Who else shares this desire...

[wvernon]

Who else wishes the church here in America was more like the original church. I believe many, if not most people who attend church and who call themselves Christians today think that the church is a building one attends on Sundays, for weddings, occasionally for midweek service, and for other social events. This is unfortunately, as much as the church means to them.

It has been my desire for the longest time that the church in America would be like the early Church described in Acts. The members of the church were always in fellowship with one another, not just on special days or a specific day of the week but all the time. Christians sold all they had and gave to one another as each had needs arise. Christians helped the poor, cared for widows and orphans, helped each other. It seems to me it was more like a great big family, all of whom cared for each other.

This is what Jesus meant for us as believers. He did not want us to only attend a church service for an hour or so a week. I believe he wanted us to come together as much as possible to worship him and to help one another grow in him, to fellowship with each other, to be one great family, to be a light unto the world, a positive influence in the world.

But I doubt most people who fill the churches today have any desire to return to what the early church had going. It would require people to sacrifice themselves, seemingly far too great a price in our society.

Having the Church return from an institution residing in designated buildings to a community of believers as the early church was has been my desire for the longest time...

Just wanted to see how many people felt this way.

 

[C.A.B.L]

I wish that it was more like the church in Acts. I mean, today money has become the mainstream for most churches, but they didn't really idolize it. In fact, they sold everything they owned and brought it to the church so that anyone who needed it could get it when they needed it. I feel the same way you do.

 

[crossrunner]

I feel the same way too. I feel if churches would do more for the poor, destitue, sick, etc...we wouldn't have to rely so much on the state to take care of those things...and I also believe that more souls would come to Christ. We need an Acts-style revival.

 

[Count]

Who else wishes the church here in America was more like the original church. I believe many, if not most people who attend church and who call themselves Christians today think that the church is a building one attends on Sundays, for weddings, occasionally for midweek service, and for other social events. This is unfortunately, as much as the church means to them.

It has been my desire for the longest time that the church in America would be like the early Church described in Acts. The members of the church were always in fellowship with one another, not just on special days or a specific day of the week but all the time. Christians sold all they had and gave to one another as each had needs arise. Christians helped the poor, cared for widows and orphans, helped each other. It seems to me it was more like a great big family, all of whom cared for each other.

This is what Jesus meant for us as believers. He did not want us to only attend a church service for an hour or so a week. I believe he wanted us to come together as much as possible to worship him and to help one another grow in him, to fellowship with each other, to be one great family, to be a light unto the world, a positive influence in the world.

But I doubt most people who fill the churches today have any desire to return to what the early church had going. It would require people to sacrifice themselves, seemingly far too great a price in our society.

Having the Church return from an institution residing in designated buildings to a community of believers as the early church was has been my desire for the longest time...

Just wanted to see how many people felt this way.

Dear brother,

It has been my passion to experience that kind of church you have described above, for many years now. What is the church? The church is not a building, the church is not an "it". The church is a "She". The church is the most beautiful woman in the world. The church is the purpose that Jesus Christ died for. She is His passion.

Today we say the phrase "go to church". What a pity! We don't see that phrase written anywhere in the New Testament, nor in the first 300 years. We cannot go to the church, we cannot have a church, we just are part of the church. The church gathers together. Possibly every day, sharing together everything, each one of us sharing with others that portion of Christ dwelling within us. That is called church life. Experiencing church life has been my passion.

I was reading a book today about the sufferings that the Lords allows in Christians' life and I would like to quote a passage of this book here. Just because this passage speak about the neccesity of church life.

"What the Lord is doing in your life is toward this end:to make you as complete in Christ as any other saint who has ever lived. He is working the same thing in me. He has fashioned every circumstance that enters into your life toward that end. There are no accidental happenings in any Christian's life.
His goal is to change you into His flikeness.
You, as one lone individual, cannot be changed into the completeness of all that Christ is. The all encopassing Christ is simply too great for you to express. But you can express some part of His life. With that fact we come face to face with the purpose of the church. You cannot express all of Christ. Neither can the brother sitting next to you. Yet the Lord is seeking transformation in both. Look around. The same is happening to every person in that room. Not a single one of them can express all of Christ. But Chris! Each one of you can express some unique part of Christ! Then look what happens when you gather in one of those informal meetings. Assembled together in that room are all the riches that are Christ. And those riches can be seen and heard!
In my judgement that is one of the most wondrous facts in the universe."

I brought this passage because I wanted to emphasize the neccesity of the church as she was in the apostolic age, with informal meetings, not organized one, with everyone bringing in the meetings their portion of Christ.

As you said, to be a part of that church requires to sacrifice yourself. Being part of church life means that a huge part of ourself must die. Not only apparent sins, but a lot of our "beatiful ideas" will die. Natural men come up with "beautiful ideas" of doing things for the Lord, and these ideas die hard, just because we often think that these ideas are Lord's ones.

