Local Church Leadership in Elder Training: The Acts 18:24-28 Pattern

INTRODUCTION

God’s program in this era of redemptive history is the local church. The ekklesia is the “church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (I Tim 3:15 ESV). Local church Elders are tasked with preserving biblical truth through the faithful exposition of God’s Word. Through spiritual shepherds and capable teachers, the doctrine of Scripture is communicated in spirit-powered purity to the flock. Therefore, the church is responsible for overseeing the biblical and theological training of the local church’s future and current Elders and lay leaders.

The church is responsible for overseeing the biblical and theological training of its future and current Elders and lay leaders.

Since the Reformation, the Church has benefitted from an abundance of evangelical seminaries. However, many invaluable theological institutions have experienced a numerical and financial decline in recent decades.¹ The Western church must partner with these institutions to ensure their survival. “Outside” advanced theological training for pastor-teachers must continue—for the value of the seminary to the local church body cannot be understated. Yet, the local church must acknowledge its responsibility for the ongoing theological development of its leadership and future leadership. Embracing this responsibility will require a commitment to strategic formal and informal theological training inside the local church.

The local church must acknowledge its responsibility for the ongoing theological development of its leadership.

The historical narrative of Acts 18 illustrates the early church’s commitment to theological training in the infancy of the Ephesian church. In this account, Luke reveals the theological deficiencies of the recent “seminary graduate,” Apollos. Apollos’s incomplete theological training was understandable because this was a developmental period in the N.T. Canon and church. Nevertheless, the Acts 18 narrative is a testimony to the benefit of church-administered Elder training.

This study aims to examine the Acts 18 account of Aquila and Priscilla, who take leadership in perfecting Apollos’s understanding of Christian theology. The intent of this study is not to discredit the valuable work of the seminary in the modern church context. Rather this study is intended to assign and confirm local church ownership in the theological development of their leaders. A local church should embrace the same leadership commitment demonstrated by the spiritually mature tentmaking couple of Acts 18 in their theological training of Apollos.

Historical Context (Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 24)

The Acts 18 narrative records the last stretch of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey. Luke’s text acquaints the reader with Paul’s initial ministry to the infant Corinthian church. In this episode, the Apostle meets the displaced Jewish couple Aquila and Priscilla, who have recently fled persecution in Rome (Acts 18:1-3). After laboring for some time in Corinth, Paul departs, arriving soon in Ephesus, where he leaves his new companions and co-laborers; Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:18). From there, Paul continues his journey, eventually arriving at his headquarters in Antioch (Acts 18:22). Evidently, the Holy Spirit guides Luke to pause in the Pauline narrative to explain a crucial interaction between the Acts 18 couple and the eloquent, although theologically deficient, Alexandrian Jew, Apollos (Acts 18:3, 24-28). The focus of this study will be limited to the context, interaction, and implications of the theological training initiated by Aquila and Priscilla with the young Apollos (Acts 18:1-3, 18, 24-28).

In Acts 18:1-2, Luke records, “After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” The strategic missionary Paul recognized the potential influence a Christian community would have in the leading city of this region of Asia. After Corinth’s rebellion and subsequent destruction, Julius Caesar rebuilt the city as a Roman colony.² Thanks to its “commercial advantage at the convergence of land and sea routes, the city greatly prospered.”³ As a result, Corinth had long supplanted the prestigious town of Athens as the leading city of this Greek region of the Roman Empire.

Corinth, with all her sin-sick populace, was primed for gospel fruit.

Corinth was a city with a reputation. It was a “rip-roaring town” where immorality was rampant.⁴ The New Testament scholar Darrell Bock called the city the “Las Vegas of its time.”⁵ However, the Corinthian reputation did not deter the Apostle from taking the gospel to this influential city in need of Jesus. Furthermore, the economic opportunities of Corinth and the large community of diaspora Jews provided Aquila and Priscilla with means for financial support and fertile ground for gospel work. ⁶ Indeed, Corinth, with all her sin-sick populace, was primed for gospel fruit.

