Well, our journey as a church has begun. My personal journey of the last 8 or 9 months has led us here. I have been looking for characteristics of the New Testament Church that are missing in the American Church. I have shared with our church the journey we will be taking together and our stumbling journey as a church has begun.

I have, frankly, been nervous about this. I am sure that I have heard the direction of God in this matter, but I feel neither worthy nor up to the task to lead a people on a journey that is so different from normal Sunday morning church content. As I have shared this journey with other ministers before sharing it with my congregation, there were times of great encouragement and times of great discouragement. And so I’ve been unsure what the response would be from these people in my church who I have come to love and respect so deeply. So it was not without some trepidation that we began this journey as the year started

I began on the first of January by sharing with my congregation a review of the characteristics of biblical discipleship found in Acts 2:42-47. This is called “Acts 2 Discipleship” and was developed by my former boss, Rev. Alton Garrison, the Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. (You can read more about the Acts 2 process at http://discipleship.ag.org/PROCESS/Acts2/index.cfm.) The five characteristics of true discipleship found in this passage are worship, service, spiritual growth, outreach and fellowship. These are not new to our congregation since I have given them as a reminder every year that I have been pastor. Our church is to be in the business of fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission to make disciples, and Acts 2 gives a great picture of what a disciple should be.

At the end of this reminder of true discipleship as the purpose of our church, I presented an overview of the journey. I shared from my heart about the direction that God was leading me. I wanted to be upfront and I told them that there were some things we would discover in this journey together that might not be comfortable and there may be things that will even make us upset. When we have held on to certain ways of looking at things and doing things long enough, those ways become comfortable to us and even sacred. But our call as a church is not to follow the way we’ve done things before. Our call is to follow the way Scripture leads us.

The reaction to this service was positive (of course I hadn’t gotten into many specifics yet). As I’ve mentioned before, I do not consider myself a great preacher, but I believe the congregation heard my heart. My prayer continues to be that they hear God’s heart and direction.

The next Sunday saw about 1/3 of our congregation missing (including some of our leaders) due to a snow storm. This was a bit discouraging since I saw this Sunday as the true start of our journey. This was the Sunday where I would address the first specific characteristic of the New Testament Church that was missing in the American Church and at our church. All the way through our worship time, I debated on whether or not to preach the message I had prepared. With so many gone, perhaps it would be better to save the start of the journey until the next Sunday. But I believe God spoke to me at the end of our worship. He had led me during the week to put words to the vision for that Sunday even though He knew what weather was to come. He knew who was going to be in our church that Sunday, so I decided not to deviate from the message God had led me to prepare.

The first character trait of the New Testament Church that is missing in today’s church is wholehearted commitment to Christ; not commitment to the church, but a commitment to Christ that results in repentance and life change We looked at the life change in Saul the Pharisee as he became Paul the apostle. We ended the service with a prayer of commitment and a promise that I would bring three specifics next week to help us with that life change.

At the next service, I shared that life change would look different for each individual, but I gave three specific areas of change that should be part of the commitment of all believers.

The first area of change was holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16). When we think about holiness we often think about personal morality. However, the biblical idea of holiness is a separation and dedication to God. Moral purity is not holiness. Moral purity should be the result of our holiness. If we’re going to have the character of the New Testament Church, we need a commitment that sees believers set apart for the special purpose of glorifying God in all we do.

The second area of change was a life of service to others. In a culture that promotes the exaltation of self, the biblical idea of serving others seems positively countercultural. A church with the character of the New Testament Church is going to be full of believers who serve others rather than focusing on their own desires (Philippians 2:3-4). The early Church was known for its love. Serving others is love in action.

The third area of change is a change in our attitudes towards our finances. The New Testament Church had a different idea about finances than is typical in American culture (and American Church culture) today.  The common view of finances today is that our finances exist to fulfill our desires. The view of the New Testament Church was that finances existed to glorify God. The believers in the New Testament would sell their stuff to make sure everyone was taken care of (Acts 2:44-45). They believed that ALL their finances, not 10%, belonged to God. This may be the starkest example of how the American Church is different from the New Testament Church, and it may be hardest to change.

I reminded the congregation that this can’t be just a sermon series that is enjoyed and eventually forgotten. If we are serious about this journey, we are changing the way of how we do church. So in order to help us change our focus so that we encouraged wholehearted commitment to Christ, I announced the following:

• Each week in 2017 we are going to say the following pledge together to remind us of our commitment

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, the everlasting Son of God.

I commit to studying His Word so that I can be more like Him.

I commit to prayer so that I might see the work of God in my life.

I commit to living a life that is pleasing to Him and repenting when I stumble.

I commit my time and energy to God so that I might serve Him in my church and my community.

I commit my finances to God so that His Kingdom might grow through my tithes and offerings to Him.

I commit myself to this community of believers so that we might encourage each other to grow together.

In all these matters, I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide me, empower me, and comfort me

Let it be so.

• Twice a year, our church will do a “Service Sunday” in which we will gather together on a Sunday morning and then go out together to do a community service project or ministry project. This project will not be for ourselves, but for the benefit of our community or another church.
• I will no longer apologize for taking an extra offering when needed. If there is an individual within our church that is in need, we will do what it takes to meet that need. Our finances belong to God and we will increase our giving to help meet the needs of those within our church and outside the church walls.
• For the last half hour of that Sunday’s service we would hold a ministry fair where different ministries from our church and our community would be represented in our fellowship hall and allow people to learn about those ministries and sign up to help

This idea of the ministry fair was one I was worried about. I was afraid that people might just leave and only a few would come into the fellowship hall to explore the service opportunities. But the church caught the vision and saw the ministry fair as their “altar call” to respond to what they had heard. Dozens of people signed up to help with kids, youth, maintenance, community service, feeding the hungry and other ministries. My heart was overwhelmed at the response.

Our journey has begun and as we may stumble, but we will always move forward. In a little over a week I’ll be sharing what I believe to be another major emphasis of the New Testament Church that is missing in the American Church; that is an emphasis on true discipleship. I’ll let you know how that goes.

It’s true. There is joy in the journey.