Ok…so it’s pretty common knowledge that I am a pastor. And it’s also probably not a secret that this is all I really know how to do – be a pastor that is. Something that’s no secret but maybe not known by everyone is that I recently received a call to serve as pastor of another church in a suburb of Detroit.
I understand that the idea of receiving a call isn’t a normal concept so here’s a quick explanation. In the corporate world there are head hunters who pretty much go around seeking people perfect for the opening in a specific company. They have a list of skills and items that need done and their job is to find the right person to get those jobs done.
Well in a call it’s kind of like that but not…all at the same time. In church world, at least in the church body to which I belong, when a church is in need of a pastor they gather a team of people to evaluate the church’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Then they match that with pastors around the church body who have interests and skills where the church has needs. And they extend an offer for that position to the appropriate candidate.
Where this is different than a typical corporate head hunter though is that we believe this position is really coming from God through the local church. So when a church needs a pastor they should be spending considerable time praying through the options available to them and extending a call based on where they feel God leading them to go.
This brings me to the title for this post – am I done? This is the question the pastor must ask when he receives a call to a new location. And this is the very question I’ve been wresting with for the past couple of weeks.
Have I taken the church I’m serving as far as I am able to take them? Am I hindering their forward momentum? Am I preventing them from growing both wider in their reach and deeper in their faith? Have I outstayed my welcome? Ok not really welcome but outstayed my capacity for leadership and discipling of the people.
This is a hard question to be certain. And the really hard part is removing emotions from the mix. It would be easy to say I have friends here so I’m not going anywhere. But that’s not really what the call is about. Actually that’s what makes the call of a pastor different from the hiring of a manger or employee. We don’t, or shouldn’t, stay or go because of friends or extended family. Sure we take others into consideration, but the decision is based on is God done with me here.
Throughout this process I’ve spent far more time listening than talking. I’ve asked far more questions of myself, the people around me, and my family than I have provided answers. I’ve called on men and women with whom I’ve surrounded myself in an effort to hear God’s voice through the wise counsel around me.
It’s not an easy process! Considering and praying through a call does NOT mean anything negative about the people I work with and serve daily. It just means that I need to be open to the possibility that God has something else in mind…something better for His kingdom. For me that’s the whole point of this discernment process. Is God done with me here? What is the best option for His Kingdom?
So for now we wrestle with the question am I done here. I now wait in prayer that God provides a clear answer and the comfort and confidence to boldly step in whichever direction he has for me to step.
There is a huge discussion happening in our world these days about identity. Who determines your identity? Is this something we choose? Is it forced upon us? Is it a natural part of the human condition to have an inborn identity? Consider a couple of scenarios that aren’t too far from reality. A young man grows up in a family where the dad is abusive, and he decides that he doesn’t want to be like his dad. A girl is raised by a single mom who is powerful and strong and has it all together, so she decides she will be the strongest woman around and she doesn’t need anyone.
In both of these situations, the young people have determined that their upbringing was going to have an impact on their identity. One determined that their situation was going to make them buck the system while the other embraced the reality.
If we were to push this example just a little bit further, you can see the young man who’s been abused by his dad wanting nothing to do with men. Ultimately, he thinks he can change who he is and form a new identity all because he doesn’t like the example this man has been in his life.
I really believe this issue of identity is a major concern in our culture and we don’t really even realize it. Just 5-7 years ago, ones identity was all but assumed. Not imposed on us but gifted to us individually. There were things we simply did not even consider trying to change. Fast forward to our modern context and it seems as if nothing is consistent if I don’t want it to be consistent.
Where does my identity come from anyway? This is a fundamental question that is answered differently by different camps of people. There are really only two ways of answering this question however. Either our identity is given to us by something outside of ourselves or we are able to freely evolve into whatever identity we desire in the moment. Try as you might to make it more complex but in reality it’s that simple. And once we start individually evolving our identity, there is absolutely no stopping it.
