General Information

What is Acts 29?

Acts 29 is a trans-denominational peer to peer network of missional church planting churches.

What does Acts 29 do?

Acts 29 churches assist called and qualified pastors as they pursue their church planting dreams through assessment, coaching, training, funding, and friendship by connecting them with like minded people.

What are the distinctives of Acts 29?

Our men: We believe local churches should be governed by godly husbands and fathers who are biblically qualified elders serving under the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Head of the church.
Our mission: We believe Lord Jesus desires the planting of church planting churches.
Our message: We believe the reformed gospel about Jesus Christ is the central message of the Bible.

Where does the name Acts 29 come from?

There are 28 chapters in the book of Acts and our belief that God is at work today continuing the building of His church and expansion of His kingdom through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are simply seeking to follow in the pattern of Spirit-led and Scripture-directed church planting and evangelistic ministry that began in Acts and has continued in every age since through God’s faithful servants.

Philosophy of Ministry
Does Acts 29 have a philosophy of ministry?
We are a peer to peer network, so there is no mandated philosophy of ministry. However, our missional perspective flows out of a very high view of scripture on the one hand, and a total commitment to engage contemporary culture with the gospel on the other hand, using every effective means of communication.

Therefore, most Acts 29 planters/pastors are biblically and theologically well-read. We study hard in the Bible because we believe a clear and orthodox understanding of the Gospel is critical. When it comes to the Gospel we do not innovate. When it comes to culture, however, we seek continually to be innovative in our means of communication.

Understanding this distinction is key to understanding our missional perspective. It shapes the specific philosophy of ministry which any individual church plant will adopt. For this reason most Acts 29 pastors preach hard-hitting expository sermons through entire books of the Bible, speaking the unchanging Gospel directly into the ever-shifting winds of contemporary culture. For examples of the preaching, worship styles, and expressed values of Acts 29 churches, please visit the websites of the churches we have listed in our directory.

Beliefs & Core Values
What does Acts 29 believe?
The short answer is that we are first Christians, second Evangelicals, third Missional, and fourth Reformed. The more lengthy answer is included below and intentionally omits some finer points of doctrine and secondary issues as we allow the elders in our local churches to operate according to their convictions on these matters.

First, we are Christians which distinguishes us from other world religions and cults. Therefore, we adhere to both the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.

Second, we are Evangelicals and in agreement with the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals:

• 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.

Third, we are Missional:

• 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.

Fourth, we are Reformed:

• We believe that God created the heavens, the earth. We believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinless perfection with particular dignity as His image bearers on the earth.
• We believe that our first parents sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice. Sin has totally affected all of creation including marring human image and likeness so that all of our being is stained by sin (e.g. reasoning, desires, and emotions).
• We believe that because all people have sinned and separated themselves from the Holy God that he is obligated to save no one from the just deserved punishments of hell. We also believe that God in His unparalleled love and mercy has chosen to elect some people for salvation.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect was predestined by God in eternity past.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect was accomplished by the sinless life, substitutionary atoning death, and literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ in place of His people for their sins.
• We believe that the salvation of the elect by God’s grace alone shows forth in the ongoing repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ that leads to good works.
• We believe that God’s saving grace is ultimately irresistible and that God does soften even the hardest heart and save the worst of sinners according to His will.
• We believe that the gospel should be passionately and urgently proclaimed to all people so that all who believe may be saved through the preaching of God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit.
• We believe that true Christians born again of God’s Spirit will be kept by God throughout their life, as evidenced by personal transformation that includes an ever-growing love of God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit, love of brothers and sisters in the church, and love of lost neighbors in the culture.
• We believe that God is Lord over all of life and that there is nothing in life that is to be separated from God.
• We believe that the worship of God is the end for which people were created and that abiding joy is only to be found by delighting in God through all of life, including hardship and death which is gain.

What does Acts 29 not believe?
Because Acts 29 is often associated with other movements we frequently get questions about emerging theological controversies. To help clarify our beliefs we believe it may also be helpful to declare what we do not believe. In stating what we are not, we do not seek to attack those who disagree with us, but rather distinguish ourselves so that pastors considering joining our network are aware of who we are, as well as who we are not.

• We are not liberals who embrace culture without discernment and compromise the distinctives of the gospel, but rather Christians who believe the truths of the Bible are eternal and therefore fitting for every time, place, and people.
• We are not fundamentalists who retreat from cultural involvement and transformation, but rather missionaries faithful both to the content of Scripture and context of ministry.
• We are not isolationists and seek to partner with like-minded Christians from various churches, denominations and organizations in planting church-planting churches.
• We are not hyper-Calvinists who get mired down in secondary matters, but rather pray, evangelize, and do good works because we believe that the sovereign plan of God is accomplished through us, His people.
• We are not eschatological Theonomists or Classic Dispensationalists (e.g. Scofield) and believe that divisive and dogmatic certainty surrounding particular details of Jesus Second Coming are unprofitable speculation, because the timing and exact details of His return are unclear to us.
• We are not egalitarians and do believe that men should head their homes and male elders should lead their churches with masculine love like Jesus Christ.
• We are not Open Theists and believe in the sovereignty and foreknowledge of God in all things.
• We are not religious relativists and do believe that there is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ alone.
• We are not nationalists seeking to simply improve one nation but instead ambassadors of the King of Kings commissioned to proclaim and demonstrate the coming of His kingdom to all nations of the earth.
• We are not moralists seeking to help people live good lives, but instead evangelists laboring that people would become new creations in Christ.
• We are not relativists and do gladly embrace Scripture as our highest authority above such things as culture, experience, philosophy, and other forms of revelation.
• We are not Universalists and do believe that many people will spend eternity in the torments of hell as the Bible teaches.
• We are not naturalists and do believe that Satan and demons are real enemies at work in this world and subject to God.
• We are not rationalists and do believe that not everything can be known but that God calls us to live by faith with mystery and partial knowledge regarding many things.
• We are not evangelical feminists and do believe that God reveals Himself as a Father and is to be honored by the names He reveals to us without apology.
• We are not embarrassed by the bloody death of Jesus Christ and do believe He died as a substitute for the sins of His people in selfless love.
• We are not ashamed and do proclaim a loving gospel of grace which sounds like foolishness and offensiveness to the unrepentant while also saving multitudes with ears to hear good news.
• We are not polemicists who believe that it is our task to combat every false teaching but are passionate about preserving the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Church Planting
What kind of man is Acts 29 looking for as a lead church planter?
This is a key question because it hits the issue of the quality of man we believe God calls to lead a church plant. Mark Driscoll has written an article to answer this question, which you can read via the following link: "The Ox-Qualifications of an Acts 29 Church Planter".

What distinguishes Acts 29 from other similar groups?

• We are not a denomination but do work with like minded people from various denominations.
• We do not require dues to receive or retain membership in our network.
• We do not divide over issues not addressed in our doctrinal statement (e.g. mode of baptism, charismatic gifts, eschatology), but rather allow the elders in our various local churches to define their doctrinal distinctives.
• We are not solely a regional network and assist church planters across the United States.
• We are not solely a national movement and do partner with national movement leaders outside of the United States to assist their church planters.
• We are not bound by a common church style and believe that each local church should have a style best suited for them to be simultaneously faithful to both the content of Scripture and context of their ministry.
• We do not license or ordain pastors or planters but leave that to their sponsoring church or denomination.
• We do not send planters out to locations of our choosing to fulfill our ideas or agenda; rather we seek to serve planters as they obey what God has uniquely called them to do.