Monthly Archives: September 2009

Why Study Acts?

Posted on by
Reply

The picture above is the Cenacle, or “Upper Room,” and is the last standing portion of a Byzantine and Crusader Church (“Hagia Sion”) heir to the primitive Apostolic Church (Acts 2-15). The Last Supper (Lk 22:7-38), the gathering place for the 120 (Acts 1:13), and the and Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).

This Sunday we begin our study of the Book of Acts. There is a study-guide available for download. The intro to Acts and three studies of the first two chapters can be found on our website – click here. We will be adding to the study-guide in coming days and weeks. With the study guide I’m hoping to get as many people as possible to follow along during the series – and to make it easier for small groups to follow – and to encourage potential small group facilitators to step-up and start a group.

So, this begs the question: Why study Acts? Here’s three quick reasons…

  • To take a fresh look at the establishment of God’s kingdom and spread of the early church. (In his book, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, Alan Hirsch calculates that the early church grew from 25,000 in 100AD to about 20,000,000 by 310AD!)
  • To examine the holy passions and their out-workings which marked that church
  • To consider how these might relate to our church situation today.
 John Piper (pastor, author, and theologian) sums up the purpose of Acts well – he says,

“More and more I believe that this book is in the NT to prevent the church from coasting to a standstill and entering a maintenance mode with all the inner wheels working but going nowhere, out-reaching into no new people groups or seeing no new ventures or no new exploits for the kingdom. The Book of Acts is a constant indictment of mere maintenance Christianity. It’s a constant goad and encouragement and stimulation to fan the flame of our part in God’s purpose – “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
This Sunday I’d like to engage in a bit of what I call “sanctified conjecture.” Are there clues to what went on during those 10 days the 120 disciples spent in the upper room?  I think there are. Additionally, there’s a phrase in Acts 1 (and used throughout the book) that has really lost its meaning in our English translation. These, and other thoughts, will have an impact on what Acts 2:1 actually means: “And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”
Following are some themes that we will be paying attention to in the coming weeks:

  1. The work of the Holy Spirit  
  2. The missional witness of the church
  3. The expansion of the kingdom of God
  4. Spiritual Gifts 
  5. Spiritual Formation
  6. Church leadership 
  7. Church polity (or government) 
  8. The transition from a Jewish church to a Gentile church

Discipleship is Evangelism

Posted on by
Reply

This is from a series of articles by S. Michael Craven, a Christian Post guest columnist. He makes some excellent points regarding the implications of the gospel of the kingdom – which we will be looking at in our study of Acts. It’s time to get back to the basics – authentic kingdom must include BOTH the words and the works of Jesus…

Thus far in my series on reevangelizing the church I have addressed the problem of gospel reductionism, a condition that has reduced the gospel to nothing more than the privatized plan of salvation. In response, I have sought to recover the broader historical understanding and implications of the gospel of the kingdom and, in light of this, explain how the church should best express this gospel. I have offered a threefold approach for expressing the gospel of the kingdom that is drawn from Scripture:

  1. I have written that the church must first manifest this good news of the kingdom by demonstrating what life looks like under the reign of God within a distinct community: the church, a community characterized by its radical love for one another (see John 13:34, 35; John 17). 
  2. Second, this unique community manifests the gospel by serving the world through acts of service, compassion, and mercy, working to reverse and/or mitigate the effects of sin (see Matt. 5:16, 22:39; Eph. 2:10; James 2:14–26).
  3. I now turn to the third and final aspect: proclamation of the gospel. How and what do we tell others about Jesus and this kingdom that has come into the world? The modern approach to this question seems to have gravitated, almost exclusively, toward highly simplistic and formulaic expressions of the gospel story. What I mean is that we have tried to condense the gospel to the most basic “facts” about Jesus, formulate simplistic mediums or tools for the conveyance of these facts, and then send folks out among strangers in an organized and frequently impersonal fashion.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the Lord can’t use these means to accomplish his ends. He can and often does. However, the commission that we were given by Jesus (and that which we should take as our guide) was to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, 20, ESV). Clearly, the process of making disciples involves more than simply sharing some propositions about Jesus.

To read the whole article click here.

Rendering to Caesar, Surrendering to God

Posted on by
2

I’ve been rereading Resident Aliens. It’s a difficult and challenging read – tough words are spoken to the Western Church.  Recently I came across this article from The Center of Christian Ethics at Baylor University (2003) by Keith Putt.

It’s a review of two books — Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989; 175 pp.) and Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in a Fallen World by Robert P. Kraynak (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001, 334 pp.)
Putt says: We cannot reduce Christian faithfulness to any political, cultural, or social program, since inevitably these fail to realize fully God’s justice, grace, and promise. How should the church maintain its prophetic, alien voice in our culture, given society’s significant commitment to liberal, capitalist democracy? 
We must be wary of allying Christian faith too intimately with culture and politics. Our faithfulness should not be reduced to any particular political, cultural, or social program, since inevitably these will fail to realize fully God’s justice, grace, and promise. As Christians we perennially struggle with the tension between relevance and identity. Christ placed the church in the world and commissioned it to go forth into the world in order to disseminate the good news of salvation; consequently, the church must strive to be relevant to whatever culture it inhabits so as to gain a hearing and, thereby, fulfill Christ’s mission. Yet, in the need for relevancy, the church must never compromise its identity; it must distinguish itself as different from the world for the purpose of maintaining a prophetic or critical edge. For how can the church denounce any evil, violence, or oppression resident in society, if it is so immersed in the secular that its voice sounds like every other worldly voice? How can the church speak against sin, if it partners with those earthly principalities and powers that propagate sin?
To read the entire article click here.

Nurturing Creativity

Posted on by
Reply

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love on nurturing creativity. She makes a good case for the idea that greatness comes from without and not from within – and the idea of just showing up. While I haven’t read the book and don’t know the details of her belief system (click here to go to an elegantly stated critique of her book), I do think we can learn from her passion and authenticity. (FYI, it’s an 18 minute video.) I would like us to be to be able learn from others about the important issues of our day and always be willing to ask the questions:  What is redemptive?  And, How will this help me to contextualize God’s good news in my current cultural context?

Finally, I’m a HUGE fan of the TED talks. It began in 1984 as a conference bringing people together from three worlds: technology, entertainment, and design. Since then its scope has become ever broader, bringing together some of the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Check it out here.