What Does a NT Church Do?
Posted by Pastor on May 31, 2010
The sermons for yesterday and for next Sunday are inspired by Acts 2:42-47:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
One of the challenges of interpreting the book of Acts is determining which events Luke reports as one-time events in redemption history and which he reports as both historical and normative for the church in every age. I belong to the interpretive school that sees Luke’s description of the church here as a snap-shot of what a healthy Spirit-filled church should look like.
We can see that the church was engaged in four devotions and two habits… They devoted themselves to worship, (the) prayers, discipleship, and partnership - and they habitually engaged in physical ministry and evangelism. For Luke, these characteristics are normative for any NT church. If we separate the cultural practices of the early church from these practices (ex. the Temple was their appropriate place of worship, but it would not be ours) and apply the practices to our own cultural contexts, then we model the kind of church that is pleasing to God as we fulfill our biblical functions as a church.
I call these characteristics the “6Ws” (not because I’m so clever, but because my former pastor, John Ewart, called them that and I thought it was catchy). Worship, Warfare in Prayer, Walk, Welcome, Work, and Witness. Every church should be intentional to balance these ministries according to biblical guidelines.
The way each church will exhibit these functional characteristics will vary based on their own cultural context. An inner-city church surrounded by homelessness may find themselves with more Work (homeless ministry?) and Witness (personal evangelism to the poor). A church in a college town may find themselves with more Walk (training young minds) and Welcome (emphasizing community for students far from home). Yet, however the cultural situation directs the ministries of the church, the church must be intentional to function well in all the 6W areas.