But, a christian needs to sacrifice himself before the Lord, either he is experiencing church life or not. If only we could understand that there is not even one thing in the world that is not worth sacrificing for the sake of knowing our Lord. Let our hearts flutter with joy in the possibility of knowing our Lord.

 

[C.A.B.L]

It is very sad that being a Christian in this modern age we live in, we do not have to sacrifice anything. It used to be, in the NT times, that if you were a Christian, you (at times) had a bounty on your head (in the case where Paul was persecuting the early church) but now I think Christianity is looked at more like a "club" than an actual way of life. All because I think of the lack of danger and sacrifice we don't have to face, in other words, you can be a Christian with little or loss to yourself.

 

[WeakButHopeful]

Hello. I've had discussions similar to this thread with some of my friends, Christians and non-Christians. I would certainly agree that the current state of affairs in Christianity is poor, and I also agree that there needs to be an understanding that each Christian is (or is supposed to be) a unique expression of Christ's loving presence, there are some practical considerations which I (and those I've discussed this with) think prevent the original Acts organization of day to day life being applied today to cure Christianity's ills.

Believe me, I am not sure about any of this and welcome disagreement (I'm sure I'll learn something which is why I decided to reply).

#1- I'm not clear that Acts isn't talking about setting up a Christian organization, as opposed to a Christian society. In other words, were the people who sold everything and came together intending that someday the whole world would work this way, or were they doing this as a logical step in changing one's life style as one embarked on an important mission, that of bring the Good News to the whole world. In other words, if I join the military I may sell my house and car, and give away other things to charity or family, but it doesn't mean I expect everyone to do the same.

#2- There is a question of scalability. What works for a small community does not always work for a society. For instance (and I'm sure this will be controversial) if everyone in North America sold a substantial percentage of what they had and gave it to the poor in Africa, who would benefit? I suspect there are many governmental, climate, infrastructural, educational, macro-economic and cultural problems that would need to be solved, and not all of them can be solved by money. Furthermore, the obvious decline in discretionary spending by the North American citizens who just liquidated a substantial portion of their wealth would probably cause a global recession or depression, which would hurt the poor of the world disproportionately harder than others. In case this sounds cynical, Christ did warn us to think carefully about any major project before undertaking it, and modelling 21st century society after the example in Acts would certainly qualify as a major project.

#3- Although I am NOT this cynical, a non-Christian friend of mine once commented that the number of homeless in the U.S. is supposed to be (according to him, maybe he was incorrect) approximately the same as the number of local Christian churches. He said the answer was obvious...one homeless person per local Christian church, problem solved.

Two quick comments: Count's quotation about Christ trying to make each of us a unique expression of one aspect of Himself reminds me of comments by C.S.Lewis in "Mere Christianity". I certainly agree with that. I also like the picture of modern Christianity painted by Joseph F. Girzone in his series of "Joshua" novels.

Ok, that was my 2 cents (some would say it was too long to be just 2 cents).

 

[whatseekye]

When I got born again about 3 years ago, I wanted so much to find other believers who I could share my faith with. I felt that it was important to get involved in a local church so that I would have opportunity for communal worship and to learn to love other christians. I did get involved in a church but I often leave the services feeling very disappointed and frustrated. I keep going and try to bring Jesus to church with me, in the hope that I can be encourage others.

I wanted to have my doors open to other Christians, so I got the idea to have a love feast (in the spirit of the traditional love feasts...a christian dinner where you celebrate your faith together) at my house on Friday nights. I invited a couple of Christian friends over, thinking we could actually have a meal together and also praise God, discuss something edifying, etc. But my friends didn't want to talk about God, and so, as a way of loving them, I decided to make them comfortable and just have a secular evening of small talk.

I'm still hoping to meet other christians in my church who want to have real christian fellowship.

I think it is possible that only Spirit filled, born again Christians are interested in deeper fellowship.

 

[whatseekye]

It is very sad that being a Christian in this modern age we live in, we do not have to sacrifice anything. It used to be, in the NT times, that if you were a Christian, you (at times) had a bounty on your head (in the case where Paul was persecuting the early church) but now I think Christianity is looked at more like a "club" than an actual way of life. All because I think of the lack of danger and sacrifice we don't have to face, in other words, you can be a Christian with little or loss to yourself.

Not to sound cynical, but I read in a book about the history of the church, that the persecution of the church burns away the chaff.

 

[Count]

#1- I'm not clear that Acts isn't talking about setting up a Christian organization, as opposed to a Christian society. In other words, were the people who sold everything and came together intending that someday the whole world would work this way, or were they doing this as a logical step in changing one's life style as one embarked on an important mission, that of bring the Good News to the whole world. In other words, if I join the military I may sell my house and car, and give away other things to charity or family, but it doesn't mean I expect everyone to do the same.

I don't think that scriptures tell us that the church should have all things in common. We clearly see from the scriptures that the church is guided by the Holy Spirit, not by men, nor by rules, not by organization, not by human means. So, the work of the Spirit differs from a local church to another. For example, we see that the christians in Jerusalem have all things in common, but it is not the same with the gentile churches.

