What Is a New Testament Church?

ByJ.D. Manders
What Is a New Testament Church?

When I was a young believer, my mentors spoke about the necessity of imitating the New Testament church. They were mostly idealists, Jesus People, or anti-establishment types rejected by mainstream churches. Some tried to change the denominational churches they attended, some attended nondenominational churches then becoming popular, and some stopped attending church altogether. All questioned traditional Christianity. They complained of the authoritarian structure, unemotional services, limited intervention of the Holy Spirit, and the general lack of love for social outcasts. They were radicals in that they sought to return to the roots of the church, to a simpler time when people lived in love and power when modern structures and traditions did not exist. If you want renewal, they argued, if you want to have a New Testament experience, it is necessary to imitate the New Testament church.

If one were to define the elements that made up the New Testament experience in the Acts of the Apostles, it would include several critical items. First and foremost, it would include the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, one cannot discuss the church at all without the Holy Spirit. While Pentecostals and Charismatics focus primarily on gifts of the Holy Spirit and miracles, the role of the Holy Spirit is considerably more than this. In Acts, the Spirit is an independent actor who leads, approves, coaxes, helps, empowers, and guides. Both apostles and ordinary believers sought Him before every major decision. Paul said, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

Whenever the Holy Spirit leads the church, we can expect to receive power and authority to accomplish God’s purpose. Perhaps the most important way that we see the activity of the Holy Spirit is through the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), changes in character that result from the indwelling Spirit. In fact, the early church held the fruit of the spirit in greater esteem than the gifts. Jesus said that many would come claiming they prophesied in God’s name yet would not enter the kingdom of God (Mt. 7:21-23). In Acts, disciples experienced a level of love, peace, joy, goodness, faith, and charity that rarely exist today. How many in the church would be willing to sell all they have to give to the needy? How many would undergo the level of persecution they did and carry on without hatred? Most today bear fruit only in part. They tithe but are unwilling to give of all their substance. They love, but only when it’s convenient. Without the active assistance of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to have fruit, yet it is exactly this experience that draws the poor and oppressed to the church.

Another characteristic of the New Testament church that many observe in Acts is that the church was what some might call “organic.” The church in Acts was alive, natural, wild, and unpredictable, not dead, artificial, controlled, or contrived. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the church is alive, with results that are often unexpected. For some, this means that the New Testament church was mostly unstructured. According to this view, there was no single leader responsible for decisions in the church, and much that we find familiar in terms of organization and liturgy evolved later. At the beginning were only a group of people intent on worshiping and serving the Lord. Those who favor this view argue that a lack of institutions required people to look to the Spirit to meet all needs, and that without traditional trappings the church would be forced to rely on the Spirit alone for guidance.

Yet it is a mistake to say that there was no structure, organization, doctrine, or rites in the early church. While Jesus only used the word church twice in the gospels in Mt. 16:21 and 18:17, He established its key rites (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), its first office (apostles), and its primary doctrines. He established the framework; the details He left to others. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the apostles established social structures (meeting times and places), offices (deacons and elders), and doctrines (the divinity of Christ and grace). Nevertheless, there is little doubt that, even at the end of Acts, the early church was more primitive and dynamic and less formalized and static than the church today.

A final reason some give for the success of the New Testament church is its egalitarian nature. Many have suggested that a New Testament church must first and foremost get away from the dictatorship of the clergy. In Acts, while the apostles provided doctrine, they chose not to directly shepherd the flock but worked through deacons, elders, and a plurality of leaders. There were no priests. There was no single pastor. We do not see a monarchial bishopric or a hierarchy of offices. Of course, there are hints that some churches already had a single leader; the best one can say is that organizational practices varied by location. What is more important is that in the New Testament church, ordinary Christians were involved in ministry. This created an environment where the Spirit could move freely, not being bound by the dictates of one or two easily corruptible men. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit cannot function under other forms of government; God moves in every believer who allows Him. But the ideal government is one in which all of the congregation acts based on the guidance of the Holy Spirit regardless of who is in charge.

Now, I do not wish to over-idealize the New Testament church. There is a tendency to believe the apostles did not have the kind of problems we have in the church today. Acts makes clear there was as much hypocrisy and corruption in the church then as today. The lies of Ananias and Sapphira demonstrate this. There were doctrinal disputes and divisions based on personalities and racism. They argued about whether Gentiles should be circumcised, whether it was proper for Jewish believers to eat with Gentiles, who was an apostle or not, how to conduct rites, and the importance of the gifts of the Spirit. Yet they did not paper over problems or dictate solutions but worked together to obtain greater doctrinal clarity.

Whether it was because of the leading of the Spirit, less formality, or the involvement of all people, the New Testament church was highly successful. On its first day, the church drew 8,000 new members. In a matter of a generation, the church evangelized all the world then known. They built a community that could survive persecution because of the love they had for each other. Today, only talented evangelists or teams of well-trained ministers accomplish a portion of what the early church did when they turned the world upside down. The church calls such movements “revival” because they wish to revive or replicate this same period. Yet if they wished to achieve a revival of the proportions we see in the New Testament, they would do well to learn and imitate the New Testament church.

J.D. Manders

J.D. Manders is a deacon and lead teacher at the Endeavor Church, the administrator of the Endeavor Learning Lab, and is the incoming registrar, community outreach director, and student pastor at HTI. He is the author of numerous historical and biblical studies, most notably The Christmas Letters: Letters from a Soldier to His Children About the Meaning of Christmas, Draw Near to God: Meditations on the Psalms, and Basic Christian Beliefs: An Introduction to Christian Theology.

He wrote the Christmas Letters while deployed to Iraq to discuss Christmas traditions with his children. Draw Near to God originated in one of his earliest Bible courses about the book of Psalms. He wrote Basic Christmas Beliefs as part of a highschool-level course he taught to homeschool children at the Endeavor Learning Lab.

Mr. Manders holds a master's degree in history from the University of Mississippi, completed the fifth year program in education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and is a recent graduate of the Pastoral Ministry Training program at HTI. He has also completed numerous military education courses, including the Intermediate Leadership Education course and Advanced Operations course. He is an active member and officer in the Army National Guard and has deployed three times to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.