Strategy: The Apostolic Cycle
Overview
Our goal is to align our strategy with the strategy of Jesus and his apostles. What was their overarching approach? The Apostolic Cycle provides a framework that summarizes how the resurrected and reigning Jesus led his apostles and the early church during the first thirty to sixty years of the New Testament era. More specifically, it summarizes the apostles’ core commitments, goals, and activities as seen in the book of Acts and the New Testament letters. With these categories in mind, the cycle helps us align ourselves with Jesus’s leadership in our own day.
At least ten core commitments undergirded and permeated every part of the cycle—such as devotion to the Word of God and prayer. These commitments translated into concrete practices that were integrated into the life of the first-century church. On the basis of Jesus’s authority, presence, and guidance, he directed his apostles and the church to pursue three central goals for advancing his mission: (1) reach non-Christians with the gospel, (2) strengthen Christians in community, and (3) develop leaders to start and strengthen churches. These goals build on one another—evangelism leads to discipleship, discipleship develops leaders, and leaders multiply and strengthen churches through the ongoing work of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development. Each goal is carried out through five core activities that are transcultural—essential in every context, though their expression may vary.
This overarching strategy drives our vision to start, strengthen, and multiply churches.
Detailed Explanation
The following statements explain the nature of this cycle and its relevance for today—organized into: (1) Core Commitments, (2) Goals, (3) Activities for Each of the Goals, (4) Transferability Across Cultures, (5) Ministry Methods, (6) Framework for Action among Church Leaders, and (7) Obstacles and Correctives.
1. Core Commitments
Ten core commitments (or priorities) undergirded and saturated every part of the Apostolic Cycle. Ultimately, Christians are committed to the triune God of the Bible—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and they seek to honor each person of the Trinity as outlined in Scripture.[1] In light of God’s supreme worth and authority, Christians commit themselves to fellowship with God and others, godly character, the Word of God, prayer and fasting, the mission of Jesus Christ (which is to make disciples of all nations), using spiritual gifts to strengthen the church, care for those in need, praise and thanksgiving, and biblical leadership (shepherds/elders/overseers, deacons, and faithful women who labored in ministry).
These core commitments translated into concrete activities that were never compartmentalized in the life of the first-century church. For example, prayer was not only a part of the process of commissioning leaders; it was related to each part of the Apostolic Cycle.
2. Goals
Based on Jesus’s supernatural authority, presence, and guidance, he led his apostles and the rest of the church to pursue three main goals to advance his mission:
reach non-Christians with the gospel,
strengthen Christians in community, and
develop leaders to start and strengthen churches.
These ongoing, mutually reinforcing goals are most evident in Acts, as we observe the apostles’ words and actions over three decades of ministry. For example, the apostle Paul followed a general pattern of ministry that reflected these goals:
he proclaimed the gospel in new areas,
he gathered new believers into Christian communities (which met publicly and privately in homes),
he appointed elders to lead these communities, and
he strengthened the communities through his personal visits, by writing them letters (such as Romans and 1 Corinthians), and by sending them his ministry partners.
As these communities became established in the faith, they birthed new leaders, new initiatives, and new churches—thereby moving the cycle forward.[2]
3. Activities for Each of the Goals
Each of the goals was carried forward by five activities:
1. Reaching Non-Christians with the Gospel
The church:
Engaged target audiences in diverse settings—such as synagogues, marketplaces, and homes—often by meeting needs and building everyday relationships. The church met people where they were, forming relationships that opened doors for gospel witness.
Proclaimed the message of God’s saving work through Jesus, emphasizing his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation to God’s right hand as Lord, Christ, and Savior. They centered their message on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Called people to repent and trust in Jesus. Evangelism included a clear invitation to turn from sin and believe in Christ for salvation.
Baptized new believers. Conversion was publicly marked by baptism as a sign of repentance and faith.
Incorporated new believers into Christian communities—churches that met both in homes and publicly. New disciples were immediately gathered into local fellowships for worship and growth.[3]
2. Strengthening Christians in Community
The church:
Took the Lord’s Supper together in the context of extended fellowship meals. They shared meals that reinforced their unity and remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice.
Studied the Word—including the apostles’ oral teaching and later their written letters. Ongoing instruction in Scripture was central to their spiritual maturity.
Prayed to God, seeking his guidance and power. Prayer bound believers together in dependence on the Spirit’s leading.
Ministered to one another by meeting physical needs, offering encouragement, bearing burdens, and, when necessary, exercising church discipline. Mutual care expressed the love and holiness of the Christian community.
Sang to God in worship, giving thanks and building one another up in faith. Worship through song nurtured both gratitude to God and unity among believers.[4]
3. Developing Leaders to Start and Strengthen Churches
The church:
Identified current and emerging leaders who were faithful and teachable. Leadership development began with discerning character and potential.
Trained them through both formal instruction and practical ministry experience. Training combined doctrine with real ministry engagement.
