A New Kind Of Church

Truth is, I’ve been struggling for the past 10 years. Not with drinking or drugs, but with something much more destructive. Before you write mean letters or post anonymous comments on my blog, I should first explain that I know the bible says we should be content in every situation. It was the Apostle Paul who said he learned to be content when naked or clothed. He also learned how to be content when he was hungry and when his belly was full. It was Paul who said, godliness with contentment is great gain. I know what he was talking about. And I couldn’t agree more. Honest.

I’m not one of those Christians who pick and choose what verses to believe and which ones to omit. I believe the bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness so the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I have strived to practice this type of contentment that Paul was talking about. I pray often that God would take away my lust for more stuff. I plead with God to make my heart yearn for Him and not the things of this world. I don’t want to spend my money on things that will ultimately be burnt up. I long to invest the resources that God has entrusted me with, on things that will grow the kingdom of God. I genuinely desire that God would teach me this type of contentment that the world does not know. I have such a long ways to go though.

But I must confess, I am still very discontent in a certain area. I have a good friend who calls this a “holy discontent”. I’m not discontent with the house we live in, the car we drive, or the clothes we wear. We don’t have super nice stuff, but I’m incredibly aware we live better than 95% of the world’s population. Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. More than 2 billion people live on $2 a day. Nearly half of the world’s population of 7 billion people live on less than $2 a day. So, by all accounts, I am a wealthy man. By American standards, maybe not so much. But like I said, God is teaching me how to be content with what He’s entrusted me with. And He’s also teaching me that He measures my generosity, not by how much I give away, but by how much I keep.

However, I am deeply discontent in the area of the American Church. I’m by no means pointing fingers at any one person, pastor, church or denomination. But for the past 10 years, I’ve become more and more discontent with my “church” experiences. I understand no church is perfect. And more than a couple of people over the years have told me that if I ever find a perfect church, I shouldn’t join it because I’ll ruin it.

The more I study the Word of God and the more I fall in love with Jesus, the more He conforms me into His likeness. I believe it is this process of transformation and sanctification that allow me to be painfully aware of some of the things that grieve the heart of God when it comes to His corporate body. He’s also showing me the types of things that bring Him pleasure.

For the purpose of this blog entry, my attention is turned to the things that grieve the heart of God. I know that Jesus said that His church WILL prevail and that the very gates of hell will not deter His kingdom purposes from being sovereignly fulfilled.

We would be foolish though to think that there aren’t things we can do to miss the mark. We’d be naïve to think that God hasn’t given us a very clear model of what He wants His church to look like. Arguably, most bible scholars and pastors would direct you to the book of Acts for an overview of what a local, New Testament church should look like. Specifically, most of us would direct you to Acts chapter 2 for a very specific and detailed portrait of what the first church looked like and by all accounts what our churches should look like today.

I’ve been reading through Acts for the past couple of months. I’ve also been meditating on and studying Acts 2.42-47. I read this passage and I hold it up to the average, American, evangelical church. It would be good for all of us to take a good, hard look and use this Acts model as the litmus test to evaluate whether or not we’re anything like what a New Testament church should look like.

Here’s a brief description of the church outlined in Acts 2. The church was characterized by:
1. Devotion to the Apostles teaching
2. Devotion to the fellowship
3. Devotion to breaking break
4. Devotion to prayer
5. People were filled with awe
6. Apostles were doing extraordinary things through the power of the Holy Spirit
7. Believers were united
8. Believers had all things in common
9. Believers sold their possessions and belongings
10. Believers pulled their resources to help those who were in need
11. Attended the temple together
12. Broke bread in their homes
13. Grateful hearts for food and provisions
14. Hearts that praised God
15. Favor with the people
16. Numeric growth

For the sake of time, I cannot address each of these characteristics. However, I think it’s wise and fair for us to take a thorough look at this list and ask ourselves if we’re a part of a New Testament church that is committed to following the model set up for us, or have we somehow been duped and persuaded that church is more about the nice buildings, tailor made ministries, comfortable pews (or chairs), polished music and a gifted speaker? Isn’t it true that we’ve become a very self-centered, consumeristic church as opposed to a giving, sacrificial, disciple making, gospel taking, darkness penetrating church? My fear is, most churches across our country today aren’t even close to doing what God has outlined and mandated us to do – namely, to proclaim the glory of God to the nations of the world.

It seems painfully obvious that the way we evaluate and grade the effectiveness of our churches has little to do with how effectively and obediently we are adhering to two things: 1. the mandate Jesus gave us to make disciples of all nations, and 2. the church model the early Christians gave us in Acts 2.
Instead we evaluate our churches based on trends, church growth techniques, baptisms, building campaigns, vibrant AWANA programs, and our preference for music and our style of speakers.

As passionate followers of Jesus Christ, we should be committed to ensuring that our churches are adhering to clear biblical principles and mandates. And when they aren’t, we should be willing and courageous enough to speak with our church leadership about it.

Can I ask a question? If we’re following the Acts 2 church model described above, how can it be that in the same church, we have pastors barely making minimum wage while other pastors are making 6 figures living in luxurious homes? I understand corporate America. But, the church is not corporate America. The church is a very unique entity marked by the life of a sacrificial Savior who came not to be served but to serve, and who came to turn the world upside down as it relates to EVERYTHING.

If we are co-laborers in the gospel, and if we are committed to following the model set up for us to follow, why do we have wealthy people in our churches on one pew and desperately poor people just a few feet down the row at the other end of the same pew? How can this be? How can the same church justify paying a senior pastor a lucrative salary with retirement, insurance and all the perks that typically come along with the position of senior pastor, while his co-laborers are on food stamps? Isn’t there something inherently wrong with this paradigm that we’ve created? It certainly is not the model Jesus created for us and it most definitely isn’t the model the early Christians set up for us.

But, it is our model. It’s the one we’re most comfortable with. It’s the model that ensures we don’t have to make any huge, crazy sacrifices as we climb our way up the comfortable ladder of American Christianity.

I have so many questions about the church. I wonder if I’m just too idealistic sometimes. Or, could it be that God has raised up some men and women who will be courageous enough to cause us to question the status quo that we’ve blindly accepted for so long? Could it be that God Himself is sounding the alarm to awaken within us a sensitivity to His spirit that we’ve been missing for so long?

God is ready to mark us with a fresh move from on high. God longs to use His bride as a unified instrument to declare the glory of God to the nations of the world.

If we’re ever going to have the kind of impact that we were designed to have on the world, we will not do it by being lone rangers on the field of Christianity. We will do it as the bride of Christ takes seriously the mandates in Scripture and is willing to lose our lives, abandon our comforts, and lay down our entitlements for the sake of the elect.

As radical as it might seem, I’m ready to join an Acts 2 community. Are you?