And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-15

This passage presents God's strategy for the spiritual growth of the Christian. It can be summarized as follows:

• Christ has specially gifted certain Christians to train others.
• The goal of this training is prepare the saints to serve.
• As Christians are trained and use their gifts to serve one another, they build each other up.
• The result is spiritual maturity in the likeness of Christ.

The University of A.C.T.S (UOA) is a program designed to organize this type of training within the local church. The acronym stands for Adult in-Church Training for Service. It is a multi-phase training program, involving personal discipleship, character development, classroom instruction, Bible memorization, personal devotional time in the Word, and service in the church. At present, only the first two phases of training have been fully defined.

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