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| “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” |
| —Acts 2:42 |
I once knew a pastor who opined that, if he could harness the energy produced by the people who move from church to church, he could greatly reduce his electricity bill. I’m not certain how he would do that. But, there is a lot of movement, as people leave one church to join another.
Their often vocally stated reasons for leaving one church and moving to another church produce a long list of both serious and trivial concerns. To an interested observer, it seems as if they’re always looking for the perfect church and don’t realize that, once they join such a church, it will no longer be perfect.
In Acts 2:42, Dr. Luke records four elements that comprised the early church:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
In the next few blog posts, I’m going to attempt to explore what those four elements might look like in a 21st century church. Maybe together we can figure out how to renew the vitality of our churches in a way that would particularly honor God. I’m willing to try. Are you with me?
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2015