Commissioned leaders—including shepherds (pastors)/elders/overseers, deacons, and missionaries—for service. Churches publicly affirmed and sent out those called to lead and serve.
Supported leaders through financial giving, encouragement, and prayer. They sustained their leaders spiritually and materially in their mission.
Reunited leaders to report on their ministry work, reflect on God’s activity, and plan their next steps. Ongoing accountability and collaboration kept the mission coordinated and Spirit-led.[5]
These are not the only activities of the church, but the fifteen activities listed above reflect the primary, recurring functions of the church. They are essential and representative rather than exhaustive, and they demonstrate how the first-century church carried out Jesus’s mission in ways that are both faithful to Scripture and adaptable across cultures.
4. Transferability Across Cultures
The Apostolic Cycle is directly transferable across cultures and across time. Why? These commitments, goals, and activities are (1) repeated in the book of Acts, (2) presented in a positive light, and (3) affirmed in other portions of Scripture.
So what would it look like to adopt the apostles’ approach? Based on Jesus’s authority and commands as recorded in Scripture:
We adopt the apostles’ commission from Jesus (to make disciples of all nations).
We adopt the apostles’ core commitments (such as the Word of God, prayer, and thanksgiving to God).
We adopt the apostles’ goals (reaching non-Christians with the gospel, strengthening Christians in community, and developing leaders to start and strengthen churches).
We adopt the apostles’ activities (such as baptizing new believers and commissioning leaders).
We adopt the apostles’ evangelistic message (that Jesus died to atone for sins, was raised from the dead by God, now reigns at the right hand of God, and will return in judgment).
We adopt the apostles’ teachings to define the nature of Christian maturity.
In each of these areas, churches must pattern their ministries after the apostles’ ministries.
5. Ministry Methods
However, ministry methods will vary. A method is a particular way of accomplishing a task. As it relates to the Apostolic Cycle, knowing which methods to use requires the wise application of biblical truths in unique settings and with unique people. There are different methods for accomplishing clear, biblical mandates in Scripture, and these methods (or unique approaches) include:
how we engage target audiences (such as serving others within our neighborhoods or addressing university students in public forums),
which resources we use to explain the gospel to non-Christians, to establish new believers in the faith, and to train leaders, and
what songs we sing and the types of music we use.
Our theology must drive and shape our ministry methods, and therefore not all ministry methods are equally valid or effective. For example, many training materials poorly represent the apostles’ teaching on the nature of the gospel or life in Christian community, and many worship songs are superficial at best and distorted at worst. Additionally, not every method is well-suited for a given target audience or context, and therefore our methods must be flexible. For example, while the core truths of the Bible never change, the way we approach sharing them with an orthodox Jew or a postmodern atheist will almost certainly have unique emphases. What is critical to recognize is that the Bible directs us to certain tasks (including prayer, teaching the Word, and proclaiming the one true gospel) that find unique expressions among God’s people.[6]
6. Framework for Action among Church Leaders
For each of the core commitments, how will we express it in our churches?
The Triune God of the Bible (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
Fellowship with God and Others
Godly Character
The Word of God
Prayer and Fasting
The Mission of the Church: To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ
Spiritual Gifts
Care for Those in Need
Praise and Thanksgiving
Biblical Leadership (elders/overseers, deacons, leading women)
For each activity that reaches non-Christians, how will we implement it (including reaching our congregants’ family members and friends)?
Engage Target Audiences
Proclaim the Message (of God’s saving work through Jesus)
Call People to Repent and Trust in Jesus
Baptize New Believers
Incorporate New Believers into Churches
For each activity that strengthens Christians in community, how will we implement it in our churches?
Take the Lord’s Supper (ideally in the context of fellowship meals)
Study the Word
Pray to God
Minister to Others
Sing to God
For each activity that develops leaders to start and strengthen churches, how will we implement it in our churches?
Identify Current and Emerging Leaders
Train Leaders
Commission Leaders
Support Leaders
Reunite Leaders
How will we develop our networks (particularly men identifying, recruiting, training, and supporting other men) to start, strengthen, and multiply churches?
Once leaders make decisions in each of these areas, the process of implementing, assessing, and evaluating their decisions begins—leading them to modify existing plans and/or create new plans.
7. Obstacles and Correctives
Healthy mission begins with strong believers who are strengthened in community. As believers grow together in faith, love, and obedience, they become stable, Spirit-filled disciples who can bear fruit and reproduce. This strengthening process—rooted in worship, teaching, prayer, and mutual care—forms the foundation for leadership development and fuels authentic evangelism. Without it, the church’s efforts in outreach and leadership training lose their depth and endurance.
Throughout history, however, churches have often faltered by neglecting one or more parts of the Apostolic Cycle. When believers are not strengthened in community, the church’s witness weakens and its mission becomes unbalanced.
Evangelism without discipleship leads to weak and vulnerable believers. People may make professions of faith but lack grounding in Scripture, prayer, and life together in Christian community. Without instruction, accountability, and encouragement, new believers remain spiritual infants—excited but unstable, easily led astray by false teaching or worldly pressures.
