The Four Churches of the Book of Acts – Week 22 / May 26th

The Four Churches of the Book of Acts – Week 22 / May 26th

by admin

1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Acts 13:1-2; Titus 1:5-6

 

Paul the Apostle believed in “church craft”as he saw himself as a “master builder”. That is, he went about his ministry with intentionality and purpose. He knew what he intended to build and gave himself to it, but sadly today it is not so!

 

Much of Christian work is haphazard and fad driven. There are in fact four types of churches in the book of Acts. Which type of church are you called to build?

 

  1. The Blending Church

This type of church speaks into the culture of which it is a part and it is typified by the church in Jerusalem led by James. It is therefore led by a strong ministry gift around which others gather to enable. This gift ministry can be seen as the tip of the spear enabled by the shaft; those who gather around the lead ministry.

 

The dangers are compromise and lack of succession. An example of this compromise is the apartheid era churches in South Africa that embraced segregation in the house of a God! They became a reflection of society and not of Christ!

 

  1. The Sending Church

This church is typified by the church at Antioch which had a number of leaders described as Prophets and Teachers; Paul was amongst them.(Acts 13:1-2)  The church was then led by a ministry team and not one individual or so called Senior Pastor. The sending church is an incubation church in that it brings forth strong Ephesian four gift ministries and then gives them away to the work of God. It therefore has a high degree of commitment to equipping and is dependent upon a strong sense of submission to be successful.

 

The dangers facing this church are schism and discouragement. The former  because strong gifted leaders have to dwell together in love and the latter because this model of church gives away its best ministry gifts as we see with Paul and Barnabas.

 

  1. The Missionary Church

This is the dominant expression of the church in the New Testament. It is in fact the denominational church! That is, a number of churches held together in fellowship by a team of ministers (Apostles) and empowered by a gathering or synod. This is the type of church that Paul built! It requires a well defined manner of working and a strong unified vision. In this regard note 1Corinthians 11:16 and Titus 1:5-6. This remains the most effective and powerful expression of the church in the world.

 

The Wesleys built the Methodist Church

John Wimber built the Vineyard Church

Dudley Daniels built the New Covenant movement Azusa Street led directly to the birthing of the Apostolic Faith Mission, the Church of God ( Full Gospel Church) and the Assemblies of God Count Zinzendorf built the Moravian Church Bhengu planted thousands of churches of the Assemblies of God of Southern Africa.

The Apostolic Faith Mission of Namibia has in one year led 209,000 people to Jesus!

 

It is worth noting that we have much of the New Testament because Paul planted a missionary church. The dangers facing this model is exclusivism and fossilization; a movement becomes a monument.

 

  1. The Persecuted Church

Pictured by the Church at Rome requiring a high degree of caring and connectedness. Though Paul had never been to Rome he nevertheless was able to name and greet the churches that were everywhere meeting in homes. (Romans 16)

 

Things to Check in 2016

 

  1. Worship leaders or song leaders John 4:23 Most churches today have song leaders, albeit good ones, but not worship leaders. Those who worship God must do so “in spirit and truth.” Truth informs us about the nature and character of God thus enabling us to “worthship” God correctly. Worshipping “in spirit” means connecting with that eternal place within us where God indwells us. We thus begin to mingle with heaven and so Paul states that we should worship God with our minds, involving musical instruments and our languages, and with our spirits, involving our heavenly tongues and languages corporately orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:14-15)

 

It is important to note that song leading only touches the mind or soul of people. It can be moving and blessed and is worship but the song leader must know “when to the turn the tap off”, thereby abandoning instruments of all types, and how to bring the people into worship by their spirits in the power of the Holy Spirit. I well remember the days in Cape Town when we would sing in tongues for ten and fifteen minutes and in heavenly spiritual songs that were nothing short of glorious. This sadly, in most churches, even so called Spirit filled ones, is a thing of the past. Why?

 

  1. Preachers of a gnostic gospel Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3 The gnostic gospel is the proclamation by preachers of special revelation truth that, if acted upon when heard, will give the hearers more of God. I have heard this error all over the world. The truth is God’s “more box” is empty; He has nothing more to give you as He has already blessed us ” with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” The truth is, we do not need more of God, He needs more of us! Paul prays that God’s children will have their eyes open to understand “His inheritance in them!” (Ephesians 1:15-18)

 

What we need is more devotion, prayer, submission, faithfulness and discipline by which to appropriate all that God in Christ has already given us. Beware of the gnostic preachers.

 

  1. The house of God Matthew 21:13 Jesus said that “His house” should be a “house of prayer for all nations.” Today the local church is anything but a house of prayer since the weekly prayer meeting is routinely tucked away in a small room where less than ten percent of the congregation gather for prayer. The truth is, prayer should be the main function of the whole congregation and the local church must urgently restructure itself to make this happen. Indeed the local church is and should be a house of teaching, preaching and singing but its most important function is that of prayer. Until we get our spiritual priorities right in this regard we will not see the revival we all claim we desire and the nation will not be touched again by the power of God.

 

  1. The new apostles Titus 2:15, 1John 2:17; Revelation 2:2 Apostles are those Prophets, Teachers and Evangelists who are sent out to plant new churches where Jesus has not been proclaimed. (Romans 15:14-21) This alone is the qualification of a biblical Apostle. Apostles are not sent out to rehabilitate the cities of our world and their so called “seven mountains” of human endeavor. The truth is, God is determined to overthrow the world order and it is already passing away. You cannot rehabilitate the “Titanic” as it is already sinking but you can get as many people as possible off it if you are “salt and light.” We are called to retard wickedness so that the Gospel of Jesus can be preached everywhere and so our hope is not in a rehabilitated world system but in the visible and real second coming of Jesus.

 

The so called “New Apostolic Movement” is not going to take over the systems of our world before Jesus comes as this is not our calling. We call people out of the world by our preaching and Jesus when He comes will take over the world and rule it with a “rod of iron.” Blessed be His name!

 

Malcolm Hedding.

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