Note: This is adapted from a paper I submitted as part of my education through the Antioch School. The objective of the paper was to demonstrate that I had "developed a basic biblical understanding of Paul’s concept of establishing local churches, while discerning the difference between what Paul understood to be normative for all churches in every culture and generation and what he intended to be merely cultural for his time and situation." Where the book of Acts covers the broad strokes of Paul’s concept of establishing churches, it is in his epistles that the goals and approaches of Paul are more fully fleshed out and understood. Paul in Acts is traveling around the northern Mediterranean, identifying places where the Holy Spirit is drawing him and a place exists where he can proclaim the gospel, bringing converts into community, establishing leaders among them, and then commending the young church to the hands of those leaders as he sets off to do the same elsewhere. We have snapshots of occasional details on how he does these things, but only snapshots of occasional details. In the Pauline epistles, the apostle actively walks churches at different stages of development through his expectations for them, problems they need to address, and next steps in their growth. We can identify the process by which Paul sought to establish churches by grouping his letters into three major categories, and then exploring what general concerns he has in writing to each category of church. These categories align both with the time period in which he wrote them, and the stage of development the target churches were experiencing. The first category would be his early letters, written to the young churches in Galatia, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Rome. The second category are his prison epistles, written to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae; the latter receiving a general letter to the body as well as being the home church of Philemon. Finally, we have the personal letters to Timothy and Titus.
Paul’s early letters focus on preserving the centrality of the gospel in the establishing of the church. He reminds these churches of the core of the gospel and its immediate implications for the Christian, calls them to turn away from worldly behaviors and concerns, and addresses ideologies that are attempting to undermine the gospel in the church. Paul is concerned in these books with the foundation upon which the church is being built, and the worldly systems that attempt to compromise that foundation. Galatians 5:1 summarizes this concern well when Paul writes that “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (NASB2020). It is his concern at this stage of the church’s establishment that it stand and build firmly on the truth of the gospel without allowing that truth to be watered down with falsehoods. Toward this end, he reminds these churches about the work of Christ and the righteousness they enjoy through faith. He discusses the limits and purposes of the Law and reminds them of the pervasive nature of sin. He explains the hope of resurrection and assures the Thessalonians that they have not yet missed the end of the age. He introduces the nature of spiritual gifts and the functions they serve in unifying the body and advancing the mission of the church. He explains the way the church as a community should view its members and be seen by the world. He warns about false teachings that would lead the body astray. All of these things are foundational; they describe the essential nature of the church and its members and give them a way forward into maturity, and they help guide the church away from paths that will interfere with their maturity. Reed states that the gospel “transforms our whole lives and beings;” it is in the early letters that Paul details what that gospel, and therefore what that transformation, must look like in the church1.
Paul’s prison letters focus on the practice of life as a body in the established church and the role of the church in the unfolding plan of God. These letters deal heavily with relationships within the church and the importance of continuing to grow in a manner worthy of the calling they have received. In Colossians, he urges the church, “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” while in Philippians he says, “Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us” (Colossians 2:6-7, Philippians 3:17, NASB2020). These churches have solid foundations, and his attention with them is drawn to the way they live and grow. Philemon is an excellent example of Paul’s concerns in this body of letters. While dealing with a situation specific to one individual within the church and mostly speaking as though to one individual, Paul nevertheless writes the letter to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and “the church in your house” (1:2b, NASB2020). He is concerned not only with Philemon’s handling of the situation with Onesimus, but the church’s understanding of their relationships to one another. He talks to Philemon, and the three churches in this category, as partners in his work; reminding them of their contributions so far and his investment in them, reporting what has been done beyond their locations, and inviting them to act in a mature manner rather than directing their actions like he does in the early letters. The basic family-like structure of the churches is generally assumed, and Paul builds on this by using that structure to explain the church more fully. Take for instance Paul’s household instructions at the end of Ephesians 5 into the beginning of Ephesians 6. While we get a great deal of information from this passage about the roles of individuals within the family, and ought to apply those roles accordingly, Paul reminds us that he is primarily “speaking with reference to Christ and the church” in 5:32 (NASB2020). Here Paul does not need to define the gospel that unifies the church, but to showcase how the church is to operate using imagery they can understand and apply. He is concerned throughout with how the church views itself, how it partners with him and one another in the work of establishing people and churches, and the way the church lives as mature bodies.
