Acts 2 Church. 1 Timothy 3.

Something we hear regularly in evangelical circles is something like, "we want to be an Acts 2 church." Or, the variant, "we are an Acts 2 church." On occasion I may well have used that phrase too. What's the attraction, and what does it have to do with 1 Timothy? Here's what I wrote when we actually read Acts 2.

From what I can tell, the idea behind what people and churches mean when they say Acts 2 church, is twofold. First, they want to get as close as possible to the practices of the early church as described in Acts 2:42-47.

"They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles. All who believed were together and held everything in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-47 NET)

Second, there is a desire to experience the same intense work of God's Spirit in the church that occurred in Acts 2. The implication is that the church will actually seek the Spirit's leading and be completely open to the work of the Spirit -- relying on God's power instead of the people's. This is an expression of attitude, and Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:19 that while we each receive the presence of the Holy Spirit when we become Christians (Acts 1:8; 2:38), we are NOT to, "extinguish the Holy Spirit." In other words, God allows us to experience that power (or not) based on our actions and attitudes.

Here are a couple of statements from an organization called Acts 2 Churches that typify what is meant by Acts 2 churches. "Acts 2 (A2) is an association of ministries and churches striving to impact our culture by relating 1st century values to a 21st century life." "The purpose of Acts 2 is to progressively become 'a genuine model of a Christ-like community -- experiencing, demonstrating, and sharing the love of God.'"

Without discounting the values shared by the new church in Acts 2, nor the desires to be faithful churches to those values by modern-day churches, the fact is that in this chapter of Timothy we see another step in the evolution of the early church in the establishment of requirements for two offices -- overseer/bishop (episkopos in Greek), and deacon (diakonos in Greek). This isn't the first or only place we've read about the establishment of structure to the early church. In Acts 6, for example, the first deacons/servants are chosen to take care of the widows. In Acts 14:23, Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas had appointed elders in the churches they had founded. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about several gifts and positions in the church. But in this letter it's very clear that Paul was laying out a pattern of governance that could used in all the churches. The time of the first-generation apostles was drawing to a close.

In fact, we can't really go back to be an Acts 2-only church. We also have to be a 1 Tim 3 church. And a 1 Peter 2:9 church, and an Ephesians 4:11 church. Most importantly, no matter what form of governance a local church decides on, we have to be Christ's church.