Lessons From the Early Church: Early Christians focused on God
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The most marvelous irony of the 21st century American church is its simultaneous obsession with and utter failure to mimic the first century church.
Preachers and teachers across the theological spectrum will often appeal to what "the early Christians" or "the church in Acts" or "first century Christians" did. They'll point to the radical sharing of property. They'll point to the obvious expressions of love or the offering collected by Paul for the church in Jerusalem. The more astute preachers and authors will even appeal to extra-biblical accounts of the church, like Pliny the Younger's description of the early church's daily meetings, practices and excellent moral example. Even when we can't seem to agree on much, Christians agree that whatever the church should be, it should be like that of those early believers.
They're not wrong, either. The early church we read about in the first chapters of Acts was amazing. Nobody went hungry. Nobody went uncared for. The sick and the weak were valued like never before. Widows were supported. Orphans were not doomed. There was true family. And there were miracles. The sick were healed. The dead were raised. Who wouldn't want to be part of a church like that? What pastor wouldn't want their church to be like that?
Most attractively, the early church grew.
The early church grew like crazy. The first day of the church, it grew 2.500 percent. In the earliest months of the church, "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47) In just a few months after that first day — two years at the most — the church had grown another 60 percent. I would take 60 percent annual growth at my church any day of the week. No wonder we love talking about the early church.
Especially when the modern church is shrinking.
Leading research groups like Pew and the Barna Group report almost unequivocally that the church in America is declining. The religious disposition of our fellow citizens is increasingly uninterested or hostile. Christian thinkers like Gabe Lyons, founder of Q Ideas, and Christian comics like Adam Ford, author the web comic adam4d.com, point out that self-identifying as a Christian was once more socially advantageous. Now that Christianity is not longer quite as socially advantageous, those who were never were "true believes" now simply feel more comfortable admitting it. Whatever the statistical nuances, it seems that an unfortunate factor which motivates our interest in the early church is the growing shortage of wallets being pried from beneath a warm body on Sunday morning. If we're honest, when we muse about "being like the early church," we're really talking about "growing like the early church." And in too many churches, head counts and finances are the chief motivations for outreach, not the advance of the saving power of the gospel.
While we're being honest, it would only be fitting to consider whether the early church shared those motives. Why did early Christians share so much of their possessions with each other and give so much? Why did the early church care so well for the poor? Why did the early church support widows and orphans? Why did the early church experience so many miracles? Why did the early church grow?
Consider that the leadership of the early church never actually focused on doing any of that. They never developed a capital improvement giving campaign. They never formed poverty relief strategy committees. They never set out to perform miracles. They never actually tried to grow. All of these things happened naturally because the leadership of the early church had a very narrow focus: God's glory. The gospel. God's word. Scripture.
The early church leaders were obsessed.
No matter what happened, they refused to allow it to distract them from God's glory, God's word, prayer and the gospel. When some widows weren't being properly cared for, they delegated the responsibility to someone else and got back to the business of focusing on God, saying, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:2-4).
It almost seems that the early church took Jesus' admonition to "seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness" seriously since he connected it to the promise that "all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33).
The solution for the problems of the modern church is the same as the solution the early church adopted so completely. When our churches, and the believers that comprise them, focus on "God's kingdom and his righteousness," we will find the kind of church we all want to have.