For those of us who are in Christ, who call ourselves Christians, we believe that our identity is found not in our parents or our own self will but it’s in Christ. To call oneself a Christian and not be defined by the things that Christ is about is like having a diesel motor in your vehicle and choosing to put gasoline in it. It just won’t work. And actually you do more harm than you might realize. You can’t be a Christian and not allow the power and presence of Christ to gift you your identity.
Our society is fighting over some massive identity issues. This is the reason for the rise in talk about the LGBTQ movement, among other hot topics of the day. It’s a movement that at its core is about identity. Wanting to self identify as something that runs counter to the natural flow of humanity and nature. Please don’t misread this at all. The intent of this post is not the condone or condemn someone’s lifestyle choices. It’s simply my understanding of the culture in which we live. We are bent on being in charge of our identity.
We think our identity is found in our preferences, sexual, political or otherwise. We think our identity is determined by our position, posture, or possessions. We introduce ourselves by our marital status, job title, occupation, denominational affiliation, political party. You name it, we have imposed identities all around us. But some identities aren’t that easy to just sluff off. We can’t change our identity as a man or woman without some outside force allowing it to be a reality.
I know my thoughts aren’t going to be popular with everyone and that’s ok with me. I know my intent and it’s not to harm. It’s simply to help people see that their identity isn’t found in who they like or if they’re liked back the same way. You don’t need a spouse to be whole. You can be wildly successful in your own right without a PHD or cool title attached to the end of your email.
Your identity isn’t found in the color of your skin or preferred pronouns. Your identity is found in Christ and your perspective in relation to him. You can’t change that. Try as you might to have a more clear picture of yourself through a different title or a change in physical appearance. But deep on the inside you are still the same person with the same identity. You are still someone who God loves deeply. You are still someone for whom Jesus willingly and painfully died. You are someone to whom the gift of heaven was graciously extended.
The world will continue to have an identity crisis until it realizes that its true identity is found in a God who loves through a Son who gives and a Spirit who lives.
Getting volunteers to commit to something is getting more challenging in several parts of our society. I’m not sure why it is but it seems people are more apprehensive about serving while at the same time demanding more places to be able to serve. It’s kind of confusing to be honest.
The issue is however that we need volunteers. We need places and spaces to serve and lend a hand. It’s really the only thing that keeps us from being egotistical and arrogant turds. The more we focus on ourselves the less we focus on others and the more self centered we become. It’s a nasty cycle to say the least.
There is a problem however. In the last post I talked about two filters I use when I look at the volunteerism crisis in churches and non profits. You can read that here. In this post, I promised to give you a way that really seems to work amazingly well when it comes to asking for volunteers. And to make matters even better, it’s super easy! At least it should be easy.
It all starts with why.
When I go about asking for volunteers, I only use two sets of parameters. The first is why you and the second is what I’m asking you to do. It’s really that simple. But it all starts with why.
Before you go into what you want them to do, you have to know who they are. This means that you have to have relationships with the people around you. Know their likes and dislikes, passions and fears. You don’t have to know everything about them but just observe. Are they good with kids? Do they freak out when a child walks in the room? Are they color blind? Are they great with grammar? Or are they unable to spell? Can they sing or are they generous? What about hospitality or compassion?
These are the things we have to look for in the people around us. When we know what gifts people have, it becomes far easier to help them find a place to plug in. So the starting point is to answer a simple question. What do you see in this person that makes you think they’d be right for this job?
When you can answer that question with 3-5 concrete examples, then you’re in the right place. Be very careful however that this isn’t some stupid love fest just to butter someone up and then whack them with an if you really care about the church you’ll serve bunch of nonsense. We’re not talking bait and switch. This is a genuine, honest assessment of who they are from your perspective. So lead with those 3-5 concrete examples of what you see in them.
Would you be interested?
