What If We Lived Like the Early Church?
2009 August 16
Over the past week since returning from camp and an awesome summer of TIMS Work Camps I’ve spent most of my week resting and reading. I’ve used my time to catch up on some blogs I like to follow and just the other day I was struck by what Perry Noble wrote on his blog. I mean seriously…WHAT IF?
Below was taken from his blog post. It got me thinking. What about you?
I was thinking some “what if” thoughts the other day…
- WHAT IF the early church had decided to simply study what Jesus said but not apply it?
- WHAT IF the early church had decided their primary responsibility was to be political, thus organizing protests against the Roman government for occupying their land?
- WHAT IF the early church had decided to yell and scream at the Romans for acting like Romans?
- WHAT IF the early church had decided their primary call was to save the environment rather than the ones living in it?
- WHAT IF the early church had substituted their personal preferences in place of the words of Jesus?
- WHAT IF the early church had been more obsessed with Robert’s Rules of Order rather than the Scriptures?
- WHAT IF the early church had been focused on the cross on the wall rather than the cross Jesus called them to carry?
- WHAT IF the early church had instructed the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 that He was a little out of hand…and that his movement hadn’t been voted on and approved by the deacons.
- WHAT IF the early church had been full of people who drove their “luxury camels” to church…but became angry when someone mentioned the offering?
- WHAT IF the early church had the attitude of, “we love a small crowd…so don’t tell anyone about Jesus coming back to life. I know He commanded us to tell…but let’s keep it a secret?”
- WHAT IF the early church had been more passionate about their comfort than conforming to who Christ called them to be?
- WHAT IF the early church had spent their time attacking the church planting movement than began in Acts 8 and continued throughout the NT?
- WHAT IF the early church had been full of people who had an attitude and an opinion…but weren’t actually willing to do anything to reach people far from God?
- WHAT IF the early church had required only “religious professionals” to be in ministry?
WHAT IF…WOW…so glad the early church listened to Jesus and did what HE said…or else we would have been in a lot of trouble!
I’ve been in youth ministry for over 12 years as a youth director, writer and speaker. I currently serve full-time as the TIMS Program Director at The Christian Retreat Center. 
Hey Brian, outstanding post. I have been deeply inspired by a book written by George Barna called “Revolution.” It describes what might be if we focused on the the ACTS model by being “Revolutionary Christians.”
Highly recommend it as we think about what it is to be a Christian in 2009 and beyond.
Blessings brother.
I liked this.We are learning about this in church.
Wow – this is powerful, man…
lately i’ve been talking to one of my friends about some of this stuff. i hope you can fallow most of this. i know i tend to ramble.
1) I went on a trip with a group from my school (a christian school) to work with habitat for humanity and serve in other areas as well. This one week of service and community made me realize what i was missing that couldn’t be provided by a large church environment. My friend and i began discussing the communism of mission trips and the growth it encourages. We came to the conclusion that communism only works on a large scale if God is the “dictator.” The early church tried it for a while, but it fell apart. But what if smaller groups lived like this (without becoming cultish of course)?
2)Luke 9:1-4 Truly living like Jesus means giving up material possessions in pursuit of something deeper. What if we just sold it all and gave the money to the poor and obeyed Jesus and just went and served and depended on His provision? What if we didn’t worry about preparing for an earthly future, because we knew that the physical world doesn’t matter? What if we were truly dependent upon Him to provide all of our needs? Would we also be more thankful to Him in the end? And He gave us our very lives, not to mention our material possessions. And possessions eventually return to dust just like our bodies will. They always belong to God anyway. What is possession really? Can you ever really say that anything belongs to you?
3) I know it’s more difficult to just give up everything you think you have built for yourself when you have been well established in your own community. I acknowledge that reality. But I’m still so very, very young. I don’t have the responsibilities of a home or family or job yet. I am absolutely free to never even start in the direction of the American dream. Getting out of this idea that success is required to serve God with special abilities or money is the first step towards being truly grateful for what you have. God’s people living in poverty in the lowliest of places have the greatest true joy and appreciation for everything they experience or are given. I want that. That’s what i want for Christmas- to lose everything so that i can gain everything.
Anyone?