Recently Ryan announced DSC’s hopes to partner with the Acts 29 Network in our effort to become a church planting church. For some of us, Acts 29 calls to mind familiar churches, church plants, and church leaders. Others of us are flipping through the Bible to find out what happened in Acts chapter 29.

The Acts 29 Network is a trans-denominational network of churches distinguished by three commitments:

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.

Outside of these commitments, Acts 29 churches are relatively diverse. Some are denominationally associated, many are not. Some are rural, some are suburban, others are urban. In terms of church ministry methods and style, Acts 29 churches are all over the map. But they are all centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, committed to the authority of Scripture and distinguished by their commitment to qualified biblical male leadership, multiplying churches that plant churches, and a reformed understanding of the gospel.

Of course, DSC can be happily committed to these things without an official association with the Acts 29 Network. But a partnership with Acts 29 offers DSC an invaluable help in fulfilling our mission to plant churches. That, after all, is risky business.

This Sunday, Ryan prefaced his message with a number of reasons for our partnership with Acts 29. Here they are:

• Simply put, A29 is one of the most effective church planting networks in history
• We share their theology and ministry philosophy: The solas, male leadership, being missional, differentiating between open and closed hand issues
• We need help, partnership, & resources for church planting – like 1615 helped us for global missions.
• It will also help DSC grow towards an identity of “every member missional living” – it pulls us in that direction, and we need energy and momentum in that direction.
• It is not a denomination, so this is consistent with what we’ve always said that we want to be a non-denom church but not an unconnected church. We want to find strategic, helpful partnerships even across denominational lines.
• Possible Acts 29 connections and partnerships for our work in Guatemala and in North Africa.

The attrition rate is high among church plants and the costs are great. The network is young, but we see God’s blessing on their work and the application of the kind of hard learned church planting wisdom that DSC needs. It is just bad stewardship to reinvent this wheel with help like this available.

This video trailer for Darren Patrick’s new book, Church Planter: The Man, The Mission, The Message, communicates in a personal, serious and compelling way the heart of this network of church planting churches. For more information about the Acts 29 Network, check out their website, and the Frequently Asked Questions page, which details the doctrinal commitments, ministry philosophy and leadership structure of Acts 29.

As you may have discovered, there are only 28 chapters in the book of Acts. The Acts 29 Network is so called because “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 the book of Acts and has continued in every age since through God’s faithful servants.”

That is a chapter we want to help make. Actually, it’s a chapter we’re already a part of, and a partnership with the network by this name will serve us in spreading God’s glory broader and deeper in the years ahead.