The second step is the ask. So after you’ve told them what you see in them and how they interact with others. After you’ve given them all the reasons that you feel they are a wonderful blessing to your organization, then you ask them if they’d prayerfully consider putting those wonderful gifts to use in this specific area.
You will never get them to plug in if you don’t just ask them. But the beauty here is that once you have gone the distance of really thinking through who they are, asking will be so much easier. It’s a natural fit if you’ve done the first step right.
Is no still an option? Absolutely! And you have to be ok with that reality. But the amazing part of this approach is that when you start by identifying what you see in the other person, even if they say no they’ve been blessed by your comments. Even a no is a work of blessing in their life as they leave the conversation filled by the words you shared.
There’s no golden ticket to getting people engaged in a next level manner. We just need to work diligently at building relationships with the people we serve, communicating what we see in them, and walking alongside them as they grow and deepen their commitment.
I remember the first time I watched the cartoon around Christmas time titled The Island of Misfit Toys. It was almost like a Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer part two. I watched the movie and thought it was terrible. I mean why in the world would we highlight the misfits, not good enoughs, odd balls, societal outcasts? It just didn’t make sense to me. Not because these people aren’t important but highlighting someone as a misfit only makes the issue worse! Now we have a movie all about me being a misfit! Who wants that?!?!
That movie came to mind again the other day as I was reading through something in the Bible. And it made me realize that sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable and even preferable to be one of the misfits in life.
Ok so the Bible doesn’t use the word misfit. I don’t even think the Message paraphrase goes quite that far! But if you think about it, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here. In the part of the Bible where Jesus calls his disciples, we can see it. To me it’s as clear as can be. The men that Jesus called to be his front line workers, were societal misfits!
This is hugely significant! And ridiculously comforting to me. I know for a fact that I’m not the best at what I do. I’m not the most eloquent, gifted, good looking, popular, guy on the block. There are pastors who are far more talent than I am to be certain! But I’m not a tax collector like Matthew.
Don’t hear me wrong here. I’m not saying I’m better than Matthew was by any means! It’s just who likes tax collectors? And even worse is how poorly these people were looked upon by the men and women of their culture. So Jesus choosing a tax collector was a pretty bold move! And one that gives me a bit of hope.
Another thing that was really great about this section where Jesus selects his followers is that none of them were Harvard graduates! Ok so I know Harvard wasn’t around but still. They were regular, ordinary and largely uneducated men. Jesus didn’t send them away to disciple school or some formal institution to get more knowledge before starting them on ministry tasks.
It was very much a show and tell kind of on the job training which was super effective! We’ll probably highlight the strategy for training Jesus’ followers in a future post, but for now just let it sink in that Jesus chose people that weren’t already wrapped up in someone else’s discipleship group. He picked the ones that weren’t super well loved by the community. And he picked the not always brightest bulbs in the pack! All that to say, there’s hope for you and for me!
The long and short of this post is pretty simple. Don’t be an idiot just because Jesus can use the uneducated. But also don’t fret if you’re not the most powerful or popular kid on the block. Jesus can work some amazing things through faithful, humble men and women of integrity. It’s really that simple. So be a misfit, outcast, whatever you want to call it. But know that those who don’t fit in in the world’s eyes can easily have a place in the Kingdom of God.
Ever have two seemingly opposing ideas that you knew were both true but didn’t seem to match up? On a simple scale it’s like trying to balance my desire to be healthy with my love for pizza, tacos and chocolate cookies. It’s really hard to keep those two thoughts in a way that seems to honor both. It’s like there’s an unhealthy tension that exists that is almost insurmountable. We will call that the balancing act.
More life altering than the tension between dieting and a love for tacos and cookies, there is a key concept in Christianity that deals with something we call the sovereignty of God. This is the idea that God is infinite, always and everywhere. He is over all things, in all things and works through all things. This is actually a really big deal that I might have to tackle in a later post by itself. But for now try to imagine everything in the world under one microscope. Imagine a being that is able to see all things around the world in one picture at the same time. That’s a pretty significantly spectacular or in this case sovereign being.