Aquila, Ἀκύλαν, the Jew from Pontus (Acts 18:1-2)

Luke introduces us first to the “Jew named Aquila” in Acts 18:2. David Peterson suggests that “Luke mentions that Aquila was a Jew partly to stress that Paul’s initial ministry in Corinth was with and among his people and partly to prepare for the explanation about their sudden departure from Rome.”⁷ Paul’s pattern of going first to the synagogue to preach Christ to the Jews is well documented in the New Testament. Upon arriving in Corinth, Paul followed the same pattern; and met the Christian tradesman.

Luke describes Paul’s new acquaintance by identifying him as a Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει, “native of Pontus” (Acts 18:2). Notably, Luke uses this same syntactical construction when introducing Apollos as a Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει, “native of Alexandria” (Acts 18:24). Luke seems to be drawing a contrast between Aquila’s Pontic origin and Apollos’s Alexandrian origin later in the text. The phrasing is unusual because Luke “uses the construction gentilic + τῷ γένει only once elsewhere (Acts 4:36).”⁸ The significance of this comparison would not be lost on a first-century reader. A well-known stereotype was associated with the residents of Pontus. The people of this Black Sea region were known in antiquity as “uneducated and dim-witted barbarians.”⁹ Luke’s insertion of Aquila’s region of origin ensures that the reader is aware of the social stigma he also bears.

The people of this Black Sea region were known in antiquity as “uneducated and dim-witted barbarians.”

Additionally, Aquila, and his wife Priscilla, are noted in the text as having “recently come from Italy…because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome” (Acts 18:2). Luke, however, does not indicate the occasion for Claudius’s banishing of the Jews. C.K. Barrett explains that the relationship between the Jews and the emperor had “deteriorated after the death of Herod Agrippa I.”¹⁰ The Roman historian Suetonius also reports this A.D. 49 imperial edict stating, “Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from the city.”¹¹ Scholars often recognize Suetonius’s reference to Chrestus as a reference to Christ.¹² Joseph Fitzmyer explains that “[Chrestus] would be pronounced Christos in Suetonius’s day (by itacism).”¹³ Fitzmyer concludes that “Suetonius seems to have confused it.”¹⁴ Luke connects Aquila and Priscila with Claudius’s edict to remove the Jews from Rome. However, the biblical text does not explain the extent, if any, of the Jewish couple’s involvement in the uproar over Jesus the Messiah. Therefore, it is difficult to say “whether Aquila and Priscilla had a part in this dissension or were simply involuntary victims of the emperor’s expulsion order.”¹⁵

What is evident in this text is that Aquila and Priscila came from Rome to Corinth because of an imperial order relocating them and, more importantly, by divine providence. In their coming to Corinth, the work of the gospel was immediately engaged. For likely, Aquila and Priscila were already Christians upon arriving in the city. Luke infers this as well, for he only indicates that Paul “found,” εὑρών (Acts 18:2), them when he arrived in Ephesus; and that he “went to them,” προσῆλθεν αὐτοῖς (Acts 18:2), and “stayed with them,” ἔμενεν παρ’ αὐτοῖς (Acts 18:3), because they were “of the same trade,” τὸ ὁμότεχνον (Acts 18:3). The author of the account “said nothing about Paul’s witnessing to the couple.”¹⁶ Likely, Paul searched them out or found them while preaching to the Jews in the synagogue at Corinth; and they were united based upon their common belief in Jesus and shared trade (e.g., σκηνοποιοὶ, “tentmaker” or “leather-worker”).¹⁷ Regardless of the specifics of Aquila and Priscila’s relocation from Rome, the timing of conversion, and the circumstances surrounding their introduction to Paul, Luke is clear that this couple became the great Apostle’s dear friends and effective co-leaders in gospel ministry.

Luke is clear that this couple became the great Apostle’s dear friends and effective co-leaders in gospel ministry.

Priscilla, Πρίσκιλλαν (Acts 18:2-3)

There are many intriguing elements to Luke’s Acts 18 narrative. One of them is the prominence of Aquila’s wife on the mission team in Ephesus (Acts 18:18, 26). Priscilla is among the few women mentioned by name in the Acts account. In his letters, Paul refers to her twice by her formal name, Prisca (2 Tim 4:19, Rom 16:3). Whereas Luke names her three times in Acts 18 by the diminutive form of her name, Priscilla. Significantly, the couple is always referred to together in the New Testament; and in four of the six biblical references to the couple, Priscilla is named first (Acts 18:18, Acts 18:26; Rom 16:3; 2 Tim 4:19). The New Testament elevates Priscilla’s role in the influential couple’s labor among the early church in Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus.

in four of the six biblical references to the couple, Priscilla is named first (Acts 18:18, Acts 18:26; Rom 16:3; 2 Tim 4:19).

