So if you didn't listen to this from Tim Keller you should. Just take 10 minutes. It will be worth your time. One of the things he talks about is how the 1st century church was characterized by a few very distinct views of culture. In that day, the church influenced culture. It was not influenced by it.
Here are 9 ways he says the church was radically different from the culture of its day.
-They empowered women in a patriarchal society
-They didn't attend gladiator fests. For this, they were considered anti-social
-Against abortion
-Against gay practices
-Against war. They did not fight for Caesar's army
-Against sex outside of marriage
-Racially diverse in a way that was shocking to culture
-Believed Jesus was the only way to salvation
-Advocated for the poor in a way no one else in society did.
Of course the church has been classified by the "against" items on this list but this is rapidly changing. One of the reasons I think this was the norm was that it was easy. It is easy to say what you believe. The others on the list require action (Save, Jesus is the only way to salvation. Although that requires action too). The church forgot about advocating for the poor, including all races, empowering women (still largely in a patriarchal dominated society), and supporting non-violence. Sometimes I think we still do. If you want to say, "We are trying to get back to the roots of the 1st century church", you should act like it.
What do you think about this one?
ReplyDeleteConsider Paul's collection project--he was trying to get all the Gentile churches to send relief funds to the Jerusalem church.
It seems then that in the 1st century church, Christians' loyalty to one another superceded their loyalties to their own ethnic groups, their own countrymen, their own government or national interests, and arguably even their own familial relations.
i think that's definitely a feature of the 1st century church that we haven't quite restored in the 21st.
--guy
Yeah definitely. I think the church would look completely different if this were the case. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be divided racially on Sunday mornings for the most part and I'm pretty sure we would be much more internationally diverse. Manhattan C of C in NYC gets this idea. They have a Spanish congregation that meets in the same building downstairs, and once a month they worship together. It was pretty cool being a part of a bi-lingual worship service in America. Wish it happened more often.
ReplyDeleteOne of the coolest opportunities i had was when i was guesting preaching for me ex-father-in-law's congregation, and they had a spanish congregation that occasionally met together. So i preached a few sentences and their preacher would translate. We even did the prayers this way. i remember after preaching there was a hispanic man who came up to me and could barely speak any english whatsoever, but he looked at me, pointed to the sky, and said in very broken English "He's coming back!" That's one of the most encouraging things anyone's ever said to me. We probably couldn't understand a lick of each other's language and probably had very different cultural lifestyles, and yet he and i were bonded by a common allegiance and hope. The gospel is meant to break down walls between people (in fact, Paul never shut up about that very point when it came to Jews and Gentiles).
ReplyDelete--guy