The Acts 2 Church and Implementation Guide

Alton Garrison

• Publisher: Gospel Publishing House
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781607312390
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblische Studien

Recently revised and expanded, The Acts 2 Church provides ideas to get you going and resources to equip you to lead a healthy, growing church. It also offers the ability to help you evaluate and analyze where your church is now and where you want it to be. Based on Acts 2: 42-47, The Acts 2 Church finds it footing in five areas of the church: worship, connect, grow, serve, and go. Ideal for church staff, deacon board, and volunteer leadership.

Implementation Guide

This information is designed to assist local churches discover and engage their unique reason for being. It helps churches take every opportunity to deliver hope to everyone they touch. This guide focuses on the spiritual health and development of local congregations, leadership teams, and individuals.

From the beginning, God’s plan for humanity was for them to worship Him, have fellowship with Him, learn and follow His principles and ways, develop the giftings He has given them, and share His love with all people.

That mission has not changed. Abraham understood the mission, Moses brought the Law to the Jewish nation for clarification of the teachings of their forefathers, David personalized the teaching of Moses for a deeper connection to God, and Christ Jesus delivered a new dimension of grace to every man and woman so we all can participate in God’s plan. After Jesus’ ascension, He established the Church’s unique reason for being. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit affirmed their hope with a clear vision of the direction for the New Testament church.

Before I explain how to implement the strategic plan (connect, grow, serve, go, worship), we need to create context and define the objective. Every church must have a mission, understand their biblical systems, and know their core values. The objective of the Acts 2 church is to take people from where they are now and move them to where God wants them to be. Unbelievers become believers. Believers become disciples. Disciples become servant leaders. And servant leaders become reproducers.

THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

“Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19,20, CEV).

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Matthew 22:37–39, NIV).

The Acts 2 Process explores these missional directives and creates an assimilation process for the local church to achieve their heartfelt desires to honor and serve the Lord. The Acts 2 Process begins with understanding the terms by which the process works in the Acts 2 environment.

The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37–39) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19,20) should be the mission and message of every church (the mission statement). These two direct commandments from the Lord plus the empowerment (Acts 2:1–4) and the implementation Scriptures (Acts 2:42–47) give us our reason for being.

The Acts 2 Process gives the local church the necessary structure to fulfill its God-given destiny. It is simply stated and makes it accessible for every church and every individual to follow.

It may be simple, but it’s not simplistic. I like the way Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger said it in Simple Church: “Ministry will never be easy. It is messy and difficult because people are messy and difficult.”³

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day made religious service complicated. Jesus dramatically simplified the mission of the Church. He took 613 commandments of the Law and reduced them to two, not to abolish the Law but to capture the spirit of the Law in two simple statements.

The process needs to be uncomplicated. It should be clear and straightforward. Simplifying the process may take time, but I can tell you that the efforts are worth it for your church, and the efforts will be worth it for you as well.

The Acts 2 Process directs the local church to grasp two foundational teachings to establish the mission. It brings two vital teachings of Christ into focus for the discovery of the mission.

The mission of the Church is timeless and directed by Scripture for the local church and each individual. A mission statement establishes a foundational truth for spiritual health and development. Every local church and every believer should affirm these truths and build themselves upon these principles.

What We Believe

First, the Great Commission should be the church’s spiritual direction. The Great Commission focuses on the belief system taught by Christ. Every spiritually healthy and numerically growing congregation understands the principles of biblical belief that connects us to building His Church. Within the Great Commission, we find the five biblical functions of the first-century church.

Because of the Great Commission, we can stand on our belief system as we allow it to guide the spiritual direction for the leadership team, the congregation, and each individual within the church.

How We Behave

The second part of the mission centers on how believers behave. This includes how they are taught to follow Scripture in their life. Our behavior should mirror Christ’s behavior to those in the faith and to those outside it. The average church attendee believes in the principles of the New Testament church but does not behave as a follower of the New Testament church. This is one of the biggest issues for churches that are plateaued or in decline.

Questions

1. Are the processes in your church complicated? If so, what are some ways you can begin to simplify them?

2. If you were to write down all the activities of your church and the goals of each one, how many different goals would there be?

3. How does my behavior reflect Christ’s behavior? How do these groups reflect Christ’s behavior: The pastoral staff? The church staff? The deacon board/leadership team? The congregation?

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• The Acts 2 Church
• Implementation Guide
• Notes