A Vision for the Modern Church

Acts 2:42 – They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

In last week’s blog I argued that the Sunday sermon is an outdated and counterproductive practice of the 21st-century church. Of course, if we put it to a vote, no one would agree to get rid of preaching. After all, what else would we do on Sunday mornings? But Christians, of all people, should think outside the box. Jesus was the most creative and controversial revolutionary who ever lived, and Paul was a close second. Why are we, as Jesus’ followers, so traditional and so stuck in our ways? But again … if we get rid of the Sunday morning sermon, what else would we do?

I believe that the church should be devoted to the timeless priorities of the Apostolic church in Acts. In Acts 2:42 we read that the church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” We see four focal points of the first-century church:  

• Teaching 
• Fellowship 
• Communion
• Prayer

1.       First, the church should be devoted to Biblical teaching. We have some of this at the church I attend, but the majority of our Bible classes are woefully lacking. Our teachers are in much the same position as our preachers – they don’t know the Bible and they don’t know how to teach. Our “Adult Bible Class” is not really a “class” – it’s a discussion – and it usually ends up being nothing more than a collective pooling of uninformed opinions. Sometimes the ignorance would be humorous if it were not about such a serious subject. I remember one recent class where the teacher read Daniel 9:4 in the King James Version, which says that God is “terrible.” Of course, the word “terrible” has changed in meaning over the past 400 years. When the KJV was written the word “terrible” meant “awesome.” But our teacher was not aware of that, and he loved his King James Bible, and so he taught us that God was “terrible.” Bible class teachers need to immerse themselves in Biblical education and teacher training, but this is not a priority in most churches. If it were a priority, then ministers would not only get training for themselves but would also require training for Bible class teachers – not just one or two refresher sessions, but intensive instruction with real classes, practice, and feedback.

2.       The church should be devoted to fellowship. Many churches do a pretty good job in this area, but much of our socializing at church is about trivial matters. It’s okay to talk about sports and the weather, but we need to do more. Where are the meetings where testimonies are heard, encouragement given, and personal struggles shared? Where are the meetings where burdens and prayers are shared among members? The church has left this to individual members to pursue on their own, but has not provided a structure or venues or meetings that are devoted to spiritual fellowship.

3.       The church should be devoted to communion. My church has communion four times a year. If I read my Bible four times a year, would you say I was devoted to the Bible? If I prayed four times a year, would you say I was devoted to prayer? Communion is the way that we collectively testify to our Lord’s death. And yet my church actually prohibits non-members from attending communion! Our exclusion of non-members is unscriptural and self-defeating. Communion is the one service that we should encourage unbelievers to attend, because that’s the service where the entire church testifies to its belief in the saving power of our Lord’s death. What a wonderful opportunity to expose unbelievers to our faith and to jointly declare our devotion to Christ, and what a tragedy (for both them and us) that we exclude them from communion.

4.       The church should be devoted to prayer. My church has a prayer meeting at 9:00 every Sunday – I guess. I stopped going because most of the time no one else showed up. We also pray for about 5 minutes every Sunday during “prayer time” before the sermon. If I prayed for a 5 minutes per week, would you say that I was devoted to prayer? We don’t need sermons on prayer – we need to pray. We need more than optional prayer meetings before church – we need to make prayer one of the hallmarks of the church. Rather than gathering together to passively listen to a sermon, we should gather to actively pray with one another.

In addition, the church should be devoted to other practices that are not mentioned in Acts 2:42 but that are given high priority elsewhere in the New Testament.

5.       The church should be devoted to worship. My church’s worship consists of singing the same old songs every week. There’s no creativity, no excitement, no spontaneity, and nothing new from one week to the next. There are no “new songs” being sung to the Lord. There are no alternate forms of worship, like poetry readings, testimonies of praise, skits, or special numbers. Worship should be vibrant, diverse, exciting, and meaningful – but it won’t happen by accident. The church leadership needs to be intentional about making it happen.

6.       The church should be devoted to serving the community. Why do we think that serving the community is not allowed on Sunday morning? The best time to serve the community is when the church is together. "They will know we are Christians by our love" – our love for each other and our love for the community. The church should be known for feeding the poor, visiting those in prison, cleaning the streets and parks, teaching English as a Second Language, and so on. And those activities would best be done by the church as a whole on Sundays.

7.       The church should be devoted to foreign missions. We do this to some extent, but not nearly enough. My church is spending $400,000 to remodel our building, and then we pat ourselves on the back for raising $10,000 for foreign missions. Where your money is, that’s where your heart is also. You say that you can do both (remodel the church and give to missions) but you cannot; you cannot serve two masters. I’m thankful for the money that our church gives to missions, just like Lazarus was thankful for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, but it’s not enough. This summer, our sister church had a weekend missions conference with over 600 people. Meanwhile, my denomination had a weekend missions conference with about 25 people, half of whom were foreign missionaries. Our sister church has retained their conservative values in many ways (ancient hymnal, holy kiss, head coverings, etc.) but they have far exceeded us in missions, including their use of extra-denominational resources to strengthen their mission work. It’s ironic because 60 years ago the “father of missions” in our denomination, Vic Schlatter, had to leave the sister church and join our side in order to do missionary work. How the tables have turned.

To summarize, the Sunday morning sermon is obsolete. Do you see sermons listed as one of the four priorities of the early church in Acts 2:42? For me it’s been frustrating, discouraging, and depressing to hear the same Bible stories on Sunday mornings in the same way for the past 60 years.

The church should not sit passively during sermons on Sunday mornings. Instead it should spend Sundays in: (1) small-group interactive classes; (2) spiritual fellowship with intimate sharing and mutual encouragement; (3) weekly communion that includes non-Christians; (4) small-group prayer meetings; (5) creative worship; (6) community service; and (7) participation in missions through prayer, writing cards and letters, raising money, and preparing for short-term mission trips. The church should be active!

If you’ve read this far, you probably agree with some of my points. This essay is long enough that there’s something for everyone to agree with, and there’s something for everyone to disagree with. But if you get the idea that “yes, we can make some changes,” then you’ve missed the point. The church needs to “make some changes” like the Titanic needed to rearrange its deck chairs. The church needs a wholesale course correction. We have a lot of inertia on our current course, so changing direction will not be easy, but it is our only option for long-term success in God's kingdom.