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Seven Misrepresentations of Acts 29

Apr 30, 2007 Authored by Scott Thomas | Category: Church Planting

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In light of some recent attacks on us and on our leadership, we wanted to "set the record straight" about a few misrepresentations about Acts 29. This is lengthy for a blog, but it is necessary for contextual clarity-something our critics don't always practice.


1. That we are affiliated with the Emergent church
The basic characteristic of an emergent church (sometimes confused with the "emerging" church) is that they do not believe in Sola Scriptura. We believe in the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, inspired, all-sufficient Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14-17; Acts 2:42). The authority of all missionary work is founded in the truth that God has a clear Word to communicate to the world.

From our Doctrinal Statment:

  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
  • We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
  • We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
  • We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

(See also Dr. Mark DeVine's distinction between Missional and Emerging)


2. That we advocate alcohol use
The Acts 29 Network permits diversity on this secondary matter and pursues unity on the primary theological issues. We respect the right of Christians, organizations, and denominations to arrive at differing conclusions on this matter. So long as they are within the boundaries of Scripture, we respect those positions and welcome faithful Christians holding them into the Acts 29 Network. Together we can pursue what is most important-the expansion of God's kingdom through the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the planting of His church.

From our website:
First, we believe that all drunkenness is a sin (Deuteronomy 21:20; Ecclesiastes 10:17; Matthew 24:29; Luke 12:45; 21:34; Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:10; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:3).

Secondly, we believe that many horrendous sins are affiliated with drunkenness. Therefore, getting drunk is a sin that can lead to other sins, such as incest (Genesis 19:32-35), violence (Proverbs 4:17), adultery (Revelation 17:2), mockery and brawling (Proverbs 20:1), poverty (Proverbs 21:17), late night and early morning drinking (Isaiah 5:11-12), hallucinations (Isaiah 28:7), foolish behavior (Isaiah 5:22; Jeremiah 51:39), murder (2 Samuel 11:13), vomiting (Jeremiah 25:27; 48:26; Isaiah 19:14), staggering (Jeremiah 25:27; Psalm 107:27; Job 12:25), madness (Jeremiah 51:7), shameful nakedness (Habakkuk 2:15; Lamentations 4:21), sloth (Joel 1:5), escapism (Hosea 4:11), and depression (Luke 21:34). In summary, sin leads to death and the sin of drunkenness produces only death and misery.

Thirdly, we believe that Christian leaders are to live their lives in such a way as to set a positive example of holiness for others to emulate (Hebrews 13:7). This includes elders, the male senior leaders in the church, who are not to be drunkards (1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7).

Fourthly, we do believe that all Christians must at varying times and in varying ways give up some of their Christian liberties in order to love people of weaker conscience. Christians must make every effort to not lead them into sin by exercising freedoms in their presence (Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 10:31-32).

In conclusion, there are different views on alcohol in our network and even on our board. We recognize that this is an issue where Christians can and do disagree, so we have no position on alcohol other than that people should have their conscience captive to the word of God, submit to the leadership of their church or denomination, and do everything for God's glory.


3. That we view women as inferior because they do not serve as elders
The Bible teaches that both men and women are made in the image and likeness of God, which means that men and women are equal by virtue of creation and do not need to be the same to prove their equality - in the same way that a right hand and left hand are different but equally necessary.

First, Adam was made first as the head of all creation and bore primary responsibility for the creation that God had entrusted him to steward. Likewise, in the New Testament we are repeatedly taught that men are to function as "heads" who take responsibility over their dominions of family (Ephesians 5:23) in the same way that Jesus is our ultimate Head who on the cross took responsibility for our sin that was not His fault (Colossians 1:18, 2:10, 2:19; Ephesians 1:10, 1:22, 4:15, 5:23). In Jesus' example we discover that when God made men to be heads He was placing upon them the primary responsibility of leadership and service to ensure all that God had entrusted to their oversight (e.g., wives and children) would be well-loved and cared for. To accomplish this high honor, men must learn to be like Jesus and take responsibility even when they are not at fault, and to be about redeeming things that have been bent and stained by sin.

Second, as God is a Trinity, so men need a partner who is different than them but equal to them so that they can show forth the image and likeness of God.

Third, men need wives so truly that, even though sin had not entered the world yet (and the world was technically perfect), it remained incomplete and therefore "not good" until the creation of Eve.

Fourth, men alone simply cannot be fruitful, multiply, honor God, and have the Trinitarian intimacy they were created to enjoy, and so God made women to be of help to men.

During His life and ministry Jesus both treated women with great dignity and maintained the creation pattern of male leadership that permeated the Old Testament. Jesus clearly believed in Genesis 1:27, because He quoted it in Matthew 19:4 when He said, "at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female.'" Jesus honored, taught, and loved women, and even included them in vital positions in His ministry. But He did not elevate women to the highest level of leadership, in keeping with the creation order and Old Testament precedent. (Taken from Church Leadership by Mark Driscoll).