Discipleship without leadership development leads to dependency and stagnation. When mature believers are not equipped and commissioned to lead, the church becomes dependent on a small number of overextended leaders. Without intentional multiplication, ministry bottlenecks form, and growth plateaus. The next generation of leaders must be identified, trained, and released to carry the mission forward.
Leadership development without evangelism produces inward-focused churches that lose their missionary zeal. When leaders are trained primarily for maintenance rather than mission, churches drift toward self-preservation. They may grow in structure but lose their passion for reaching the lost, neglecting the outward movement that fueled the early church.
The book of Acts itself provides Spirit-led correctives to these imbalances. When the church faced neglect in serving widows, the apostles appointed deacons to restore unity and care (Acts 6:1–6). When doctrinal division threatened gospel clarity, the apostles and elders convened the Jerusalem Council to preserve unity in truth (Acts 15:1–35). When new believers were vulnerable to persecution and false teaching, Paul and his co-workers returned to those churches, strengthening them and appointing leaders (Acts 14:21–23; 20:28–32).
The lesson is clear: the church thrives only when all parts of the Apostolic Cycle work together—evangelizing the lost, strengthening believers in community, and developing leaders who carry the mission forward. Recognizing these common breakdowns and learning from the biblical correctives helps churches today maintain health, balance, and alignment with Jesus’s mission to make disciples of all nations.
A Call to Holistic Apostolic Ministry
There are no apostles today with a capital “A”—no one bears the unique authority of those original eyewitnesses of Christ’s resurrection. Yet the church is still called to align itself with the pattern they established. The Apostolic Cycle is not a menu to choose from but a holistic framework. If even one element is neglected, the entire system is weakened and placed in jeopardy.
This raises an important question for discussion: Of the ten core commitments and fifteen core activities of the apostles, which ones, if neglected, would most endanger the health and mission of the church? For example, what if we fail to proclaim Jesus’s death and resurrection? What if we neglect to call people to repentance and saving faith in Christ? What if we reduce the Lord’s Supper—established by Jesus and practiced by the early church—to something optional rather than essential in Christian gatherings?
The apostolic vision is more like a functioning vehicle than a collection of optional parts. A car requires an engine, a starter, fuel, and tires—remove any one, and the vehicle cannot function properly. In the same way, the church needs every part of the Apostolic Cycle. When even one element is missing—whether true gospel proclamation, the practice of the Lord’s Supper, or the development of leaders—the mission stalls. But when the whole pattern is embraced, the church moves forward with power, balance, and direction, carrying the witness of Christ to the ends of the earth.
Questions for Reflection and Action
What initial comments or questions do you have about what you read—whether something you found insightful, challenging, or confusing?
How would you summarize the main teachings of this document in your own words?
What are the negative consequences when the church fails to teach and apply these truths?
What common misunderstandings, distractions, or rival habits keep Christians from living out these truths?
How do these truths support and shape the church’s vision to start, strengthen, and multiply churches?
Which of the suggested practices or applications do you find most encouraging, challenging, or thought-provoking—and why?
What is one way you or your church could put these truths into practice in the coming weeks?
References
[1] For an excellent introduction to the theology of the book of Acts see Patrick Schreiner’s The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts.
[2] For more information on the apostles’ goals, see Reed, Acts: Keys to the Establishment and Expansion of the First-Century Church; ibid., Leaders and the Early Church; Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies, and Methods, 209–255; Ott and Wilson, Global Church Planting: Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication, 153–301.
[3] For more information on evangelism in the first-century church, see Green, Evangelism in the Early Church; Keown, Discovering the New Testament: An Introduction to Its Background, Theology, and Themes (Volume II, The Pauline Letters), 454–506; Reed, “Kerygmatic Communities” in The Encyclicals: A Global Return to ‘The Way of Christ and His Apostles’; ibid., “Church-based Missions: Creating a New Paradigm” in The Paradigm Papers: New Paradigms for the Postmodern Church; Schnabel, Acts, 127–129; ibid., Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies, and Methods, 155–208, 256–373.
[4] For more information on strengthening Christians in community, see Bock, A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations, 303–332; Ferguson, The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today; Peterson, “The Worship of the New Community” in Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts; Reed, Pauline Epistles: Strategies for Establishing Churches; ibid., Understanding the Essentials of Sound Doctrine; ibid., “The Churches of the First Century” in The Encyclicals: A Global Return to ‘The Way of Christ and His Apostles.’
[5] For more information on developing leaders, see Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally; Reed, “Church-based Leadership Training: A Proposal,” “Church-based Theological Education: Creating a New Paradigm,” and “Church-based Leadership: Creating a New Paradigm” in The Paradigm Papers: New Paradigms for the Postmodern Church.
[6] For more information on ministry methods, see Dever & Alexander, How to Build a Healthy Church: A Practical Guide for Deliberate Leadership; Terry & Payne, Developing a Strategy for Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Cultural Introduction.