Reflections on Acts, Part 2

This is my second attempt at Part 2. The first attempt, begun more than a week ago, sounded harsh and judgmental, and while there is a place for righteous anger towards today’s church, I doubt that expressing it here is ultimately very beneficial. I also thought some of my comments may have been construed as criticisms against my own congregation, and I have no desire to go there. So I’ve decided to approach this from the standpoint of how God has convicted me personally in recent years regarding certain practices in the church as presented in Acts 2:42-47.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I’m going to avoid the urge to discuss Biblical illiteracy, church disunity, Christians living just like the rest of the world, and virtually nonexistent personal evangelism. I will concentrate on fellowship/hospitality and meeting physical needs.

Fellowship and Hospitality
I saw Biblical fellowship and hospitality in action in the church my husband I were members of when we first married. Most Sundays, the pastor, elders, and deacons would open their homes after morning worship and invite visitors and other church members for lunch. In my first weeks at the church (my husband-to-be was already a member), there was an invitation to a different home every Sunday. In this way, I got to really know a large number of people in a short period of time.

This practice emanated from two areas of conviction among the church leadership. First, a Biblical observance of the Sabbath that included avoiding eating out in restaurants; and second, a priority placed upon Biblical hospitality and fellowship that was demonstrated from the top down as well as taught from the pulpit. The church leaders lead by example and the example was followed among many members of the congregation.

All of this was a revelation to me. I was taught that observing the Sabbath was something that only Jews did; and fellowship meals were quarterly or monthly pot luck affairs at the church building. Despite my past experience, or perhaps because of it, I bought into the Sabbath observance/hospitality concept hook, line, and sinker. Unfortunately, before the practice could take hold within our own home we moved away.

Our transition to our new home was difficult, and had we not already had friends in the town to which we moved and family nearby, I don’t know that we would have stayed. It was impossible not to compare our new church to our old one, and one area in which the new church compared extremely unfavorably to the old one was in the area of fellowship. The only invitations we received to dine in other church members’ homes were from our Sunday school teachers and people with whom we were already friends. We decided there were a number of reasons for this. First, many people went to church with their extended families and ate Sunday lunches with them. Second, many people ate out after church. And finally, there was an altogether different definition of fellowship.

In his book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life, Donald S. Whitney explains the problem. Here is an excerpt from the chapter, “Seek True Fellowship, Not Mere Socializing.”

…socializing is not the same as fellowship. Unbelievers can socialize, only Christians can truly fellowship. But far too often we think we’ve enjoyed the rich feast of fellowship when we’ve only snacked on sometimes tasty but spiritually empty socializing.

At its simple best, fellowship involves two or more Holy Spirit indwelled people talking about God and the things of God…

A significant part of the Lords’ ministry to us comes through others in whom He lives. And He intends for us to experience much of this comforting, encouraging, instructing, reproving, guiding, and sustaining ministry through fellowship. But if we talk with our brothers and sisters almost exclusively about things even worldlings can discuss and understand, we deprive ourselves of many touches from Heaven.

True fellowship seldom occurs unintentionally, especially from those who do not yet see the difference between fellowship and socializing. Enjoy socializing with other Christians, but discipline yourself to talk more about things that matter, and talk about them as though they do matter.

Based on Whitney’s definition, greeting people at the start of worship is not fellowship but socializing. The weekly breakfast with the guys wherein nothing but football is discussed is not fellowship but socializing. Hanging around after church talking could be fellowship, but it is more likely that it is socializing. Even having people in your home can simply be socializing if you are not intentional in your efforts to provide true fellowship.

Those Sunday lunches in the early years of our marriage still inspire me. I have especially fond memories of having lunch in the pastor’s home. The food was always delicious, but never complicated, and the conversation was stimulating. My husband and I decided that instead of just pining for the past, we would do what we could do to follow that model in our new home and church. When it came time for us to purchase dining room furniture, we bought a table that would seat ten. I have been collecting recipes for dishes that can be assembled the evening before and that feed a number of guests. The homes we have built have large living areas conducive to entertaining modest crowds.

At this time, the reality of our practice has not matched our vision, but now that our children are getting a little older, our vision should become more of a reality. (Tired children don’t make for good dinner companions.) My prayer is that we would bless others as we have been blessed and that true fellowship would exist within the church.

Meeting Physical Needs
In recent years, God has made me sensitive to the lack of emphasis in the church upon meeting physical needs. Evangelical churches do not do nearly enough to meet physical needs and do not teach their members the importance of meeting physical needs. It is at best an afterthought. In Acts, Luke makes it clear that in the early church, things were much different: And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

In his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Ron Sider writes of the early church:

The picture of the first Christians in Jerusalem presented in the early chapters of Acts is one of astonishing love and joyous fellowship. Dramatic economic sharing was the norm… From later sections of Acts, it becomes clear that families retained private property. Membership in the fellowship did not mean one must place all property in a common purse. But the economic sharing was so extensive that observers were compelled to say that “there were no needy persons among them” (4:34). This astonishing economic sharing produced powerful evangelistic results!

Anyone with a heart for meeting physical needs cannot but refer to Christ’s own emphasis on the subject in His description of the judgment in Matthew 25:35-36:
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick , and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.

It is interesting to note that in this description of the judgment, God doesn’t judge based on effectiveness in sharing the gospel but on efforts at meeting physical needs. I think this is because the two cannot be separated. A concern for physical needs is inherent in the gospel message. In His “mission statement” in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus, quoting Isaiah, says of himself:

The spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
Ad recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

Meeting physical needs is another area in my life wherein the reality doesn’t match the vision, but at this time, we are doing what we can. We are supporting a Romanian family monthly through World Vision, and we are responding to other needs as God directs us. Also, in serving as president of my WMU group for the past two years, I have been able to lead in making meeting physical needs a priority for our group.

I will close with something to ponder from Ron Sider:
The World Bank reports that 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest people try to survive on just one dollar a day. At least one billion people have never heard the gospel. …if American Christians just tithed, they would have another $143 billion available to empower the poor and spread the gospel.