4. That we receive money from our member churches
One of the misperceptions is that to be a member of our network a church must commit 10% of its annual income to Acts 29 Network. We do strongly encourage churches to set their church planting DNA by giving 10% to church planting. But the local elders of each church decide where it goes. Acts 29 does not act as a clearing house wielding power and control over its constituents. Many of our guys are also affiliated with denominations, like the SBC. We allow them to honor their denominational commitments but encourage them to plant local churches.


5. That we are a threat to the SBC
The Missouri Baptists have mislabeled us as emergent/emerging/McLaren-like. It stems from a misperception of our permitting each member church to decide its personal stance on alcohol. In an article published online in the Missouri Baptist Churches Pathway, they issued a seven-point warning that was wrongly focused on our small network. It included the statement, "Acts 29 should not be an organization with which the Missouri Baptist Convention networks by means of our Cooperative Program money, missions emphases and church planting"

We love our SBC brothers. We don't always understand them but we love their belief in the gospel and their commitment to missions.

Dr. Mark DeVine wrote an objective paper about the recent stance of the SBC against Acts 29. Dr DeVine is a professor of Christian Theology at the SBC-owned Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In it he seeks to diffuse the division between Acts 29 and the Missouri SBC.


6. That we are Liberal
We are not liberals who embrace culture without discernment and compromise the distinctive of the gospel, but rather Christians who believe the truths of the Bible are eternal and therefore fitting for every time, place, and people. This label has been placed on us by those who do not understand our engagement of culture in the spirit of Jesus (Luke 7:34; John 17:11; 14-19).

From our Doctrinal Statement:

  • We believe that our local churches must be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine (Jude 3).
  • We believe that our local churches must be faithful to the continually changing context of the culture(s) in which they minister (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
  • We believe that our mission is to bring people into church so that they can be trained to go out into their culture as effective missionaries.

From an article by Dr. DeVine:
"Acts29 church planters see themselves as missionaries to the various sub-cultures that increasingly define North America. Cultural factors faced by missionaries always include matters variously pernicious, beneficial or benign vis-à-vis the gospel message. Optimal sorting of such cultural factors will mean that unnecessary stumbling blocks to the gospel are removed while faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ is maintained (Consider the Apostle Paul's grappling with such issues as circumcision, the eating of idol meat, and Sabbath-keeping)."


7. That we are independent of other networks
We do not discourage or prohibit our planters from cooperating with or aligning with other networks or denominations; in fact we encourage it.

Acts 29 has a goal of planting 1,000 churches. We believe strongly that our goal has to be laid at the cross of Jesus for His glory and for His gathering of the elect. We lay it at the foot of the cross because to be a movement man must go TO the cross because a movement only comes FROM the cross. In laying down our personal goal, God may plant 5,000 churches through us.

Network leaders are all praying about a church planting movement but we aren't seeing a movement in North America. I believe it is because of egos and logos. We want to be famous at the expense of Jesus (egos) and we want to take credit for what our organization has accomplished (logos). All church planting networks must take their personal agendas and lay them at the cross in repentance and for His glory. Through the gospel, we must pray together, work together, resource each other, promote the message of Jesus and let Him get ALL of the credit.

8 Comments | Login to Post Comments

Derek Brown on Apr 30, 2007 6:25am

Scott: This post has been needed for quite some time. Thank you for clearing this up for many people from many backgrounds!

Reid Monaghan on May 1, 2007 11:48am

Scott, thanks for putting the work in on this to clarify where Acts 29 stands on these matters. I appreciate the time put in, the clarity of thought and the usefulness of this post. I pray many church planters and others wanting to get behind them will read this.

I thought Devine was very helpful - the links are well worth following.

May the tribe who gives glory and credit to Jesus multiply greatly in our time.


Lane Harrison on May 2, 2007 10:54am

Scott, thanks for this clarifying article. It is a great help to our Elders in this great state of MO.

Gardner Gordon on May 3, 2007 1:08am

Great clarification. I appreciate your team's ability to discern where lines of definition need to be pursued (Driscoll's 4 streams of the "emerging" movement) and outright commitment to the Living Word of Jesus.

William Nielsen on May 3, 2007 8:02am

Scott,

Thank you so very much for your article. It was a well needed light to give bright hope to those who are seeking truth in the midst of post-modern clutter.

Rick Long on May 5, 2007 11:45am

Being affiliated with both the SBC and Acts 29 it disturbs me greatly that such narrow-mindedness exists with the MBC article. It is my hope that they begin to value the Kingdom above their own agenda.

Noel Heikkinen on May 14, 2007 10:24am

Outstanding post, Scott. This is very helpful to me as I try to connect the dots between Acts 29 and other church planters / movements I am networking with.

Thanks for all you are doing!

Jason Pettus on Dec 14, 2007 3:12am

I'm an SBC pastor and this bothers me. I would like to know the names of the pastors and churches impacted by the MBC's decision so my SBC church can send money and prayer to support these brothers contending for the Gospel.