What is Going on at Acts 29?

By now, it is common knowledge that Acts 29’s CEO Steve Timmis was fired. According a report in Christianity Today, he was let go “amid accusations of abusive leadership.” The ripple effects are significant. His church in the UK is investigating and his publisher stopped selling his books. All of this is in the CT article.

The essence of the charges against Timmis involve micromanaging and defensiveness when challenged. According to the CT piece, Acts 29 staff members brought this to Acts 29 president Matt Chandler’s attention in 2015. However, Chandler led the dismissal of those staffers and required them to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to get their severance packages.

It is worth noting that Steve Timmis was on Acts 29’s board when Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church was removed from the Acts 29 Network in August 2014. Now we learn that within a year of that act, Timmis was accused of nearly the same actions and protected by Chandler and the Acts 29 board. What changed?

Another name on the list of board members who removed Driscoll was Darrin Patrick. In 2016, Patrick was removed from The Journey in St. Louis for “pastoral misconduct.” Steve Timmis was on Patrick’s restoration team. Now Patrick is back in business.

While none of this may influence how to plant a church, those who are in the market for such services should be aware of what they are getting into.

 

 

 

14 thoughts on “What is Going on at Acts 29?”

  1. “While none of this may influence how to plant a church, those who are in the market for such services should be aware of what they are getting into.”

    A bit disingenuous don’t you think? One would think that swift decisions to remove people in power who have abused said power might be a sign that the organization as a whole is committed to health.

  2. “While none of this may influence how to plant a church, those who are in the market for such services should be aware of what they are getting into.”

    A bit disingenuous don’t you think? One would think that swift decisions to remove people in power who have abused said power might be a sign that the organization as a whole is committed to health.

      1. It would be difficult to overstate how big a job it was to restructure and reorganize the leadership of A29 following the Driscoll fallout. From my vantage point, that has mostly been done with a great deal of perseverance and humility (certainly with bumps along the way. And that is true of an organizational restructuring).

        In any organization, when things are bing restructured, it can be difficult to get the full picture of a problem that might exist as pieces of the puzzle are slowly being presented in isolated situations. Sometimes, even when many pieces are presented at the same time, you are left with the difficult task of interpreting each piece and subsequently determining exactly where it fits, or if it even fits at all. Beyond that, when the dust settles, you look back and realize that mistakes were likely made (hindsight is 20/20). It’s at that point you begin to move “swiftly” and make some decisions that likely could have been made earlier.

        What is important, and what I was trying to point out, is that this could certainly be a sign that an organization is working towards and pursuing health. Unfortunately you chose to paint this in a negative light by stating that “people who are in the market for such services should be aware of what they are getting into” (what Christian organization is this not true of?).

        In any event, I appreciate your critical thoughts about all things related to the broader evangelical community.

        1. Paul – I would be interested in knowing more about the post-Driscoll fallout at Acts 29. I suspect many people would be sympathetic to that.

          Appreciate your final comment.

          In defense of my comment, I will point to what you said – “what Christian organization is this not true of?” — I was a lot more balanced than many observers of Acts 29 who want blood and first born children.

          Any organization who could pull the game changing move with Mars Hill can’t be all bad.

          1. Sorry… Clarification needed. I don’t know of any fallout post Driscoll. I was referencing the Driscoll fallout itself, which obviously had some ripple effects that went beyond the actual fallout.

          2. The problem with us Christians is that we are far too optimistic anytime anyone sticks the title “church” up and claims that what they are doing is Gospel Gold. If we just read the Words in red, Jesus straight up, it is clear that this is not the case. The system that God Himself set up got so corrupted that it was intent on killing God’s son! Jesus warned about the kind of “temples” and converts the Pharisees make in Matt. 23:15.

            It is clear that since then there have been two very separate organizations spreading “churches” around the world. Some of doing legitimate work for the true God, but according to Jesus the majority are not. Jesus told us to look at the fruit that is produced. When I did that and asked the question is the Acts 29 network a work of God with good fruit or a work of someone else with bad fruit the answer was crystal clear. We need to look at the fruit or else we are just fools…

        2. Do you take into consideration the fact that Matt Chandler already runs a large organization, the Village Church? Perhaps he could have cribbed a bit from how they do things? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

        3. Do you take into consideration the fact that Matt Chandler already runs a large organization, the Village Church? Perhaps he could have cribbed a bit from how they do things? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

  3. I read the entire long CT article. It appears that Acts 29 really does have Mark Driscoll’s “DNA.” The kind of authoritarian abuse that is obviously encouraged from the top levels of this organization down is only possible because of bad orthopraxy. I have noticed that wherever leadership emphasizes their own private form of “orthodoxy” over actually practicing the simple teachings of Jesus and His Apostles that this is the kind of fruit that is frequently growing on those organizations trees.

    Jesus emphasized orthopraxy so much that He even stated that if we love Him then we need to obey His commandments. Jesus emphasis was on the practice. The Pharisees emphasis was on “correct doctrine.” In doing that, they became hypocrites and so do the modern day Neo-Pharisees. Claiming to have good doctrine means nothing if you are not actually doing what the New Testament tells you to do. Jesus told us to not call any man Rabbi, Teacher, or Father. In other words, put no religious figure up on a pedestal. This is because we human beings love to do that and all we do is empower narcissistic creeps like these Acts 29 leaders to manipulate and abuse us. The system is straight out of hell! Acts 29 promotes the idolatry of the position of “Pastor.” Unfortunately they are not alone. And even in other organizations that take some small, lame steps to avoid consecrating these types of men into positions of power, these men still find a way in.

    The short of it is that you cannot stop men with the dark triad of personality disorders from looking for positions of power in religious institutions, but you can decide never to put anyone up as an idol. Do not ask your pastor to replace prayer and your own personal relationship with The Trinity with himself. Many western Christians do this and this is how this whole mess gets empowered.

  4. After a while the links between complementarian organisations and authoritarianism should become apparent to its advocates. Sadly, they seem to prefer to stick with theology that undergirds abuse.

  5. Acts 29 is either failing on an epic scale or it is succeeding. That is, Acts 29 is succeeding at doing what it was evidently designed to do: enable self-serving, abusive, dominantly white, fundamentalist Patriarchy.

    1. Perhaps the basic problem with this kind of ‘religion-gone-horribly-wrong’ is that too many people think that God (onto Whom is constantly being projected too many all-too-human attributes) is like them!

      I will never forget something that an aged priest once said to me. He said that, if I wanted to begin to get some idea of what God is like, I should take a long, hard and brutally honest look at myself, and then remember that God is the opposite of that!

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