In the final set of Paul’s letters, the focus turns to the reproduction of established churches through a process of maturing leaders. These letters deal heavily with identifying and preparing leaders, removing false teachings from the body, and ensuring that the mission of the church continues through future generations. His attention is toward leaders and the impact they have on the body, as highlighted when Paul says, “Pay close attention to yourself and to the teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16, NASB2020). Much of his text in these letters deals with the administrative areas of the church. He is passing on his knowledge, his model, and ultimately his very work as an establisher of churches to Timothy and Titus. He gives criteria for leaders and discusses how the church should engage with them. He identifies false teachings and gives instruction on how to root it out and cast it aside. He invites them into the same work—and the same sufferings—that he himself walks in. He offers encouragement and reminds them of fellow workers they can lean on. He warns about troubles the churches will face and points them back to the source of their salvation and maturity. His language in these letters goes beyond partnership into inheritance, as a father reminding his sons of the proper care of their estate.
Each category of Pauline epistles, then, addresses specific periods of a church’s establishment. More than that, however, they work together as a whole to show what the process of establishment itself looks like. There are bits specific to the environment in which the letters were written; the concern about the circumcision party exists because of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism at the time, which has changed, and dictates about the behavior of slaves only find direct footing in a culture that has slavery. But the principles Paul is drawing out by these specific circumstances, and by the groups of letters collectively, are universal in scope. Paul applies them across the board to every church with which he interacts, and hands instruction off to Timothy and Titus to continue applying and handing down these principles. These principles show a defined understanding of the establishment of a church. Paul has expectations for each church based on its level of maturity, guiding them to the next phase of establishment. He talks to all of them as though they are on the same road, directing the less mature churches in the direction of the more mature churches and speaking to the more mature as if they have already passed through the same place as the less mature. And this approach is expected to be normative, as Paul hands it off to Timothy and Titus and urges them to continue handing it to later generations. Paul’s approach to the churches, all of the churches, is not unlike my approach to the rabbits we raise. The church is given the immediate support and nourishment and protection it needs in the form of the truth and its implications, just as the kits are kept secure from predators and the environment while maintaining access to their mother’s milk. As they churches begin to grow and take on a life of their own, they are examined for spot or blemish and guided in the way they should live, just as we inspect and care for and train the rabbits as they leave the nest. And as the church grows to maturity, it is left to operate without constant external guidance and encouraged to reproduce, just as those rabbits which prove themselves suitable are given their own space and opportunity to breed. There is a set life path that Paul sees the churches on, and it is by comparing their state to this life path that he sees what involvement they require from him. In learning from Paul how he sees that life path and approaches the churches, we can learn how to gauge the maturity of churches today and know which letters to best apply to their situation. 1 Jeff Reed, “Paul’s Concept of Establishing Churches,” 1991. 12.