Priscilla’s birth nationality and Roman citizen status are unclear in the biblical text. F.F. Bruce notes, “It cannot be known if, like Aquila, she was Jewish by birth.”¹⁸ Nevertheless, the possibility exists that her prominence (i.e., the biblical order of her name first) could be that she was a Roman citizen, unlike her husband, and thus deserved the greater honor in the Greco-Roman social order. While Priscilla is a common name, she may have been “connected, by emancipation if not by birth, with the noble Roman family called gens Prisca.”¹⁹ However, her Roman citizenship is highly improbable because it is unlikely that a Roman citizen would be subject to expulsion from Rome under Claudius’s A.D. 49 edict expelling the Jews.²⁰ What is more likely is that her prominence is not due to her social standing but to her prominence in Christian circles. Like Lydia, Priscilla seems to be a woman whose service for Christ stood out.²¹

Economically this couple appears to be better off than most of the new converts in Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus because their home (and trade in the case of Paul) proved to be a valuable resource to the early church in these locations (Rom 16:5, I Cor 16:19, Acts 18:3, 26). Priscilla and Aquila would have been relegated as manual laborers to the low to middle class.²² Some scholars suggest they were business owners in the tentmaking trade in Corinth and Ephesus with a “ground-floor tenement business” that probably had a “mezzanine apartment with two or three fairly large rooms.”²³ Whatever this couple’s relative wealth, Priscilla and Aquila consistently used their trade and home for the church’s benefit and the gospel’s furtherance in their cities of residence.

Apollos, Ἀπολλῶς, the Preacher from Alexandria (Acts 18:24)

In Acts 18:18, Luke records a scene change through the relocation of the Jewish couple from Corinth to the Asia Minor port city of Ephesus (Acts 18:19a). Aquila and Priscilla have traveled with Paul to a new ministry opportunity. The Lucian account states that the Apostle Paul “left them there,” κἀκείνους κατέλιπεν αὐτοῦ (Acts 18:19) presumably to lay the foundation for a new church in Ephesus—a work he intended to return and commence shortly. After completing his record of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, Luke concludes Acts 18 with a historical vignette in the life of a new character, Apollos.

The New Testament depicts Apollos as an influential apologist and church leader in the city of Corinth, from where he will prove significant to the cause of Christ in the first-century church planting movement (Acts 18:27-19:1; I Cor 1:12-13, Titus 3:13).²⁴ However, before his Christian ministry commences, Luke records a seminal event in Apollos’s ministry life (Acts 18:24-27). The event occurs in the influential city of Ephesus.

Like Corinth, Paul has strategically identified Ephesus as a center for world evangelization at another crossroads of the Empire. “Located on the main highway connecting the Aegean with the rich trade routes in the east, Ephesus was the main commercial center of Asia.”²⁵ The city was a cosmopolitan melting pot of nationalities and contained many Jews.²⁶ Ephesus was also a religious center in the cult of Artemis. Pagan worship of the Greek goddess drew thousands to her magnificent temple—an edifice four times the size of the Athenian Parthenon and one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.²⁷ The great Apostle understood that the most populous city in Asia Minor would prove strategic to the church-planting movement at the geographic center of the Roman Empire. As the scholar John Polhill notes, “The seven churches of Rev 2-3 may have well owed their origin to Paul’s Ephesian ministry”—of which Aquila and Priscila played no small part.

