AN UNPREACHED SERMON (199)
Has anyone else noticed the proliferation of shops selling old fashioned sweets? Usually, brightly coloured shop fronts with intriguing window displays, they are instantly recognisable by a variety of names along the lines of “Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe”. You might imagine they would be full of children, but any that I have walked past only ever seem to attract adults revelling in nostalgia trips back to their childhood - but thinking what teeth-rotting sugary delights their grandchildren have missed out on. The shop on Leith Walk in Edinburgh had in its window a few weeks back a special offer of “Love Hearts” and “Acid Drops”, which seemed to me to be a strange combination. I didn’t succumb to their advertising, but may have done had they also been offering Curly Wurlies, Whopper Bars, Spangles or Gobstoppers.
The combination of “Love Hearts” and “Acid Drops”, however, set my mind thinking about Christian congregations and what attracts people to them. Are our churches full of people seen as love hearts or acid drops? Or, to drop the analogy, do people think of our churches as being warmly inviting or bitterly off-putting? Thinking of the congregation where you are a member and regular worshipper, what do you think those on the outside think about those piling in on a Sunday morning. How do they see us?
Even though it is our strong belief that it is the Holy Spirit who draws people to the house of God and faith in Christ, we mustn't forget He often does so through His people and the vibes they give off as to why belief in Christ matters. If someone moved to your area and was looking to attend a church, would they be drawn to yours just by the impression gained from those in attendance? Is your place of worship a church worth joining?
There is an excellent example in the Book of Acts of what an inviting Christian church should be. It cannot be accidental that it was in Antioch “that the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26), and clearly recognised as such. But be careful when you are reading about Antioch in the New Testament; since 300BC there had been 16 different cities called Antioch. The two that feature in the NT are the one in modern day Turkey (Pisidian Antioch, the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire) and the one where the nickname of Christian first stuck (Syrian Antioch).
Syrian Antioch was a cosmopolitan place. After Stephen’s martyrdom many Jewish Christians settled there (Acts 11:19-24). It’s helpful to compare our congregations with how the Antiochenes went about things.
· What kind of church was the Antioch congregation and how do we compare?
· Are we a church worth joining?
· What are the vital signs of a healthy Christian church?
The Antioch congregation, just like yours, was not perfect. “The church in heaven is all saints” wrote Ronald Knox, “but the church on earth is all sorts” - more sweets!
A WORSHIP COMMUNITY.
By the time Luke got round to writing the book of Acts, Antioch had a fairly well- established Christian congregation. All the vital ingredients were in place and provide us with a handy check-list.
· A worshipping community. The main attraction was God in Christ
· Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the two marks of a Christian church
· Leadership in the form of Elders
· Bible study and prayer
· Outreach to win others
· Service to any in need
Where these things are missing from a congregation’s main focus, all you are left with is a club. You would be better off in the local pub, the bowling club or the miners’ welfare.
A RELIEF AGENCY.
This predominantly Gentile, though mixed, congregation financially supported persecuted Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 11:29, 30). Any congregation that misses out on such practical opportunities is in great danger of becoming too inward looking. We dare not forget that the Church is greater than just ourselves. We are part of something that is bigger than we could ever be.
A TRAINING CENTRE.
The Christians in Antioch quickly picked up on the need for both the leadership and the membership to be trained up for Christian ministry. Barnabas was the key player here and had the enviable personality of being a great encourager (Acts 11:25; 13:1). He was a love heart, not an acid drop when it came to church life and work. As far as I am aware nobody ever dies from too much encouragement.
Barnabas played a very big part in seeing the work progress, but it was never a one-man-band. Five leaders are named, so there was a plurality of leadership and they were a mixed bunch (Acts 13:1) and notice whose name is last at this stage. When the time was right, they were happy to give away two leaders to further the mission of Christ further afield (Acts 13:2, 3).
A MISSION BASE.
Outreach was seen as essential to future growth (Acts 13:2-14:28). It is an inevitable paradox that when a congregation looks further than its own needs, even to the point of losing key people sent elsewhere, that the congregation’s own growth is guaranteed. Whenever a church rests content with only nurturing those already in the faith or thinks that transference growth with people joining from previous congregations is enough, they have lost an essential element in what mission is all about. There is a great need these days for congregations to see conversion growth from people who have no previous understanding of Christ or the workings of the church. In a meeting recently, I listened to someone share something of how they came to faith in Christ and into the life of the congregation. The phrase they used in speaking about the person who had first witnessed to them was memorable. “This person built a bridge of friendship into my life and one day Jesus walked over the bridge into my life”.
While what Luke records in Acts 12 and 13 is exciting, don’t overlook in the reading that they had their problems as well. It wasn’t all plain sailing. But in this early example of what a church should be and how it should function, surely the growth they saw, the work they achieved and the vision they grasped was because the congregation had more love hearts than acid drops in its membership and leadership.
Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing:
Christ over all, our undivided aim;
Fire of the Spirit, burn for our enduing,
Wind of the Spirit, fan the living flame.
We turn to Christ amid our fear and failing,
The will that lacks the courage to be free,
The weary labours, all but unavailing,
To bring us nearer what a Church should be.
(Timothy Dudley-Smith)
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