After trying for days to update this blog without moving it so that I could maintian all the old links. I have given up. I will still come back and try to restore the old links so that these pages are not broken, but for now I must move on. You can still access the main page at onthewalk.besquared.org but the sub pages have all been moved around.
SORRY 
My blog has been slow lately because I have been trying to upgrade. I finally have but now my permalinks are broken. I have content ready to go up but I want to fix the tech side first. Hopefully I will figure it out this weekend.
There were three big catalysts that started me wondering what church events should look like. The first was a church change. There was surprisingly little overlap between the kind of events hosted by one church and the kind hosted by the other. Yet both churches were healthy and God honoring churches led by wise biblically literate people. The second two were biblical texts, one of which is today’s text.
Were are working though acts and we are still on Acts 2:42-47. In that last post I talked about the general practices that were embodied in this new community. To these four practices the church was devoted and in light of this devotion, God grew the church. In the midst of this description two very different kinds of events are described. The details we get are so few. Just enough for us to wonder, to ponder, what were those early Christians doing. The context for these two events is so different, the clearly served vastly different functions in the light of the church.
The two events were daily events. I wonder how often did an individual attend. How long did they last, were they scheduled or continuous? Were they planned in advance or did it happen organically. So much of what is described in these few verses occurs organically that one might suggest that these events represent a similar phenomena. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that all this was happening with no forethought or planning. Two event locations are identified: the temple and homes. Let’s tackle the homes first.
Here is the sentences in which homes show up, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” The double listing of “break bread” and “eat together” makes it pretty clear that breaking of bread is more than just sharing meals but must refer to some sort of symbolic meal. Presumably this is a commemoration of the last supper. I wonder what was happening in these hoem meetings. Are they “house churches” or “small groups.” Did they have a program or just share a meal? Was this a consistent group of people meeting various homes or do they simply mean that hospitality was so rampant that people just continually found themselves eating together.
What we can know however is still pretty significant. One of the events of the early church was a consistent, home-based, cross centered meal. Those are three pretty big elements. This is one of the key events of the early church, and I am not sure if my church has any event like this. Sunday morning isn’t this, most small group programs are not this. Now of course that may not be a problem. The NT is not a blueprint. Precedence is not the same as command. On the other hand, I am in a group right now in which we share a supper each week, and there is something powerful about the experience. And not only is it powerful, but it is cumulative. For few weeks they are guests, soon thought they are friends, and not long after that, our lives are becoming intertwined. We have only been sharing meals once a week for a few months. I wonder where this could lead. Could it be that the kind of community described by this text is not some kind of bizarre social experiment, but it is instead the natural off-shoot of eating together weekly with the same people.
The other event is even more mysterious. What were they doing off in the temple each week. But I will leave such speculation till the next post, because as we read on in Acts we get one example of what a day at th temple was like. (I will admit that this does not seem to be a typical day but perhaps there will be clues for the regular events as well as the exceptional ones.)
on the walk,
-Ethan
This isn’t an event per se and so it breaks the rule for this series, but before I comment on the next events, we have to notice a bit about the kind of life that pervades the early church. (I will talk about the two events that are mentioned in the next post.)
You can check the story out here: Acts 2:42-47.
The first truth with which we must contend is a truth about content. This text lists four devotions: apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. Do these represent four event types or four things that happened at every event or neither of those options? I grew up in a church culture that looked to these four things as the defining markers not only of a church but more particularly of a church event. If nothing else happened on Sunday morning, it was expected that these four things did happen. Other things like singing and announcements may happen, but it was these four elements that were required and if they happened, then it was by definition a church service regardless of anything else that may or may not have happened. I have a lot of sympathy for this view, and if nothing else it creates a balance on Sunday mornings between four vital practices.
While that view has served a lot of churches very well, I am no longer sure that this interpretation is required of the text. Perhaps these four realities are essential not for each event but for the rhythm of the life of the church overall. If the other reading insists that all these practices be mixed together like a casserole, the alternative view would suggest that a four course meal was equally healthy. In this model we might have some events that are focused on teaching and others on prayer and fellowship. Some might focus on the community meal with little teaching and a lot of prayer. Other community meals might bubble over in fellowship with only a bit of prayer.
This difference matters for at least two reasons. The first is that we want to honestly respond to the meaning of the text. If this text (as I now read it) is giving us examples of the kind of life led by these early Christians rather than giving us a list of the four things every church event must have, then we should admit that so that we are able to read the text honestly for what it says rather than assume a patternism that isn’t there.
The second is that at some point we must begin to actually plan an event. When we do so, there are fundamental decisions to be made. Can we plan an event focused just on fellowship? Can we call an event a Christian event that is not centered on the meal? If these elements are examples and not blueprints, then we are freed to plan a comprehensive and complementary collection of events that in different ways address these values.
I am convinced that these devotions are exemplary of a wide variety of events and should not be interpreted as essential to all events. The key reason for this conviction is the examples that are given. There is no indication of a single central event that attempted to cover all of these bases. On the contrary, the implication is that in a multitude of overlapping ways, these four values are expressed.
Fellowship is expressed in the sharing of possessions and mutual support. Surely some of that happened at organized events. Maybe even a first century potluck supper. (Paul has to deal with some problem potlucks in his letters to the Corinthian churches.) But clearly what is most directly described here is not a program or an event but a lifestyle embodied by a community so intimately connected that needs could be known and shared.
These four are the marks of the church not because they can be checked off a programming list, but because they are the natural life expression of the church.
BUT..
