Glimpses of Real Church Community

After a couple of weeks of really slacking off and doing nothing but worrying about things that are completely out of my hands God has kicked me in the pants and told me stop focusing on the insignificant and start focusing on him.

As a result I have kicked off a personal study of Acts which is easily my favorite book in the Bible. I love the vision that Acts gives for what Christianity is and what it should be. Reading through the first 6 or so chapters yesterday I was again amazed at the growth of Christianity. A spreading of not only a religion but away of life that was starkly different from the culture of the day.

When I was reading through the opening chapters I started thinking about the complaint I here most often when I speak with my Church friends. For the most part they complain that their Church isn't growing. They often tie that lack of growth to something like crappy worship or bad preaching. Ironically if they would look at the ACT's church compared to their own community they may see some more realistic reasons why "Non-Christians" are not drawn into Church communities like they were in first century AD.

Check out this passage and see if you can see some differences between how we play Church and how they live out Church.

⁴⁰With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." ⁴¹Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. - Acts 2 40 - 47

These early Christians were practicing true community and were helping those in need and as a result their numbers grew exponentially. Their values and lives offered a stark contrast to the values of the day. They were truly new creations, their old values were gone. Is it really any surprise that Western Christianity is in the decline? Consider that Christianity over the past centuries in the Western world has moved away from a community based religion, a religion that is focused on the needy and has become a Church that shares more in common with a country club then the original church. The Acts church asks for nothing less then complete devotion to the Saviour of the world, in lieu of his sacrifice not really that much to ask for. In contrast todays Christianity asks for an hour to an hour and a half a week and may be an evening during the week. Is it really surprising that half ass Christianity has bread half ass Kingdom growth.

Sorry if my thoughts are a little scattered my mind is a bit shot today. My hope isn't to offend but offer a challenge, a challenge that God has placed on my heart as well. I think as Christians we need to join together devote ourselves to Christs work!! Let us all pray that we as a Christian Church can catch the fire that the early Christians had!