Choose one section of Acts, as early in the course as you possibly can. Throughout the course, gather notes towards the final composition of your ALP. Based on the exercises, required reading, and reading of at least three commentaries, discuss the section in detail as a coherent unit. Then discuss its relationship to Acts as a whole (the particular contribution of this section to the overarching message and themes of Acts), and its personal application to your own life and the life of the local church.
At least two pages of your paper should address application of the text to todays context. For example, if you were to choose Acts 2:42-47, Lukes description of the earliest churchs practices, you would want to both trace examples of those general descriptions throughout the rest of the book, and also discuss how each element (the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, sharing material goods, continual growth, etc.) might be seen in todays community of believers.
Even if you choose some other text, however, your paper ideally should have three to five points of application. You need not, and should not, wait until the end of the paper to make applications to contemporary church situations. For example, if you were to pick one or several of the cases in Acts where severe discipline is applied by an apostle to wayward believers or resistant opponents of the gospel (Ananias, Simon the sorcerer, Elymas the magician, etc.), you would necessarily address the question of if or how this text might be understood as a principle that could be applied (and in what ways) today.
You may also need to take note of and specify in the paper what is not applicable from the biblical text to the contemporary situation, and explain why.
Your paper must be 8-10 pages in length, not including title page and references.
