Acts 29

[kevintraxon]

Hey Mike -- new to the forum here. Heard yesterday that the association with your support was hiring an ACTS 29 church planter. What is your opinion of ACTS 29? What about their view on three specific things: reformed theology, ecclesiology/elder rule, and social drinking? How does this fit with "SBaptist" thought?

[Mike Miller]

Hi. Thanks for the question. The man you are referring to has been one of our church planters for some time, and he is one of the best and brightest I have ever known. My personal opinion of Acts 29 is that they are a highly effective church planting network. They are recruiting, assessing, and training church planters who are proving themselves with really good track records.

Our position as an association is that we believe the Southern Baptist tent is large enough to include Acts 29 churches who also subscribe to our Baptist Faith and Message. In fact, the Baptist Faith and Message defines our theological boundaries. The BF&M does not address Reformed theology or social drinking. It does, however, address ecclesiology. We are planting Southern Baptist churches which recognize pastors and deacons as the two biblical offices. We Baptists have also always held that the terms "pastor," "bishop," and "elder" are used interchangeably in the New Testament. Therefore, if our church plants use the term "elder," and they function as the pastors, and if there is some system of democratic process in place, then we see no disagreement. Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, and we hope to plant like-minded churches that maintain our theological distinctions. We do not, however, want to draw our boundaries any more narrowly than what we have in our agreed-upon document, the Baptist Faith and Message.

[kevintraxon]

Thanks for the info. I am excited to see this and think some churches along the lines of Matt Chadler/Mark Driscoll in our city will be great.