We also see that not all the churches had all the gifts. Some had that of tounges, some of prophecy, and some of healing, or some all of them. And christians couldn't make use of gifts whenever they wanted. For example, Paul who did miracles, said to Timothy to drink a little wine because it was good for his health, etc.

The church doesn't work according to men's will. Men should not put boundaries to the church with human rules and doctrines. The brothers and sisters should gather together having center of their meetings Jesus Christ. The brothers and sisters should gather in an informal way and worship the Lord, pray, declare to the Lord and to each other and ..... learn to listen to the Spirit, so that what they do, will be the Lord's work through them. It is not the Lord that follows us, it is (or should be) us that follow the Lord.

We often are tempted to do things for the Lord. And we easily support our "good" thoughts with verses. But the christian life is not a matter of doing good or bad, it is a matter of life and death, of living His life, or....thinkig that you live but in reality being dead. It is a matter of spirit and flesh. We can do many, many good things and still live in flesh, just because we eat from the tree of knowing the good and bad, instead of eating from the tree of life, which is Jesus Christ.

So the church (or the believer) should continually eat from the tree of life, that is, Jesus Christ, in order for her to have life. The church therefore, should be in continual fellowship with her Lord. The result of this fellowship with the Lord will be abundant life and abundant.....cross.( If only the Lord could mercy us and show the necessity of the latter)

So, returning to the subject, we don't say :"brothers, the church in Jerusalem had all things in common, let us do the same". No, it is wrong, but if the Spirit will want us to do this, be sure that this will happen in a spontaneous way. In church history we have such examples where christians had all things in common.

#2- There is a question of scalability. What works for a small community does not always work for a society. For instance (and I'm sure this will be controversial) if everyone in North America sold a substantial percentage of what they had and gave it to the poor in Africa, who would benefit? I suspect there are many governmental, climate, infrastructural, educational, macro-economic and cultural problems that would need to be solved, and not all of them can be solved by money. Furthermore, the obvious decline in discretionary spending by the North American citizens who just liquidated a substantial portion of their wealth would probably cause a global recession or depression, which would hurt the poor of the world disproportionately harder than others. In case this sounds cynical, Christ did warn us to think carefully about any major project before undertaking it, and modelling 21st century society after the example in Acts would certainly qualify as a major project.

We don't see anywhere in New Testament that christians cared for the poor pagans (non christians). The money the believers put in apostles feet was used for the needs of the believers, not the world's. Paul collected money from the gentile churches for the poor saints of the church in Jerusalem, not for all the poors of the world.

#3- Although I am NOT this cynical, a non-Christian friend of mine once commented that the number of homeless in the U.S. is supposed to be (according to him, maybe he was incorrect) approximately the same as the number of local Christian churches. He said the answer was obvious...one homeless person per local Christian church, problem solved.

The church is not a human organization. The purpose of the church is not to help poors. After all, I don't think that the church should be rich. The church should be rich only in Jesus Christ. If the church is rich in material things, she will forget to depend on the faith of Jesus Christ, she will depend on earthly things, she will lose her power. The real purpose of the church is not to help the poors, the real purpose is to claim Jesus Christ, to show Jesus Christ. Peter did'nt have money for the lame to give, but he gave to the lame something more powerful than money, he gave to the lame person, Jesus Christ.

And that is what the world needs today more than never, Jesus Christ, a living Jesus Christ, a powerful Jesus Christ, a RRESURECTED Jesus Christ.

 

[HoT-MetaL]

Unfortunately the same is true of England. The church here has become irrelevant, hypocritical, and publicly scandalous. Praise the Lord that the true church, the ecclessia, are beginning to rise up for Christ's glory!

God Bless, metal.

 

[tonya]

I wish we ahd church every night...BUT my church is alot like the Acts church..It is awesome..

 

[wvernon]

Not to sound cynical, but I read in a book about the history of the church, that the persecution of the church burns away the chaff.

That's a good point.

 

[whatseekye]

And that is what the world needs today more than never, Jesus Christ, a living Jesus Christ, a powerful Jesus Christ, a RRESURECTED Jesus Christ.

Amen! Powerful words here. I 100% agree!

 

[whatseekye]

I wish we ahd church every night...BUT my church is alot like the Acts church..It is awesome..

That is wonderful. So happy for you.

 

[whatseekye]

That's a good point.

[Talking about the persecution of the church from 100-313 A.D., although this could apply to the early church too since there were persecutions and dangers since the beginning.]

One effect of the trials through which the Christians of that period passed was a purified church. The persecutions kept away all who were not sincere in their profession; none joined the church for worldly gain or popularity. The half-hearted and the weak left it; only those became the open followers of Christ who were willing to be faithful unto death. Persecution sifted the church, drove away the chaff and left the wheat in its membership."

Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, The Story of the Christian Church, p 53