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What follows is adapted from an assignment I completed as part of my education through the Antioch School. It has been altered from its original form mostly in ways that make it more suited to a blog post than an essay. The objective of the assignment was to demonstrate that I had "developed a basic understanding of biblical keys to the establishment and expansion of the first-century Church as taught in Acts." The Acts of the Apostles continues the work begun in Luke's gospel, where he states his general purpose when he says he is writing a record “so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4, NASB). In the beginning of Acts, Luke then states of his previous book that it was “...about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen” (Acts 1:1b-2, NASB). That is, Acts will be the account of the apostles continuing the work of Christ under His orders. If Luke has set confidence in what his readers have been taught as the goal, and begins Acts by citing that the work of Christ is continuing, we can conclude that the purpose of Acts is not simply to record activities taken by the apostles but to give confidence that the teachings those apostles handed down are the orders of Christ. As such, Acts is not simply a record of previous events, but a standard against which present and future events can be compared. It is fundamentally normative, showing not merely what the apostles did do but what the apostles, and the church they were instrumental in establishing, should do. Acts, then, is a guide. It plays out within a specific context, and we must consider the degree to which that context influences specific actions taken, but doing so can reveal an understanding of what purposes and methods were guiding those decisions. If the apostles were operating under the orders of Christ, then their purposes and methods are Christ’s purposes and methods, and if that is the case, these must also be our purposes and methods. Paul’s exhortation to “be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” rings true for the entire book of Acts; to whatever extent the apostles were imitating Christ, we must also imitate them (1 Corinthians 11:1, NASB). Luke’s concern, that we be confident in what we have been taught, must include what we’ve been taught about the functions and purposes of the church. After all, in Acts he shows us what those functions and purposes are. Identifying the Principles of Acts If Acts will be useful to us for this purpose, then it must be true that the principles that guided the apostles can be identified within Acts. We would have to be able to single out the things that determine how the apostles acted and taught in establishing and expanding the church, parse them out from the influence of their context, and have some means of applying them to our own contexts. These principles would be the keys that the course is attempting to focus on. The work of identifying those principles begins with studying the stories of Acts. The narrative of the book shows what these principles look like in action within a specific context, and we cannot draw the principles out of the narrative without studying the narrative for elements that are specific to context, elements that are common across multiple contexts, and a careful analysis of the actual practices and teachings of the apostles within the narrative. To that end, the narrative of Acts can be broken down into major chunks. This class uses a system that looks for places where Luke appears to be wrapping up one portion of the narrative and beginning another; others may focus on immediate context or the broader life of the church as it develops throughout the book. Regardless, the purpose of breaking the narrative down is to see the principles raised and applied across multiple circumstances. Each of the primary principles, the things that must be in place across all churches across all time, would have to appear in every major chunk of the narrative. Therefore, this paper will operate on the following major chunks:
It is important not to get bogged down on questions we cannot answer. As Getz notes in Sharpening the Focus of the Church, “forms and structures are not absolutes in the Bible;” and as nonabsolutes, they cannot be our focus1. Instead, we must focus on the things that stand out as recurring principles, and the ways their various forms and structures tell us about the nature of those principles. Leadership The first principle as identified above is the recurring role and function of church leadership. The church is not meant to function without some kind of formal leadership guiding it. The nature of that leadership had some room to change throughout Acts, and the narrative focuses on different aspects of it at different times, but no major section of Acts is without some emphasis on the existence and nature of church leadership. In the first section, leadership is a driving force under the guidance and authority of the Holy Spirit. Jesus establishes this norm when He tells the disciples at the beginning of Acts that “...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth” (Act 1:8, NASB). These disciples then give the first massive public witness to Christ at Pentecost, assemble the early church, teach in the temple and homes of believers, and answer to the Jewish authorities about the nature of the church and its beliefs. It is also these same disciples who then identify the need for another group of leaders, and it is their guidance that defines the functions of the first deacons and the traits that should be expected of them. It is one of these identified leaders, Stephen, who is central in the drive of the second section of Acts. Through his faithfulness and boldness in preaching, he draws the attention of the Jewish leaders who go beyond previous questioning and kill him. This initiates a system of persecution carried out against the early church, during which Philip (one of the disciples) works in the Jewish-adjacent contexts of Samaria and a foreign believer in the Law. Meanwhile, the other key leaders remain in Jerusalem and continue to guide the church as it expands in response to persecution. In the third section of Acts, the gospel reaches Gentiles through the preaching of Peter as initiated and