Now match that up with the idea that the same being with all that power and size is so personal that he knows your thoughts, cares, worries and fears. He wants to hear about your day and provide for you in ways that no one else can. This is the balancing act we find ourselves in with the God of the Bible.
The Bible paints the picture that God is eternal and forever and all powerful and, well sovereign. But it also gives us the demonstration that God is personal and individual and very intimate. Such a cool balancing act that we get to work with as we navigate the truth of who God really is.
Sovereignty and intimacy are two ends of the spectrum of the identity of God.
Words like creator and redeemer and advocate for humanity are concepts that speak to this idea of sovereignty. He’s called Lord of lords and King of kings. He’s referred to as everlasting and eternal. All of this speaks to the vastness of God’s power and presence in the world.
As we embrace the sovereignty of God, we are humbled and left in awe. This is a power we can hardly fathom. The reality of this size and magnitude is something so vast it’s nearly beyond comprehension.
Then as we turn the coin of God’s character over, we see words like love and Father, adoption and child of God. This leaves us even more awestruck and dumbfounded than before! How can a God who’s so massive be so in to me? How can a God who’s infinite be so intimate? How can a God who is so powerful also be so personal?
This is the paradox in which we live. This is the balancing act we much wrestle with as followers of Jesus today. God truly is sovereign in every way while also remaining intimate and personal in every way. And it’s all because he loves us. When we can accept this reality about God, we’ll be able to better understand all he’s done for us. But for now, it’s a balancing act.
I knew a couple who were a fairly unique pair of individuals. Each one had their own quirks to say the least. But one of them was less unique than the other. Ok so I’ll shoot straight here – one of them was just a bit much and was a hard person to get along with much of the time. This individual would tend to over share information, and life needed to be their way all the time!
I often said that the less hard to get along with spouse was a saint for how they dealt with the other. A saint in this case isn’t someone who died centuries ago and is now remembered for all eternity. Rather a saint in this usage is someone who was willing and able to put up with a lot of baggage out of love for the other person. They were a good person.
In my experience it seems as if we tend to throw the saint word around a little bit too easily in my book. We tend to miss the point of what a saint really is. I don’t think a saint is necessarily a genuinely good person. That diminishes the real value of what a saint truly is. Instead a saint is someone who has experienced the goodness of God.
Do you see the difference? It’s not about my goodness that makes me saintly, rather it’s about knowing I’m not all that good and still experiencing the goodness of God’s great love for me.
There’s something kind of special about being this kind of a saint. When we can acknowledge our “not goodness,” it makes the grace of God that much more powerful and amazing. When I recognize the tremendous amount of grace I’ve required from so many people, the easier it is for me to see the goodness in others.
Being a saint doesn’t mean we have it all together, or even that we’re necessarily all that good of people. It means that we’ve experienced something that not everyone realizes. We’ve experienced the goodness of God in immeasurable ways.
So have you experienced the goodness of God? Then you too my friend are what I call a saint!
The word offensive is one of my least favorite words these days. I don’t mean the offensive line in football either. I’m talking about using the word to describe how something that someone does has made us feel. It’s saying things like:
I’m offended…That’s offensive…
I believe our capacity for being offended has grown exponentially! It’s almost as if we live in a society that thrives on being offended. You stand up for what you think is right, someone is offended. You just voice your opinion, someone gets offended. You tell a friend that something isn’t quite right about their actions, yep someone gets offended!
The greater our capacity for offense becomes, the lower we value our relationships. I’ve lost more than one friend in recent years because they took offense by something they didn’t want to hear. This goes for churched people, not churched people, old people, young people, people on either side of the political aisle. We are living in a culture that is trying to thrive on being offended. But there’s a better way…a much better way.
We need a capacity to forgive that’s greater than our capacity for offense.
