Grading The Church
I'm scanning again Bill Easum's book, Dancing with Dinosaurs. Chapter 4 caught my eye again because he identifies four essential concerns around which the rest of the New Testament communities revolved: (1) the early christians came together to celebrate God through prayer, support, and teaching about the Way, fasted, held everything in common, set leaders aside for certain ministries, and counted and celebrated the addition of new people into the church; (2) They went out to the Temple and into the streets to be witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; (3) Their entire existence focused on the small groups that developed a sense of community; and, (4) the early Christians experienced persecution and arrest from religious and nonreligious people because their lives affected the economic practices of society and challenged the traditions of the religious leaders (summary of pp. 46-47).
Christians have lost a seat at the table of society. The overwhelming turnout in the presidential election confirms it. So, with that in mind, let's compare the church (ourselves) with the four statements above relating to the early Christian communities and assign a letter grade: #1 = C; #2 = F; #3 = D; #4 = F. (As a former teacher I may be reverting back to my old ways - feeling too sympathtic and assigning a passing grade just because of some effort even though it may be weak)
Read the first paragraph again - read through the Book of Acts again - go to your church again - then see if you can change the grades.