It does seem that these core values did find expression in at least two regular events, and having indulged in this excursus I will turn to those two events in the next post.
on the walk
-Ethan
It is rare that I find myself so completely and thoroughly recommending a book as I am today. I suppose that with diligence I could find things to disagree with. In fact I am sure that in the fifth chapter there was a sentence that ended with a preposition. (That was irony, see the previous sentence.)
But seriously, this book is readable, profound, clear and wonderful. It seeker friendly. In fact I think that those far from the church and from God would love this book. (It has plenty of critical things to say about the church and the people who populate it.) At the same time it is deeply challenging to those that have walked long in the faith. This challenge is so compelling that as I read I was moved almost to tears and had to stop to confess to God and to thank God for this book.
It is relevant. It is clearly designed to connect with people that are rarely tempted to open a bible or visit a Bible study class. At the same time this book is not much more than an extended exegesis of a single parable.
The book is short. It could easily be read in a quite afternoon. At the same time it is rich. You could spend a week discussing each chapter.
Now that I have written all this I realize that I ought to be setting you up for some trick like recommending the Gospel of Mark (which does meet all of the criteria I listed above). But I am not. I am recommending a regular book.
It is called The Prodigal God.
It is fantastic.
on the walk
-Ethan Magness
I was able to preach today. I am always grateful when I have that opportunity. You can catch the audio here. As always happens when I get to preach, I always have a few leftover thoughts that I wish I could have shared but ran out of time. I won’t bore you with all of those, but I will share just one choice quote that had to leave on the cutting room floor.
(Actually in the spirit of honesty, this is really more of a paraphrase, I am working from memory. You can find the original somewhere in the middle of The Great Divorce.)
C.S. Lewis once said something like this:
Anything no matter how good, if it is not given to Jesus, can drag you down into hell. Likewise, nothing, no matter how evil, if it is given over to Christ can keep you out of heaven.
The truth of that quote sustains me in my darkest times and challenges me in my brightest.
Today in the sermon we all had a rock. The rock represented those things that are obstacles to our following after Jesus. Things that we will nto release into his control but instead cling to on our own.
When I went to church I was pretty sure that I knew what my rock was going to be. It was as if I was pre-scripting the encounter I was going to have with God based upon the script I have used so many times before.
But as I stood in line holding my rock, I was startled. I got off script. I asked God, “What is holding me back from following you?” And with surprising clarity, I knew. It wasn’t a sin issue. That was what I planned to do with my rock. But that wasn’t it. I have long ago surrendered the evil in my life over to Jesus and I trust he can handle it. Instead I was confronted with something good. Good plans that I have for my life. Plans that are admirable and important. But nevertheless they were plan that I had not surrendered to God. They were my big plans. How many half-deals I have struck with God offering him most of my life as long as I still get to pursue these big important plans of mine.
And suddenly to my great greif, that was my rock. Those good plans, those plans so precious to me were my rock. I was glad that the line moved slow. It took me a while get up the nerve to set my rock on the stage.
I’m still not exactly happy about it, but I feel a great peace. I don’t pretend that the temptation to those plans won’t return, but for the moment, I feel a great release of conflict. I feel like I am following.
on the walk
-Ethan
The spirit of God causes a disturbance. God creates an opportunity and the church responds.
You can read it all in the second chapter of Acts.
There are a lot of wonderful details in this text that I will ignore. For this exercise I want to simply consider what this event is as an event. Here are a few things that I notice.
Because this event flows from the work of the spirit, it isn’t exactly repeatable. Nevertheless we can be a people who are together, and are praying and are prepared so that when God’s spirit creates an opportunity, and those who witness wonder what is happening we can proclaim the gospel in that moment.
on the walk
-Ethan
One of the questions that has stirred Mountain Christian Church to action over the past few years is “If your church ceased to exist tomorrow, would the community around you notice or care?”
In light of this question we have commited ourselves to care for the local community as well as the world. We hope to take light to the world.
I was remined of this commitment as I read this fascinating article (HT: Ben Witherinton III). These are the reflections of an atheist on the impact of Christianity in Africa. It is worth your time to read.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
on the walk
-Ethan
The first event of the history of the church was a prayer meeting and we don’t have very many of those and don’t feel guilty about it.
The second Christian event is a business meeting and that is something we do pretty well. The irony is that I know many Christians who feel guilty about having business meetings. There is this sense that business meetings are too practical and too mundane to be truly spiritual. Somehow there is a since that a meeting focus on practical issues of leadership and church politics aren’t really Christian activities. We fail to notice that here it is in Acts, the very second recorded church event is a business meetings.
Take a look at the text. While the believers are busy waiting and praying Peter stands up with an idea:
Here are a few observations.
0. This meeting arises out of a community of prayer.
1. A leader sees the need and calls the meeting.
2. A leader connects the situation to scripture and lays out the parameters for their action.
3. Everyone participates but it is not a democracy. In the church, the believers deserve to influence the process of selecting their leaders.
4. More than one acceptable option is produced. (This is so important to me. I have seen many church decision processes get sidetracked because people are arguing over two good options and because a choice is hard to make, nothing is done.)
5. In the end they roll dice. (Let’s face it, that is crazy. I totally want someone to propose that at an upcoming meeting. Please report back and share with the restof us how that goes.
And a few reflections:
Unless you intend to be a dictator, leadership will involve meetings. The only way to include others in a process of leadership is to have meetings (and probably lots of meetings). In fact, from my experience I have concluded that many a great work waits to be done becuase no one has stepped up to call a meeting, gather the right people, set an agenda and insist that a choice is made. This event is Peter’s first important act of leadership.
So for those keeping score at home we have prayer meetings and business meetings. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
on the walk
-Ethan