If you constantly find yourself getting all bent out of shape over the smallest things, then maybe you need to work on your capacity for forgiveness. Now I know that I’m a church guy and forgiveness is part of our vocabulary but everyone is capable of forgiving. But forgiving isn’t saying that everything is ok or it’s no big deal. Forgiveness is not giving the other person the control over your emotions or thoughts. It’s actually the exact opposite of being offended. When we’re offended, we’re letting someone else control our thoughts and emotional response.
As believers in Jesus, we need to really ask ourselves the hard question. Is our capacity for offense greater than our capacity for forgiveness? If the answer here is yes then we have a gigantic problem! The problem is that we’re not living in the sweet spot of our identity. As Christians our identity is found in the fact that we are forgiven people.
The more we understand our own forgiveness, the more we’ll be able to offer that same forgiveness to those around us. It’s ok to not like what someone else says, but you can’t let that change how you see them. It’s ok to get angry when someone does something that hurts you. But it’s not ok to just cancel them from your life because you’re not strong enough to handle a hard conversation.
If we don’t expand our capacity for forgiveness, we’ll live in a constant state of offense. And that is not a healthy or happy place to live.
Ok so the title is a little harsh but it’s there for a reason. I remember when my kids were younger and would draw pictures or color something. They would do their best to stay in the lines but the younger they were the messier it looked. But not once did I look at my sons or daughter and tell them kid that drawing sucks!
I mean who would do that? I don’t know a parent out there who would look at a picture their child made for them and tell them how awful it looked. Ok to be fair after the oooh and ahhh would wear off, there were times when I’d tell them how thankful I was for the picture and then point out where the lines were on the paper. But more in a building up sort of way and not a you suck kind of way.
I use this quick analogy that many of us can relate to, in an effort to pull us into a different situation. Prayer. Sometimes I think we approach prayer like we’re afraid God is going to tell us our drawing sucks!
We complain about not having the right words or not really thinking we’re good enough. We make excuses that we aren’t sure how it all works or what if we say something wrong. But just like a loving parent would never tell their child that their drawing sucked, so also God won’t pick apart your prayer either!
Look, I get it. Talking to someone you can’t see or hear directly is kind of an odd thing. But that should actually make it a bit easier. We don’t have to worry about body language or getting some weird judgmental thing in return. We just talk. Talk about anything really. Talk about our hopes or dream. Talk about our fears or things that really just burn us up inside. Talk about things we want or need. Pretty much if you can think of it, he really wants to hear from you about it.
Prayer, like a child’s drawing, isn’t going to always sound perfect. We will flub up a word or two. We’ll say things that don’t really make sense. But there’s a verse in the Bible that reminds us that even when we can’t figure out what to pray, God fills in the gaps. That’s the joy of prayer. We don’t even have to be good at it for God to hang it on his refrigerator.
So what’s on your mind? What are you wrestling with in your heart? Unload it on God. Just in one of those alone moments in the car or shower either out loud or silently in your mind. Lob those concerns, questions, ideas, fears, joy filled moments back at God. He’ll do the rest. He’ll fill in the gap in your words. He’ll address the issue in the way that’s the most appropriate and beneficial to you and the scenario around you. He’s got it. Just pray and sit back as he shows how grateful he is to hear from you. Watch as he hangs your prayer on his fridge like a parent hangs that special picture from their loving little child on theirs.
I recently listened to a podcast by Issues Etc that peaked my interest. The title was increased church closings. The speaker was the director of witness and outreach for the church body to which I ascribe. The statistics shared weren’t really all that surprising and unfortunately neither was the proposed solution. The problem is, the solution doesn’t address the real issue.
So why are churches closing? And why does it seem like they are closing so much faster today than ever before?
Well, churches close all the time. It’s nothing new to have a church close its doors due to lack of funds, community shifts, membership decline, large business closes and people move away, any number of things can lead to a church closing. Some of those are out of our control, but others are fully within grasp. As for why they’re closing so fast now, well the short answer is the pandemic changed the way people see the world, spirituality and service. If a church isn’t living in the integrity of its confession, then it’s pretty obvious to this society and they’ll disengage. Also we’ve set the bar way too low for church membership which makes leaving that much easier.
