Lately, God has been changing my paradigm on church. Actually, its not "lately", but for a while. I'm sure the Christian world of the 21st century has been questioning the establishment of the church as well. Many pastors wrote books on the matter, and about 2007, there was a huge popularity of the Acts 2 church.
Many Christians refer to Acts chapter 2 to and say that this is what church should look like:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayerEveryone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles....
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-34; 46-47
Verse 47 is usually understood as the goal we should all strive for (add number daily to those who were beings saved), and the verses leading up to it has been seen as the formula for attain it.
I disagree. Which part? The formula? or the goal? I say, Both.
FORMULA: I personally believe that there is no formula for church. If there is, and we have discovered it, all churches would be thriving. If we haven't discovered it, then none of the Christians in the world (for 2000 years) have not been listening to the Holy Spirit, assuming that if there is a formula, He would have shared it with one of us by now.
In either case, I think we're wasting a lot of time on figuring out formulas. I saw this in a post of another blog:
When reading Acts 2, some understood "break bread and ate together" to mean communion.
Others claim it was a simple meal, and the churches ought to have meals in local homes.
All agree that church must have some teaching but, none agree on exactly what should be taught.
Some believe miracles MUST company every service.
Others believe miracles stopped happening a long time ago.
GOAL: If you read the passage, there is only one statement about it growing in numbers. The majority of the verses are about the transforming community. The verse that is often missed is the following:
All the believers were together and had everything in common.Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Acts 2:44-45
This verse appears between the verses I quoted above. I have never seen this quoted on church websites, or listed in most doctrinal statements.
Why is that.
I believe it is because it make us uncomfortable. In our individualized culture, it is so hard to convince people to share. The prevailing attitude is "I have worked hard for what I have and no one is going to take it from me." We may not say it, but we believe it.
A bit later in the story this idea of sharing of possessions is affirmed.:
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. -Acts 4:31-35
This is the goal of the church. To be selfless communities. This was so important, two people lost their lives in the first church for violating this principle.
The early Church took this idea of sharing of resources seriously.
So did the monastic communities that sprung up a few hundred years latter.
So did the Celtic Christian communities that sprung up after them.
And the early Anabaptists, and the catholic worker movement, and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of charity, and the new monastic movement today.
They all read this text and took it seriously.
What about us?
There is a story of an elderly Rabbi who is known for communing with God.
One day his disciple asked, "Rabbi, God is all powerful. Then why does God allow all the poverty, war, and human suffering in the world to exist?"
The Rabbi responded, "I've been wanting to ask God that very question."
"Then, why don't you ask him then?' the disciple said.
Looking to the ground the Rabbi answered, "Because I'm scared."
"Rabbi, Why would you be scared?"
"Because I'm scared he will ask me the same question."
Oh snap.