Before Paul’s great Ephesian ministry launched (Acts 19), a talented young man from Alexandria moved to Ephesus. Luke introduces us to Apollos, noting that his city of origin was the great Greek city of northern Africa, Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει (Acts 18:24). Alexandria was the polar opposite of Pontus, the native city of Aquila, Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει (Acts 18:2). Pontus was derided in every circle.²⁸ In contrast, Alexandria was one of the jewels of the Empire. David Peterson, in his commentary, The Acts of the Apostles, describes Alexandria as “the second largest city in the Roman Empire” and “the leading intellectual and cultural center of the Hellenistic world (as Athens had been of the classical world).”²⁹

The first description that Luke gives of Apollos is that he was a “Jew,” Ἰουδαῖος (Acts 18:24). Because of the opportunities and relative proximity to Judea, a large population of diaspora Jews had relocated to the city of Alexandria. Whether or not Apollos was a Jew from birth or a Jewish proselyte is impossible to conclude from the text. However, it is evident from Luke’s description that Apollos was the beneficiary of the intellectual and philosophical educational opportunities afforded a Jew in the great city of the famous Jewish philosopher Philio.³⁰ The scholar Carl Holladay credits Alexandria with producing “some of the foremost literary figures and thinkers of the Hellenistic period.”³¹ Craig Kenner even postures that in “Apollo’s youth, he and his Jewish friends experienced much integration as members of the elite into Alexandrian society.”³² Kenner suggests that Apollos’s rhetorical abilities and Old Testament scholarship came from a privileged education exclusively granted to the city’s upper class. Regardless of the definitive social standing of Apollos in Alexandria, it is evident that this young man was of a different intellectual and academic breed than his soon-to-be friends and teachers, Aquila and Priscilla.

As expected in Scripture, every detail of the Acts 18:24-25 description of Apollos is vital to the immediate context. Luke describes Apollos as “an eloquent man,” ἀνὴρ λόγιος (Acts 18:24). Fitzmyer concludes that this Greek text is debated to mean either an eloquent speaker or a learned, cultured man.³³ Other scholars have noted that the debate may be “fruitless” because, in the Hellenistic world, education would have included rhetoric.³⁴ Furthermore, almost every commentator agrees that Luke’s depiction of Apollos fits a highly cultured figure.³⁵

Beyond Apollos’s rhetorical skill set, Luke describes Apollos as our modern equivalent of an exceptional seminary graduate by recognizing him as “mighty in the Scriptures,” δυνατὸς ὢν ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς (Acts 18:24b). The meaning of this phrase conveys well-versed (RSV, NRSV) or competent (ESV, CSB). The idea is that Apollos was powerful in the rhetorical use of his knowledge of the Law and Prophets. Howard Marshall notes that Apollos was “able to turn his knowledge to good Christian use.”³⁶

Indeed, Apollos’s knowledge of the Old Testament was shaped by his Christian instruction in the “way of the Lord,” κατηχημένος τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Κυρίου (Acts 18:25). In Acts, Christianity is described as “the Way,” τῆς Ὁδοῦ (Acts 9:2; 16:17; 18:25, 26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22).³⁷ Luke goes on to say that Apollos “spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus,” ἐλάλει καὶ ἐδίδασκεν ἀκριβῶς τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Acts 18:25). Although scholars differ on whether Apollos’s understanding amounted to saving faith, Luke’s description provides credible witness that Apollos had sufficient knowledge and corresponding faith in the saving work of Christ. Although it is impossible to conclude when Apollos came to this knowledge definitively, his instruction concerning Jesus the Messiah was probably imparted in Alexandria.³⁸ F.F. Bruce adds further merit to this viewpoint by noting that the Western manuscript family “expressly state that he received his accurate instruction … in his native Alexandria.”³⁹

Rounding out his description, the author adds that Apollos was “fervent in spirit,” ζέων τῷ πνεύματι (Acts 18:25). The sense of this phrase is also in question (e.g., fervent with respect to the spirit, or Spirit). The word ζέων, or fervent, means to be ardent, enthusiastic, excited, or “on fire” (BDAG 426). Josephus used this word in the context of the literal meaning “boiling” or “seething” (Josephus, Ant. 12.12.6).⁴⁰ Whether Luke was indicating that Apollos was “boiling with passion concerning Jesus” or that Apollos was “boiling in the Holy Spirit” is not easily discerned from the text. The scholars F.F. Bruce, David Peterson, Craig Kenner, and Eckhard Schnabel understand Luke as inferring that Apollos possessed the Holy Spirit and, thus, spoke Christ with Spirit fervor.⁴¹ While this may be true, as Polhill states, “It is best to leave the matter with Luke’s description and not try to go beyond it.”⁴² The more convincing argument that Apollos possessed saving faith before the Acts 18 account is that Luke does not record him receiving Christian baptism after his theological instruction in Ephesus. The text infers that Apollos already possessed the Holy Spirit before meeting Aquila and Priscilla and did not require a new baptism.

