The Perfect Church (Acts 6:1-2)
"But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers." Acts 6:1-2
We certainly like to believe that the early church, who experienced such supernatural unity, fellowship, love, sharing, and God's power (Acts 2:42-47) would be immune to the types of problems that most churches today experience (division, complaining, taking-sides, and selfishness.
However, Scripture never attempts to hide the fact that even the early church, led by the Apostles (a handpicked staff selected by Jesus Christ Himself), had their fair share of problems. One such problem was a culture class in the church between two distinct groups of people in the church over which side was getting more of the "shared" resources than the other. Thus, the church business meeting was born and deacons were elected to more efficiently manage the process appropriately. Thankfully, God still worked despite their differences and blessed the ministry of the church as they handled their problems instead of their problems handling them.
There's no such thing as the "perfect" church. It doesn't exist. Never has and never will. Every church has problems if it has people in it. The only way to avoid problems inside the church is to remove all the people, but doing so would also remove the church. We all have problems. We bring them to church with us and so does everyone else. We have the option to allow our own problems and opinions disrupt the unity, sharing, love, and fellowship among us, or we can choose to work through them when they arise.
Unfortunately, many times, the default response to problems is to get upset, take our toys and go home, attempting to avoid the problem, and go find ourselves another church. Only problem is, no sooner than you've found another church than you've exchanged one set of problems for another. That's why God's Word instructs us, "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 John 3:16).
The best solution to problems in the church is always love, but love actually requires something of us. It demands that we look not to our best interest but to place others above ourselves (Philippians 2:4-5). The good news is though, is that creating the "perfect" church is possible to the extent that we are all willing to choose love when problems arise.
What we need is God to help us to choose love and to take on the attitude of Jesus as we, like Jesus, lay ourselves aside for the sake of His Bride, the Church. Let's surrender our rights so that God will continue to be glorified in and through His Body.
We certainly like to believe that the early church, who experienced such supernatural unity, fellowship, love, sharing, and God's power (Acts 2:42-47) would be immune to the types of problems that most churches today experience (division, complaining, taking-sides, and selfishness.
However, Scripture never attempts to hide the fact that even the early church, led by the Apostles (a handpicked staff selected by Jesus Christ Himself), had their fair share of problems. One such problem was a culture class in the church between two distinct groups of people in the church over which side was getting more of the "shared" resources than the other. Thus, the church business meeting was born and deacons were elected to more efficiently manage the process appropriately. Thankfully, God still worked despite their differences and blessed the ministry of the church as they handled their problems instead of their problems handling them.
There's no such thing as the "perfect" church. It doesn't exist. Never has and never will. Every church has problems if it has people in it. The only way to avoid problems inside the church is to remove all the people, but doing so would also remove the church. We all have problems. We bring them to church with us and so does everyone else. We have the option to allow our own problems and opinions disrupt the unity, sharing, love, and fellowship among us, or we can choose to work through them when they arise.
Unfortunately, many times, the default response to problems is to get upset, take our toys and go home, attempting to avoid the problem, and go find ourselves another church. Only problem is, no sooner than you've found another church than you've exchanged one set of problems for another. That's why God's Word instructs us, "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 John 3:16).
The best solution to problems in the church is always love, but love actually requires something of us. It demands that we look not to our best interest but to place others above ourselves (Philippians 2:4-5). The good news is though, is that creating the "perfect" church is possible to the extent that we are all willing to choose love when problems arise.
What we need is God to help us to choose love and to take on the attitude of Jesus as we, like Jesus, lay ourselves aside for the sake of His Bride, the Church. Let's surrender our rights so that God will continue to be glorified in and through His Body.
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