Church in the Bible
In the early church, the apostles came through a town found people who were willing to have a conversation, shared the gospel with them, brought people to faith in Christ, baptized them and taught them further.
Eventually, the apostles left as local leaders emerged. Someone or a few someones opened their home for the gathering. People used their gifts as needs arose. It was highly participatory and very edifying. Some were paid to preach the gospel/teach including some elders. But by and large, the church family operated like a family with shared responsibility.
Their gatherings were small and intimate. There wasn’t a bunch of hierarchy, branding or signs saying to not bring your coffee into the gathering!
Church Today
2000 years later in America, we have dedicated buildings. Dedicated professionals, and few doing the work of the many. You can be a total spectator and no one would care as long as you keep showing up. Church has become more like a place you go than a people you are.
We now have organizations to do the work the church should have been doing. And we need those organizations to get things kick started. We have organizations to help feed the poor, make disciples, send people on mission, and so much more…and in the early days all of these things were the responsibility of each believer.
This means we now have less people using their gifts, less people opening their homes and less people trained to do the work of ministry. And that makes our churches weaker.
Two Big Questions
How do we shift back to an early church “spiritual family” operating system when so many have had so much done for them for so long that there is no sense of urgency to shift the system?
A related question is this, does the “system” described above need to be shifted in the first place?
Let’s talk!
PS – If you would like to read more about what churches can do? Read this. If you want to get access to over 500 videos exploring topics like this, check out my YouTube channel – Revolution of Ordinaries. The comments on the videos are also absolute gold!