The podcast speaker says “the importance of religion is declining at a very rapid rate” in the US, and this is one of the main causes of church closures. Is it really that religion and spirituality are on the decline, or is it that the institution of the local church is no longer viewed as important? I don’t think the two are the same thing.
I don’t see, in the pockets of the country I’ve visited or discussed, that people are less spiritual or religious. I see a lot of people saying why do I need to belong to a church to do the things they do? There’s a large and ever growing number of people that are simply disenfranchised by the church’s lack of loving the least of these or loving our neighbors as ourselves. The old accusation of the church being full of hypocrites is all too often true in the church today. We hold the banners of what sins we think are worst, and at the same time neglect to share the fellowship and friendship that the gospel commands.
The number one reason I see people disconnecting from the local church is because of poor discipleship. We’ve thrown all of the discipleship eggs into one basket – the Sunday morning worship service. But is that really biblical? Does the Bible really tell us that the primary mechanism for making stronger, more devoted followers of Jesus is to put them in a room on Sunday morning when they can’t talk or interact or serve and just listen? That’s what a lot of Sunday morning worship looks like to a person who’s unaware of what we do in worship.
Now before you go and get your panties in a bunch don’t fill in the blanks here with some nasty assumption. Worship is important to the life of the follower of Jesus. And worship is part of discipleship, but it’s only part of it. There is so much more to being a follower of Jesus than Sunday morning worship.
Jesus raised the bar for what it meant to be his follower. He didn’t lower it. Making discipleship solely about worship attendance and how much money we give cheapens the role of the Christian in the world today. Christianity is not a hobby we pursue when we’re bored, but if Sunday morning is the only or even main place discipleship happens it’s easy to view it as merely a hobby.
I’m honored to be part of a network of Jesus loving men and women who want to see the Body of Christ grow and thrive. We’re doing this by helping churches see more clearly who they are and who their community is. This allows them to align their efforts to better meet the needs in their community and infuse a gospel presence into local neighborhoods more effectively. And one of the coolest parts is that we walk alongside churches the whole time. We take phone calls and text messages, set up zoom calls, and even will be boots on the ground to help local churches break through the barriers they’re facing.
If you’re a church leader or part of a church that’s on the decline, I’d love to chat with you about how to raise the bar of discipleship and how we can work together with other Jesus followers to more effectively and efficiently reach our neighbors with the love of Jesus and connect them to deeper relationships as growing disciples. Hit me up here or on social and let’s find a time to chat!
For over 20 years now I’ve done pretty much one thing with my life. Some people say I’ve worked one day a week and it must be nice to have this kind of gig. And well they’re kind of right. Ok not the one day a week bit but it is a pretty nice gig! However, I have to admit, the 20 years have not been all roses and candy, and that’s largely my own fault. You see I had a wrong focus for the first several years that I served as a pastor and that caused me a great deal of grief. It also likely led some people to a bad understanding of who we really were. For that I must apologize.
For decades, we’ve seemingly missed a key point in what it means to be followers of Jesus. It’s evident in the way we talk and how we use some key words in our vocabulary. We’ve changed the meaning of words to fit our comfort levels. We’ve left parts out of the Bible. Maybe we did it because we didn’t know better. Or perhaps it was because we just weren’t comfortable with going that far.
This post is about going that far. I’m growing increasingly tired of lowering the bar to make life easier and that’s exactly what the church has done for decades. We’ve become the lovey dovey, sissified, passive but vocal group that really doesn’t do a lot. There are exceptions but from what I see this is more the norm than the exception.
Warning: What follows is not a lowering of the bar. It’s not an attempt to make the church feel better about itself and tell you it’s going to be ok. Actually it’s just the opposite. It’s not going to be ok. If things don’t shift, and we don’t start to take our calling more seriously then we’re doing a great disservice to the gospel and leading people into a false sense of hope.
