Cross-cultural church planters know that they must use the New Testament as their guide for local church life and ministry. But a strong Christian cultural bias exists in all of us, so we have a tendency to replicate the Christian culture we benefited from back home. We must recognize this tendency, which if unchecked, can make cross-cultural church planting much more difficult. This was the emphasis in the previous article.

The missionary’s home church culture is not the standard for what a local church established on the mission field should look like. If the New Testament is truly our guide and not the missionary’s own cultural Christian experience back home, the task becomes much more doable. Why is this? The pattern given to us in the New Testament is simple.

Every church planter should ask himself this crucial question: What are the foundational activities that every local body of believers must fulfill to become a Christ-honoring church? In other words, what are the main activities that must be taught and followed before a missionary can legitimately say he has planted a church? If the Scriptures give us such guidance, then it becomes vital that missionaries focus on these key activities and not get distracted by secondary concerns.

Lessons from Sixty Years of Early Church History

Have you ever stopped to think about how much time is covered in the New Testament between Pentecost and the writing of Revelation? It is a span of about sixty years.

The Book of Acts describes the expansion of the Gospel, while the Epistles and Revelation provide numerous details about the many churches established throughout the Roman Empire. Some of the descriptions highlight when the churches were first formed; others focus on churches that were around for decades.

What the apostles and their colaborers did and did not do is instructive. What the individual churches are described as doing and not doing is also instructive. Through both the apostles’ words and example, we are shown principles for local church ministry that are true for the churches no matter where they might be. The Holy Spirit provides these patterns to guide the church until Jesus comes again.

Local Churches Can Thrive in Every Context

The New Testament illustrates church planting and church life that can be copied no matter the time or circumstance in which believers find themselves. World Empires? Covered. Slavery? Oppression of the poor? Covered. Ethnic tensions and racism? Covered. Poor towns? Wealthy cities? Covered. Incredibly immoral and debauched culture? Covered. Self-righteous religious culture? Covered. Complete paganism? Covered. Intense persecution? Religious freedom? Covered. By God’s design, His wisdom about local church life in every context is clearly on display.

Local Churches Have a Simple Pattern to Follow

Believers in Jesus Christ anywhere around the world can practice their Christian faith and know how to “be the Church” by reading the New Testament. As they do so, they will find utter simplicity in local church life. For example, there are only two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Table.¹ Practically speaking, baptism requires only a body of water. The Lord’s Table observance requires but wine/grape juice and bread. That’s it.

There are no festivals, holy days, or food laws to be kept.² The NT doesn’t give us any building/property expectations—not one church building is mentioned.³ Elders/pastors must be biblically qualified, yes, but no academic achievements are necessary.⁴ Professional ministers are not vital to “do church.” There are no schools, aid organizations, denominations, or political parties representing or supporting the churches.

As we observe what the Holy Spirit communicates through both example and teaching during these sixty years, the simplicity displayed for us is striking. This observation should cause us to reflect on whether our Christian experience inclines us to include as normative a host of non-essential privileges not described in the New Testament.

The Four Pillars of the Local Church

Acts 2:36–47 is a significant passage. The context is the Day of Pentecost. The passage illustrates for us what the Spirit’s indwelling and filling leads His people to do. It is the birth of the first local church body in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit’s design in recording these activities for us is to show us the “first works” of the church.

The pattern we are given by this church and which is continued through all the New Testament churches is simple and reproducible for every possible circumstance. What is this pattern? What did they do? Acts 2:42 provides the four core activities of the local church:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Everything God expects of His church in corporate worship and service for Him can be put under these four activities. These activities should take preeminence over all else.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

Devotion to the apostles’ teaching meant preaching, teaching, public reading of the Scriptures, singing of hymns and spiritual songs. Every individual body of believers must be fed by the Word of God through these means.

The missionary pours the Word of God into His people⁵ and teaches others to do the same.⁶ Some don’t understand, however, the primary importance of singing hymns and spiritual songs as a major means of teaching God’s truth. Paul understood this. Twice he exhorted the churches to teach and exhort each other through song.⁷ Illiterate and less-literate peoples are especially helped by the Word of God through song.

They devoted themselves to spiritual fellowship

The people converted at Pentecost formed a spiritual family united in Jesus Christ. They were now to share life together, encouraging one another, exhorting and correcting one another, and lovingly sacrificing for one another, even materially if needed. The local church became their main identity, their first family, blood-related kinfolk now coming in second.

This is a spiritual fellowship, focused on God and His truth, prayer, and strengthening one another. We might swap stories, share jokes, recreate together, and talk “shop,” but our main topic of conversation and interest together is our shared faith. We must know one another’s joys and sorrows, bear one another’s burdens, and serve each other.

They devoted themselves to the Lord’s Table (breaking of bread)

As 1 Corinthians 11 illustrates for us, the Lord’s Table was often preceded by a fellowship meal, which is referred to as a “love feast” in Jude 12. The purpose of this meal before the Lord’s Table was to illustrate oneness and unity in Christ between ethnicities and varying social classes. Fellowship around a common meal is symbolic of unity for believers.

The Lord’s Table itself, the receiving of the bread and cup, was not merely an ordinance for personal worship. It was corporate worship, a public declaration—we share one faith, one Lord, one baptism; we are made one in Jesus Christ and depend upon Him alone for salvation, taking the bread and cup in unison. By it we declare together that we choose the cup of the Lord and not that of demons

(1 Corinthians 10). We take it to declare together that we are followers of Jesus Christ. We remember together what Christ has done and that we all wait for His return.

They devoted themselves to corporate prayer

Meeting together for concentrated prayer as small groups or one larger group is emphasized here. It is here that we depend upon our God together, worship Him together, intercede for one another, pray for the lost, and pray for laborers for the harvest. This is a primary activity of the local church, not a burden to be borne!

This is what we see God’s people doing before Pentecost and after. We see the believers praying in earnest for boldness and for the Gospel to advance (Acts 4). They prayed as they ordained leaders, and a main reason for this selection of deacons was to free the apostles for more time in prayer (Acts 6). The church was gathered for prayer when Peter was delivered from prison by the angel (Acts 12). Barnabas and Paul were sent out with prayer (Acts 13). In their letters, the apostles instructed and exhorted the churches continually to pray.

Obedience to the Great Commission can also be considered within these four goals for the Church, though some might add it as a fifth activity.

Upholding Beautiful Simplicity

Any group of believers faithfully engaged in the activities listed in Acts 2:42 honors Jesus Christ. Missionaries must plant churches that follow this simple pattern, one that can be followed anywhere. We must allow the local believers to build upon the foundation laid, possibly then adding secondary aspects to their ministries as they grow in number and maturity. Our task is to emphasize the beautiful simplicity of the pattern given us by God’s Spirit.