Don Johnson

In my understanding there are the 12 (that Jesus called as aposles in his lifetime, minus 1 plus 1) and there are also (generic) apostles, which means sent-out ones, which we often call missionaries today. It is not possible to be one of the 12 today, but it is possible to be an apostle, if the Holy Spirit gives you that gift.

The qualifications for the 12 were that they needed to have been with Jesus “from the beginning” of his ministry, and that they needed to be witnesses (this explains the lack of women in the 12, as women were not accepted as legal witnesses in the cultues of the time). In other words, God worked in those cultures where they were at, just as God works in us where we are at.