Being the church cannot be a hobby for weekends when we’re bored!
Acts 2:42 is a powerful verse that provides insight into the early Christian church and its practices. The verse reads, They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This simple sentence outlines four key practices that were absolutely critical to the early Christian community and should be seen as vital to the church today. I will even go so far as to say that without all four of these parts we cannot be the church.
The Apostles’ Teaching
The first practice that the early Christians devoted themselves to was the apostles’ teaching. This simply refers to the teachings of Jesus passed down by his apostles. These teachings were foundational to the Christian faith and formed the basis for the early church’s beliefs.
They knew that the only way to truly find meaning and power in life was through the word of God. Just like God created Adam in the Garden of Eden but he wasn’t alive until God breathed into him, so also we aren’t really alive until we have the life-giving words of God in our hearts and minds.
For the church today, the apostles’ teaching refers to the Bible. We need to be devoted to the reading, hearing and talking about the Bible. We need to spend time regularly in the Bible as individuals, couples, families, churches, Christians. All of us need the Bible, especially as we look around at the cesspool of crap the floating in the world today.
A special word of caution for parents: if we are not making the Bible a key part of our family diet, then what will our children do when they are met with challenge in their day to day lives? We should fill our children so full of the truth of the Bible that when the world cuts them, they bleed the word of God.
Fellowship
The second practice that the early Christians devoted themselves to was fellowship. This refers to the act of gathering together with other believers to share their lives, encourage one another, worship, and hold each other accountable. The early Christian community placed a high value on fellowship, recognizing that it was important for believers to be in community with one another.
Unfortunately we’ve watered down the idea of fellowship and simply toss the label on anything the institutional church does as a group. We have dart team fellowship, pickle ball fellowship, trash collection fellowship, fellowship luncheons, fellowship conferences, youth fellowship and the list goes on! But is it really fellowship? Or just a fun activity that we want to pretend is churchy so we throw the label on it to make ourselves feel better?
The concept of fellowship was so vital that it wasn’t about what each individual got out of the time together. Instead the point of fellowship was what you brought to the group. When they devoted themselves to fellowship they didn’t focus on themselves but on the rest of the gathering. They truly had a oneness to their community and it was evident to everyone around them.
The Breaking of Bread
The third nonnegotiable practice that defined the early Christians was the breaking of bread. This phrase refers to the act of sharing a meal together. The early Christian community recognized the importance of sharing meals together as a way of building community and celebrating their faith. They knew that eating together was a great way of building a bond that wasn’t easily broken.
This phrase is also about a very specific meal though – communion. The gathering together for the bread and wine, body and blood of Jesus, was a vital part of what it meant to be the church. When they gathered together, they expected to meet Jesus. They didn’t come to be entertained or given a feel good message. Nope! They gathered together expecting to experience the God of the universe right there in their midst.
When we gather for worship, bible study, small groups, fellowship gatherings and the like do we really expect to see Jesus? Or just have a mildly entertaining time, get a spiritual high, then go back to life as usual? If the church is really going to be the church that God calls out into the world we need to expect to see Jesus when we gather!
Prayer
The fourth and final pillar that held up the early church was a devotion to prayer. They didn’t shy away from the act of praying together whenever they met and we shouldn’t either.
There are so many times when we say we’re going to pray for someone but we just feel like we’re not capable, good enough, adequate in our vocabulary, educated enough and we shy away. But praying together should be like breathing. We need to be able to offer prayers for one another every time we gather. No one is better or worse at this task because we are not the point of prayer…God is!
So there you have it four key things that define what it means to be the church. You either have them or you need to make these part of your life! No time like the present. Being the church isn’t a weekend hobby or something for the faint at heart. God doesn’t lower the bar for us and we shouldn’t either. It’s time to be the church.