Problem, Solution, and Outcome (Acts 18:25-28)

At the end of Acts 18, the Lucan account describes how God prepared an eloquent voice to bring the gospel to the intellectual centers of the Roman Empire. In the early days of the Ephesian church, a spiritually mature couple instructs the young, talented, and believing Apollos. Through the labor of Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos is sharpened in his theological training and outfitted for effective Christian ministry.

The Problem, Apollos “knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:25)

After introducing us to the characters Aquila, Priscila, and Apollos, Luke’s text recounts Apollos’s need for further theological training (Acts 18:25). The young apologist “spoke boldly in the synagogue,” παρρησιάζεσθαι ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ (Acts 18:26), and “accurately,” ἀκριβῶς (Acts 18:25), about Jesus. However, he “knew only the baptism of John,” ἐπιστάμενος μόνον τὸ βάπτισμα Ἰωάννου (Acts 18:25).

Apollos had come to Ephesus as a “Johannine Christian.”⁴³ In this city, he, with eloquence, competency, and enthusiasm, engaged in the task of delivering a Messianic message concerning Jesus in the public forum of the Ephesian synagogue; yet, he knew nothing of Christian baptism (Acts 18:24-25). Craig Keener concludes, “If ‘the Way’ includes the Jesus movement and/or a system of Christian instruction, Apollos apparently knew the basic story of Jesus but not much about the church and its ministry.”⁴⁴

Admittedly, the absence of the completed New Testament Canon in the early first century largely isolated ecclesiastical understanding to those directly trained by the Apostles. Today’s Church possessing the completed Canon is in a different situation. Nevertheless, the involvement of the early Ephesian church in the remedy for Apollo’s theological gap reveals an ongoing pattern for the local church.

The Solution, Priscilla and Aquila “take him aside and explain” (Acts 18:26)

In Acts 18:26, Aquila and Priscilla follow the pattern of Paul and go to the synagogue to speak Jesus to the Jews in the city. The couple meets Apollos as he preaches a Messianic message concerning Jesus. Evidently, they are impressed with “the learning and skill which he devoted to the defense of the gospel.”⁴⁵ However, after noticing a deficiency in the content of Apollos’s message, Luke states that they “took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately,” προσελάβοντο αὐτὸν καὶ ἀκριβέστερον αὐτῷ ἐξέθεντο τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ (Acts 18:26). Aware of his shortcomings, this couple identifies the potential for this young man and dedicates time to train Apollos “more accurately” concerning the “way of God” (Acts 18:26). Darrell Bock concludes,“[Apollos’s] preaching is not inaccurate, merely incomplete.”⁴⁶ Therefore, Priscila and Aquila instruct him. The verb here is ἐξέθεντο, explained, which means to “fill someone in on something.” (BDAG 310), and ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, way of God, is a synonym for “the Way,” or Christian theology.⁴⁷ Through Aquila and Priscilla’s instruction, Apollos comes to understand the “full benefits of his salvation” and is better equipped to share Christ and strengthen the Church throughout Achaia.⁴⁸

Striking in this account is the contrast between Aquila, the native of Pontus, and Apollos, the native of Alexandria. According to the Greco-Roman norms of the day, a rhetorical genus trained in the most outstanding schools in the Empire should not have been the student of a tradesman associated with the “dim-wits” and social outcasts of Pontus.⁴⁹ Furthermore, a woman leading in a male classroom, albeit in a living room, would have opposed excepted societal practice.⁵⁰ However, Apollos readily enters this student relationship with the tentmaking couple recognizing their spiritual maturity. Luke grammatically sets up the contrasting regions of origin between Aquila and Apollos and highlights the prominence of Priscilla, effectively undermining the social stereotypes of the era. More importantly, in Acts 18, Luke places the responsibility for theological sharpening in the hands of the spiritually mature leaders of the church. In this account, lay leaders of the early Ephesian church initiate and implement continued theological training of a future church leader in Asia.

More importantly, in Acts 18, Luke places the responsibility for theological sharpening in the hands of the spiritually mature leaders of the church.

