Acts: The Missional Church

This course introduces the book of Acts and its implications for the missional church. We look at the two-volume work of Luke-Acts, the genre, authorship and date, audience, setting and purpose, as well as the various structures that we find in Acts. Three key concepts are then developed. First, the power of the Holy Spirit sustains the church and drives it forward. The same Spirit is at work today in our lives and ministries, bringing renewal to a broken world. Second, the church consists of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, social standing, levels of education, and cultures. One of the amazing qualities of the Gospel is its ability to speak to every people in their setting. Third, to contextualise the Gospel is to internalize it, and to live it out. Like the early Christians, who preached the message successfully in their respective contexts in a culturally and contextually relevant way, students in this course are challenged to do the same. By the end of this course you should be able to:

• explain the unity of Luke-Acts
• compare the various structures embedded in the book of Acts (and Luke-Acts)
• critically evaluate the value of intercultural exegesis
• explain the central role of the Holy Spirit in the establishment and growth of the New Testament church
• design an approach that will allow more space for the Holy Spirit to direct their ministries
• explain the danger of cultural exclusion in Gospel ministry
• evaluate an African contextual and liberationist perspective to mission
• combine elements from the writings of different authors in this module to promote the contextualisation of the Gospel in their context
• construct sermons that make the Gospel relevant in a postmodern world