Acts 2:42-47 (ESV)
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
When I think of church, this is the passage that comes to my mind first. I know there are many others and I plan to bring those up as well, but I wanted to start here. I could write so much about this passage and the ways I fail to do what it says, and hopefully I will, but what I want to focus on right now is what it doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say, “And they jumped around from church to church until they found the right combination of music they like, preaching that makes them feel good, people that treat them the best and make them feel important, good snacks, free meals, little to no accountability and challenge, energetic and entertaining children’s ministry, and comfortable seats.” Sometimes I think this is what we think church should be.
Did you notice that the word “comfortable” is never mentioned? Neither is popular, easy, feel-good, or status. Maybe it’s the translation. I don’t know Greek, so I can’t say for sure. It seems to me, though, that our comfort and status aren’t high on God’s priority list when it comes to building the church. Is this because He wants us to be miserable and unhappy? Please don’t make me answer that ridiculous question.
I think it’s because God knows that our comfort, our feelings, and our status are all fleeting. They are based on things that don’t last. God isn’t interested in building a temporary establishment. He is interested in building an eternal Kingdom. He is interested in His glory. People bouncing from place to place and ministry to ministry trying to satisfy shallow needs and make themselves look and feel good does not bring God glory or grow His eternal Kingdom. Servants dedicated to their loving Heavenly Father and to loving and serving His Body does.
You know what this passage does say? “…all who believed were together and had all things in common,” and “…the Lord added to their number…” This makes me believe that the Lord had Luke place the emphasis on the group, the Body, rather than the individual, which makes sense because we, the Church, are the Body. We are parts that serve together to make up a whole.
God is a personal God. He made us each uniquely and He loves us with a unique love. He also created us to be built together into something beautiful, strong, functional, and amazing. He created us to be parts of a whole – parts of a Body with Christ as the head. We are created for community. (It would be really hard for even someone who doesn’t believe in God to argue that human nature doesn’t naturally/automatically move toward community.) This is why I think Luke emphasized the group rather than any one individual in this description of the early church. Maybe if we spent more time viewing ourselves as (an important) part of a beautiful Body, we wouldn’t have enough time to worry about our “needs” and whether or not the church is “meeting” them.
Scriptures to look at from my rambling: Acts 2:42-47, Romans 12:1-8, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:1-16, Colossians 1:17-18, 1 Peter 2: 4-5
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Here We Go...
Ok, so here’s the deal…I’ve been wanting to blog about some ideas/thoughts I’ve had about church/the Body/service/leadership/etc. for a little while now. I’m sure my transition back to America has had something to do with this, but really it goes back farther than that.
God taught me a lot about church – what it is, why it is, what it isn’t, what we make of it, and what it could be – while I was overseas. A lot of my time was spent teaching/guiding young believers in the area of church. Now, I’m really not qualified to do this, and if I had been doing it on my own or using my own ideas, I would have just messed it up. What we did, instead, was look at what Jesus said about church, how the early church started, and what the early church was about. Jesus and the disciples gave us a solid example of what the church should be, and while “culture has changed” and “things are different now,” God is unchanging and perfect. So is His Word. So we can still look back to the first Christian church and learn from them.
What’s going to follow (hopefully in several blogs) is my views/opinions/suggestions/challenges. My initial goal is just to get this out and on paper (or the internet equivalent), and by posting it for people to read, I have a stronger push to actually do it. I’d also like to hear other opinions/suggestions/criticism of my thoughts. A lot of what I write is mainly a challenge to myself to do what I think the Bible says we should do, because even if I think huge changes need to occur, if I’m not willing to change, why should I expect anyone else to.
This is not meant to be a criticism of church or specific people in the church. This is not meant to be me airing my frustrations. If it begins to sound like that, please call me on it.
Finally, I never claim to understand the Word completely or understand how to apply is perfectly. Some things I say may be wrong. Don’t read it as me saying, “This is what I think and I’m right.” All I want to do is look at Scripture and talk about what I think its application looks like today. I’ll do my best to type the Scripture I reference or at least give you the reference so you can read on your own and let me know what you think. The entries probably won’t be in much of an order – because this is a blog not a book, but they will hopefully have a flow within each entry.
I’d love to get lots of opinions on this so feel free to pass it along to others. You can comment on my blog or link to yours and write up your own deal. This could be kinda cool if we get discussion going. If nothing else, at least I’ll get my thoughts out and maybe my head will feel less crowded.
God taught me a lot about church – what it is, why it is, what it isn’t, what we make of it, and what it could be – while I was overseas. A lot of my time was spent teaching/guiding young believers in the area of church. Now, I’m really not qualified to do this, and if I had been doing it on my own or using my own ideas, I would have just messed it up. What we did, instead, was look at what Jesus said about church, how the early church started, and what the early church was about. Jesus and the disciples gave us a solid example of what the church should be, and while “culture has changed” and “things are different now,” God is unchanging and perfect. So is His Word. So we can still look back to the first Christian church and learn from them.
What’s going to follow (hopefully in several blogs) is my views/opinions/suggestions/challenges. My initial goal is just to get this out and on paper (or the internet equivalent), and by posting it for people to read, I have a stronger push to actually do it. I’d also like to hear other opinions/suggestions/criticism of my thoughts. A lot of what I write is mainly a challenge to myself to do what I think the Bible says we should do, because even if I think huge changes need to occur, if I’m not willing to change, why should I expect anyone else to.
This is not meant to be a criticism of church or specific people in the church. This is not meant to be me airing my frustrations. If it begins to sound like that, please call me on it.
Finally, I never claim to understand the Word completely or understand how to apply is perfectly. Some things I say may be wrong. Don’t read it as me saying, “This is what I think and I’m right.” All I want to do is look at Scripture and talk about what I think its application looks like today. I’ll do my best to type the Scripture I reference or at least give you the reference so you can read on your own and let me know what you think. The entries probably won’t be in much of an order – because this is a blog not a book, but they will hopefully have a flow within each entry.
I’d love to get lots of opinions on this so feel free to pass it along to others. You can comment on my blog or link to yours and write up your own deal. This could be kinda cool if we get discussion going. If nothing else, at least I’ll get my thoughts out and maybe my head will feel less crowded.
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