The Outcome, Apollos Commences Christian Ministry in Achaia (Acts 18:27-28)

At the end of Luke’s Acts 18 narrative, the theological deficiencies of Apollos are rectified, and the church in Ephesus sends him to preach the gospel to the intellectual centers of Asia. Luke does not indicate Priscilla and Aquila’s curriculum any further than “the way of God,” ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ (Acts 18:26). However, this Pauline discipled couple would have presumably instructed Apollos in the distinctive doctrines of Paul and, thus, the developing New Testament Canon. Armed with a fuller understanding of the gospel, Luke records that Apollos “greatly helped those who through grace had believed in Achaia” (Acts 18:27); and “powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus” (Acts 18:28). The strong verb refuted, διακατηλέγχετο, appears only here in the New Testament. It means to “overwhelm someone in argument” (BDAG 229). Apollos’s theological training results in the believers “helped” (Acts 18:27) and the Jews “powerfully refuted” (Acts 18:28) in the overwhelming defense of the gospel by Aquila and Priscilla’s recent student.

In Acts 18:27, Luke also links this training episode to the developing Ephesian church. Aquila and Priscila were not acting independently of the community of believers in Ephesus. “Brothers,” ἀδελφοὶ (Acts 18:27), suggests that there were already Christians in Ephesus before Paul’s arrival or shortly after Aquila and Priscilla began ministry in the city.⁵¹ The author records that the believers recognize Apollos’s growth and “wrote,” ἔγραψαν (Acts 18:27), to the disciples in the church in Corinth to “welcome him,” ἀποδέξασθα αὐτόν (Acts 18:27). Evidently, the Ephesian Christians recognized Apollos’s calling, gifting and recently acquired theological competency, and wrote him a letter of recommendation to the church in Achaia.

Application: The Responsibility for the theological training of current and future church leaders ultimately belongs to the local church.

In summary, this Acts 18 narrative reveals a biblical historical account of how lay leaders in the local church of Ephesus are instrumental in the continuing theological education of a future church leader. By including this Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos vignette, the text places responsibility for the continued theological training of Elders in the jurisdiction of the local church. I see three applications from this text.

Application One: Seminary credentials are not mandatory for participation in leader spiritual development.

Aquila and Priscilla understood their God-given responsibility to approach and mentor a theologically deficient, although credentialed, spiritual leader. Without hesitation, they engaged the brilliant and biblically (Old Testament) competent Apollos in a discipleship relationship. Aquila and Priscilla exhibited wisdom in privately instructing Apollos, and their labor proved foundational in their pupil’s launch into Christian missionary work.

The Acts 18 narrative establishes a precedent for the spiritually mature congregants engaging formally and informally in the ongoing theological development of their church leaders. Through the example of Aquila and Priscilla, the church should recognize that God gifts biblically astute instructors within the congregation who share responsibility for the theological sharpening of their more formally educated leaders or future leaders.

Application Two: Formally trained spiritual leaders should submit themselves to the ongoing discipleship afforded them through the spiritual maturity of the congregation.

Apollos showed humility in the Acts 18 account. If Apollos had retained the societal practice of separating himself from those of lower ethnic and academic standing, he would have remained theologically deficient. Instead, with a genuine desire to know God, he was wise enough to recognize that his growth depended on the divine provision of this less credentialed yet spiritually mature couple and, more broadly, dependent upon the Spirit’s work in His sufficient Body. When elders and spiritual leaders of a church view themselves above the theological instruction of their community of faith, future spiritual and theological growth, and correction will be hindered.

Application Three: The local church congregation must be committed to Elder development.

Acts 18 suggests the necessity and reception of congregational engagement in the theological development of local church leadership. Although this example comes from a unique moment in the early stages of the Christian church, the Holy Spirit through Luke includes this narrative with clear implications for the ongoing priorities of the local body. While freedom, prosperity, and inter-church cooperation have provided the invaluable blessing of the institutional seminary in the modern Western church context, the church will suffer if it hands over all responsibility for the ongoing theological development of its leaders to these distant para-church institutions. Indeed, the local church should prayerfully and financially support faithful seminaries. Nevertheless, Acts 18 reveals the local church’s responsibility to utilize its divinely-provided resources in the establishment of elder and teacher training initiatives within the church.