led by the Holy Spirit. As Fee and Stuart note, it is important to recognize that God “did not now use the Hellenists, in which case it would have been suspect, but Peter, the acknowledged leader of the Jewish-Christian mission”2. The other leaders, in response to Peter’s account of the event, welcome the Gentile converts and this opens the door to the work of Antioch in focusing on Gentiles in their context, with the assistance of Barnabas, a leader sent to Antioch by the Jerusalem church, and Paul, identified by Barnabas as a fellow leader. In the fourth section of Acts, the narrative follows Paul and Barnabas as they are set aside for work by the Holy Spirit and then as they carry out that work. As they carry the gospel through Asia Minor, they also make a point of establishing leaders wherever they see a church come together, even returning to dangerous settings to see that work completed. When Paul and Barnabas finish this work, they return to Antioch where they submit themselves to leadership by reporting all that happened to the church that sent them and its leaders. The fifth section of Acts continues to follow Paul who, now separated from Barnabas, brings Silas as another leader and identifies Timothy as a man with promise to lead. Again, in every church they establish throughout this part of Acts, they do not stop until they have established leaders to continue working with the church after Paul’s team has left. And in the final section, as Paul makes his way to Jerusalem and, from there, to Rome, he continues to lead and to meet with leaders he has set in place and ensure they are prepared for the work ahead without him. Through the entire book of Acts, then, the theme of leadership and its responsibility to care for the church and pass that work along to new leaders remains in constant focus. Luke tells us that the initial work of the apostles in leading the church was focused on teaching and prayer, and that in expanding the leadership of the church into a new office the apostles stated, “Instead, brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word,” establishing a set of expectations for church leadership (Act 6:3-4, NASB). He shows how leaders were confirmed through the existing leadership structures, even when they have been identified by name by the Holy Spirit in the setting aside of Paul and Barnabas. He shows how those leaders did not consider their work finished in establishing a church until there were leaders in place, and though we have very little information on the exact nature of leadership training in the early church, Luke always places leaders in training under the care of, and working alongside, existing leaders within the context of active ministry. These principles, then, should guide us when we make our own plans for selecting, training, and sending out leaders today. Community The theme of community is woven throughout the book of Acts. Even when Luke’s narrative follows one person, it is nearly always in the work of establishing or expanding communities of faith. The first section of the book describes the church as a deeply ingrained community, with Luke stating that ...all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. |
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Why was the church given teachers? To equip, serve, and build up the body. We are not called to gather to watch someone preach. We do not have, as our core goal, the act of spectating a sermon. When we reduce church to this, when we make it our focus, when we make it the only thing we're willing to fight for, we lose sight of the true function of the church and give in to an elevated view of the pastor as the central focus of our work, even if we refuse to call it that.
Consider the comments sections of nearly any news reports about Grace Community Church right now. Those speaking in defense of MacArthur's actions universally do so on the grounds that the central command of Christians is gathering in one place on a regular basis (which we are never commanded to do),** and that inhibiting this specific action is condemning the full work of the church. Which simply is not true, unless one believes that the full work of the church is to focus our attention on listening to one person teach. But we know from scripture that those positions we are inclined to hold in highest esteem are never to be given the focus of our work. |
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those [members] of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need [of it.] But God has [so] composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that [member] which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but [that] the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if [one] member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
1 Corinthians 12:22-26 (NASB)
Did Jesus stand before large crowds and explain the scriptures for them? Yes. Is this how He built His church? No. That was through personal relationships in which He walked with people for years, showing them what life He was calling them to, explaining things they were ready to understand, calling them to active participation in His ministry. We have letters to Timothy, but is that method of teaching how he became Paul's spiritual child? No, that was through Timothy's time spent traveling with Paul, watching how he worked and lived, actively taking part in the mission. Were His final and ultimate orders to His disciples to "call all the world into your sanctuaries and have them sit quietly as you explain the Word to them," or were they to "go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19a, NASB)?
Our job is discipleship. To both teach and learn from personal experience, close relationships, and active participation in the life of the church. May we learn to put discipleship of one another higher than our pastoral hero worship as we continue to navigate this Christian life.
**- Yes, I know the verse that tells us not to forsake gathering. However, there is a great deal of flexibility in terms of how many of us gather in one place at one time, how we gather, and how frequently we gather. The Sunday Morning All-Church In-Person Service expression of worship is not here, or anywhere, commanded.
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