerized by programs for
religious consumers into becoming an apostolic virus. One of those lives entangled into this seismic shift
is Don Atkin. As you read his book, you will be taken onto a journey that may end with you being dragged
into something you probably always dreamed of, but never truly thought could be true! It is. Let Don, in
his fatherly style, take you by the hand and get you there.

- Wolfgang Simson, Author of The Starfish Manifesto

Forwards
I have known scores of individuals over the last thirty-five years who claimed to be apostles. The majority
were pretenders, “wannabes,” and individuals with an illicit agenda for personal aggrandizement. Out of
that number I have personally known perhaps a half dozen who were the “real deal.” Don Atkin is one of
them. Don and Barbara reflect the apostleship of Jesus in a way that only His grace, love, discipline, and
the seasoning of life’s journey can produce.

Among the clamoring cacophony of voices today claiming attention for things apostolic, Don Atkin’s voice
is actually worth listening to. When Don speaks, I listen. I encourage you to hear and implement the
mature apostolic wisdom contained in Creation’s Cry.

Stephen Crosby, D. Min.

Stephanos Ministries
www.SteveCrosby.org

***

The Universe functions by Divine Strategy and Eternal Purpose. Nothing that God has done, nothing He
will ever do is without ultimate and eternal intention. God is not a man that He should begin, attempt or
endeavor without having the end, the means and the completed work of His will clearly established in His
omniscient mind. Everything God does is completed before it is begun. Everything He declares is finished
before it appears.

As man has sojourned from Eden to the Present, he has sometimes advanced and more often wandered.
Like the tides of the seas, individuals and societies have risen and fallen, with each generation etching its
story upon the beaches of history and the sands of time.

The perpetual search to know, to understand life and its purpose and God’s ultimate plan for mankind has

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captivated countless numbers of earth’s children, and most have gone to their final resting places
dissatisfied, their questions unanswered, “not having received the promises;” their testimonies coalescing
in glimpses of glory and partial knowledge at best.

This much-needed volume does not attempt to embrace the full breadth of spiritual inquiry. What it
accurately provides is a framework of understanding for those whose quest is to understand legitimate,
practical apostolic ministry in these last days, and the role that apostolic ministry will play as together we
anticipate the promised manifestation of “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Don Atkin has described this work aptly, for here he identifies the silent, yet distinct cry of the cosmos for
the emergence and manifestation of the promised sons of God. Within these pages we find a heart
consumed with the desire that Creation’s Cry might soon be answered. Here we find the heart of apostolic
passion for a tired and sin-worn world in search of the answer of Truth.

Don has framed his work so that the reader may find for himself a fuller, more coherent recognition of
both God’s desire for the ages and the role that we, His co-laborers must play in satisfying Creation’s Cry.

Let the reader understand, the words herein do not issue forth from sterile towers of theoretical
supposition or from stale libraries of re-hashed dialogue. The author has done much more than research
and collect, collate and codify. These words flow from a lifetime of asking, seeking and knocking.
Creation’s Cry encompasses a lifelong pursuit to understand the heart of God for His creation.

Much like Moses, who endured forty years of wilderness sojourning, unlearning and then learning,
sentenced to a God-ordered solitary confinement, Don has found in the imprisonment of his quest
intimate companionship with the “I am” Himself.

As Moses suffered the barren and inhospitable deserts between Egypt and Jordan, so Don has carried in
his spirit a similar objective – to see God’s people obtain true spiritual freedom within the yoke of Calvary.
As Moses followed the Invisible One, so Don has followed his unseen Friend and has returned to share
with us glorious truths and to show us a better way.

More than a Treasury of apostolic writings, Creation’s Cry is a bellwether for those whose heartfelt and
fervent desire is to witness and to participate in the emergence and the manifestation of the promised
sons of God in the earth.

Because this is a work born of both examination and experience, the reader will find here not only great
hope and anticipation of what is to come, but even, perhaps, his own role on the great Stage of Eternity.

Greg Austin, Th.D.

Founder and President, g2k
www.GregAustin.org