Acting like an Acts Church is actually asking for Acts like Growth
Ok, now say the title 5 times fast.
“…And the Lord added to their numbers daily.”
I find this little phrase tucked at the end of Acts 2:47 indicting against the churches in America. How many of you can say that new believers are coming to know Christ through your church on a daily basis? Weekly? Monthly? Hopefully at least annually, but I imagine in some cases this is not even true. I would venture that if you exclude from your numbers children of current church members the outlook is even more bleak.
I know I am not the first to wonder why we as a church have come so far from this exciting beginning. To be fair, the message was new, and these were the apostles preaching. And the apostles had actually walked with Christ, so there is that. Oh and there is also….. wait a second, it says the Lord was adding to their numbers. hmmm.
If we look at Acts 2:42-47, we see that they church was engaging the three basic activities, and through that, God was adding to their numbers. If you boil down these verses, you can see the following three activities:
- They were devoting themselves to the Apostl’s teaching.
- They were eating/fellowshipping together daily.
- They were helping anyone in need.
You see, they basically had a tripod of success. Over the next few weeks, I want us to examine each of our own churches for each leg of the tripod. My goal is to write a post about each leg, but honestly I may get carried away next week and do it all at once. We will see.
Till next time, live you faith, and love your Lord.
I would tend to look at the “added to their numbers daily” thing as a historical account of what happened in that instance. And their actions, though good, I don’t believe to be some kind secret formula for success. Churches that get caught up in spiritual alchemy don’t see much success in my experience.
um… not to argue, but to say that that’s the key to their growth i think is a slight misinterpretation.
if you read the verses this is what was really happening:
1. they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching
2. the leaders (apostles) were doing miracles
3. they were doing communion and praying together
4. they were giving sacrificially
i’m not sure that they were giving to anyone in need. i think they were distributing the wealth/food amongst the group that had things in common (they believed in what the apostles were teaching). If you go back a little farther in acts 2 you’ll see that this was the day of Pentecost. If I’m remembering right it’s the day that’s 50 days after Passover, so families would travel many miles from their homes to stay for extended periods of time to celebrate the giving of the ten commandments to moses. they literally brought everything with them.
so when they converted to “the Way” they literally had nothing besides what they brought with them and that’s why they put all their stuff together. it wasn’t really to give it to the poor in the city it was more of a communal way to help. we don’t really see any other church in the new testament function like this one so to say that the eating and fellowshipping were the reasons God was adding to their numbers i think isn’t right.
God was adding to their numbers because they were obedient. I think the real keys are
1. They were devoting (not just listening, but doing) themselves to the Apostle’s teaching
2. They were giving of what they had sacrificially (for God to use however He wanted)
3. They were praying together.
4. They were telling others (Acts 4:1-4, 6:7)
Maybe what we’re lacking is the extreme devotion these people had (like Stephen, Paul, Peter, John, etc) and we’re not telling others.
What really got me about your first article in Newsweek from the last post is that people are changing their names so they don’t offend Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, etc. Jesus said in Matt 10:21-23: “21″Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” The message of Jesus is offensive to those who don’t want to believe. Sugar coating things hasn’t ever gotten us anywhere good. I would say it’s the reason the American church is dying. We’re comfortable. Jesus calls us to be uncomfortable.
Sorry to disagree with you Kurt, but maybe it’ll spark some discussion.