The Acts 29 Network was my introduction to church planting. Before I had started listening to sermons from Mark Driscoll and Darrin Patrick, I had very little exposure or knowledge of church planting. It was somewhat natural, therefore, when I felt called by God to plant a church, that I pursued a relationship with Acts 29. However, following the counsel of several others, I also looked at some other networks and organizations as well. After doing so, I ultimately landed back on Acts 29.
Since that time, I’ve received a lot of questions about Acts 29 just regarding who they are and what they do. To try and answer some of the questions in one place, I decided to put this post together.
Acts 29 is a network of churches planting churches. To date, Acts 29 has somewhere around 200 member churches in at least 32 states from various traditions, including Baptist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, EFCA, and nondenominational—all united by Jesus. Acts 29 has a goal of planting 1000 churches in the U.S. in the next ten years. Local examples of churches in this network include The Journey (a multi-site church meeting in Tower Grove, Clayton, and West County), Summit Community Church (meeting at Christian High School in O’Fallon), Refuge Church (meeting in the Memorial Hall in Blanchette Park in St. Charles), and Mathias’ Lot (meeting in Hardin Middle School in St. Charles). Expanding beyond the St. Louis area, Karis Community Church is a church in the network located in Columbia which meets in the renovated Missouri Theater Center for the Arts. Moving closer to Lincoln, then is Coram Deo and also Core Community Church, both which meet in Omaha.
In addition to a focus on the United States, Acts 29 is also at work internationally planting churches in other countries. With all of that said, the following is a brief description of the characteristics and distinctives of Acts 29 which drew me to them as a supporting network.
Theological Foundation and Missional Focus
As a network, Acts 29 fits nicely with the mission and vision of 2 Pillars Church. The churches in this network are dedicated to being Word-enriched, cross-centered, grace-receiving, and kingdom-focused local bodies incarnating the gospel in their own contexts. In addition, this is a network committed to reformed theology.
Importance of Family
One of the aspects that I have come to appreciate the most (along with my wife) is the importance of family which is openly stressed in this network. I have heard from multiple planters on multiple occasions from multiple venues stress the church planter’s priorities as: relationship with God first, relationship with wife and children second, followed by responsibilities and relationship to the church.
In addition, the Acts 29 network appears to appreciate the gifts and calling of a wife to be a mother without further expectations of direct involvement in ministry or the church beyond that of any other woman in the church. As one from the network candidly put it, “anyone can answer the phone, but not just anyone can raise your kids.”
Biblical Masculinity Emphasis
Men need to know how to be Jesus-loving, bible-reading, family-caring/raising/providing men. One of the most unique and appealing aspects of Acts 29 is their commitment to biblical masculinity calling men to be men and to lead their families, their churches, and others. To quote one of the leaders of Acts 29: “If you want to win the war, you’ve got to win the men.”
Along with this general stress on biblical masculinity, Acts 29 holds firm to male headship both in the church and in the family thus taking a solid, unwavering complimentarian view of church leadership.
Mentoring/Training/Coaching Commitment
Church planting is not easy and so Acts 29 sees central to the support of the planters in its network the need for mentoring, training, and coaching. Since teaming up with Acts 29, I’ve experienced so much help in this regard that I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to the men who have taken time out of their lives and work to mentor, train, and coach me.
Interdenominational Breadth
As a network, Acts 29 is cognizant of the fact that God’s mission and work is not to be constrained within any certain breed or brand of church body. God is much bigger than that.
Acts 29 achieves its interdenominational position by holding certain core theological truths in a closed hand (such as inerrancy, the Trinity, the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus, and complimentarian church leadership), while leaving more debatable practices and methodologies (such as mode of baptism or frequency of partaking in the Lord ’s Supper or music style) up to each local body in accordance with their conscience and understanding of the Word.
Kingdom Perspective
As a network of churches planting churches – no one is getting rich. The only requirement that Acts 29 places on the churches in its network is that they devote 10% of their collected tithes to furthering the kingdom through church planting. Primary allocation of those funds is preferred to be used in backing other Acts 29 churches, but no other restrictions or handling of these funds is enacted. These are church-to-church relationships not church-to-network-to-church relationships. This enables a local body to be more effective in its target city/region without being required to support other churches outside of that local city/region. Obviously the inverse holds true as well.
In addition, I have come to deeply appreciate Acts 29 as an organization that makes all of their resources freely available to anyone in the world.
All of the above, combined with much prayer and listening to God pooled to solidify in my heart that Acts 29 was the right network for 2 Pillars Church. Since joining up with them, I can honestly say that I have not been disappointed in any aspect or way. The magnitude of brotherhood and the commonality shared regarding the vision for spreading the gospel is impeccable.
For more on the Acts 29 Network, refer to the following helpful and informative sections of their website:
>Listing of all Acts 29 Churches
Have you seen the new Mark Driscoll Sermon Archive from Logos Bible Software? I thought you might be interested:
Mark Driscoll Sermon Archive