And all who believed were together and...sat?

Too often, the church is viewed as only a building. The question “Are you going to church?” has become a phrase likened to, “Spencer we’re having meatloaf for dinner tonight.” [Insert unappealing food in place of meatloaf]

That is to say, it makes my stomach turn over.

We see the church made into this thing a place you just go to, not a body of people, eating, sleeping, talking, and living Christ.

Acts 2:42-47

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This passage is often the model that many pastors and church planters will refer back to whenever discussing what the church should look like, and it isn’t hard to see why.

Nowhere in this passage, or the Bible, does it say that the people went into the ‘church’ and sat, left inspired, and,

continued sinning.

Tragically, this is often the church model that we see in the “buckle of the Bible belt” as my good friend and brother put so well.

A church should not look like 14,000 people sitting on a Sunday morning, glossing over the Bible for some kind of fortune cookie inspiration to get them going for a few hours, or a chocolate Jesus that makes them feel better momentarily but keeps them on their behinds for the rest of the week.

Let’s say we keep the number at 14,000, but instead of the disastrous results that we see in many of these bloated churches, this body of 14,000 is moving in their community, selling their possessions, giving of themselves to people who desperately need the Gospel of Jesus Christ, opening their homes and church doors to people who so need rest.

But in order for 14,000 people to look like Christ, it has to start with one. It has to start with you and me in community, like the Acts church. It’s contagious, as a good friend and mentor put it to me.

A word to church-

Your building, it’s size, how many football fields it has or how much money it can spend on absolutely insane places to take the youth for a camp, does not matter.

Your Jesus, your Gospel, your doctrine, and your community do.

Spencer Jacobson