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The Jerusalem Church (Part 11)–The Keys of Their Success

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(If you landed on this post without seeing the others in this series, let me explain what is going on here. Thursdays is my day to talk about God’s way for our congregations. Right now I’m in the middle of a series on the Jerusalem church and it’s success. This is the eleventh post in the series. I encourage you to check out the introduction to this series to know more about what is going on and to find an index of the posts in this series as they are put up. Enjoy.)

The Keys of Their Success

We’ve been taking a long, hard look at Jerusalem. If there is any church that had success, that was it. Not only was it successful, we know it was successful God’s way. No doubt, there are churches that do some interesting things, but we are often left wondering if that is really what God wants us doing. Just because they pack people in the pews doesn’t always mean a church is doing what God wants. But we know Jerusalem was on God’s path. So we’re looking to Jerusalem to help us learn how to develop a godly, growing congregation.

We are at a midway point here. So, I think it is good to recap where we’ve been (especially since I haven’t kept this up weekly like I intended) and then a summary of what is left to come.

Recap of What We’ve Learned

We began by discarding the two major copouts that some might want to use to ignore the success Jerusalem had. Things worked in Jerusalem, but two things that didn’t make it work were:

Miraculous Gifts

Different Times

Further, we wanted to make sure we kept our vision clear about the Jerusalem Church. Putting them up on a pedastal like this might lead us to draw some inadvertant conclusions. We don’t want that happening, so we’ve made sure to get those out of the way right at the beginning.

We have learned that the Jerusalem vision is…

…An Exemplary Church, not a Mother Church

…One More Member, not 10,000 members

…Every Hand Working, not Enough Hired Hands

…Enough Workers, not 12 Evangelists

…Close-knit Family, not a Corporation

…Personal Sacrifice, not Communism

…Problem Solving, not Problem Free

A Look Ahead

Now it is time to get to the nitty-gritty. Enough discussion about what the Jerusalem church wasn’t and what it didn’t do. What are the actual keys to its success. What attitudes and actions can we mimic today to have the kind of success they had? In this post, I’ll give you a run-down of the keys and a brief summary of each. then we’ll spend the next several weeks looking in depth at each key.

Key #1: The Jerusalem Church was continually devoted to God

Acts 2:42 makes it clear. The Jerusalem Christians were devoted to God above all other things. The text says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” That’s the right kind of devotion right there.

Key #2: The Jerusalem Chuch was of one heart and one soul

Acts 4:32 demonstrates one of the greatest keys of Jerusalem’s strength. They were united. “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”

Key #3: The Jerusalem Church aggressively dealt with problems

We’ve already noted that the Jerusalem vision is not of a problem free church. Rather, they had problems. For all their devotion and unity, they had struggles with hypocrites and sin and even doctrinal questions. They great key was they dealt with these problems quickly. They didn’t let them linger.

Key #4: The Jerusalem Church lost no one in the crowd

Jerusalem had a crowd, no doubt. By Acts 4:4, they had 5000 men. That doesn’t count the wives, widows, and children. But they didn’t simply relate to one another in the crowd. Because they related to one another from house to house, they didn’t lose people even if the apostles didn’t know everyone by name.

Key #5: The Jerusalem Church knew nobody can do everything

Churches today often have impossible expectations for each member or, at least, for some members. They expect some folks to do everything. No wonder these churches don’t grow. No one can do everything. The Jerusalem Church learned this in Acts 6. We can learn a lot from them to help our congregations grow.

Key #6: The Jerusalem Church was bold in the face of rejection

These early Christians understood that success in Christ didn’t always mean success with the people. They recognized that the Gospel would not only save people, it would also cause others to be hardened and turn away from God. Those who were hardened and turned away would not be friendly to them. More than mere rejection and public scorn, the Jerusalem church even faced intense persecution. But they were bold in the face of that rejection.

Key #7: The Jerusalem Church did not rely on free agents

It is not wrong to bring in someone to work with the local congregation. That is exactly what Barnabas did with Antioch in Acts 11:25-26. However, this wasn’t the norm. The Jerusalem church worked on training up its insiders to do the work at home and abroad. They relied on their farm team, not free agents.

I hope this summary gets your blood pumping and excited to keep coming back as we learn exactly how it worked for the Jerusalem Church. Come back next week as we dive in and see how the Jerusalem Church was continually devoted to God.

Acts Wordled

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Okay, okay, so I’m stealing Jason Hardin’s idea. But it is cool and it goes along with my continuing Thursday post on the Jerusalem church from the book of Acts. A new post on the success of the Jerusalem church will be up tomorrow. Today, enjoy this visual display of what was big in Acts. (Click on the picture to view in full size)

(Acts [NKJV] via Wordle)

Am I Training My Children to Follow Me or Lead Themselves?

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This past Sunday, I was teaching a class on leadership. The whole crux of the lesson was “Good leaders develop followers; Great leaders develop other leaders.” That seems so profound in the congregational setting. But then it hit me. What about my kids? Am I training them to be followers or leaders.

Now I know where your mind just went. You thought I was talking about whether or not they will follow the crowd at school or whether they will lead the crowd. While that is good point too, I was actually thinking of where I may have a deeper problem in child-rearing.

Am I training my children simply to follow me or am I empowering them to be able to lead themselves?

Am I training them to do what they think is right or am I training them to do what I think is right? Am I empowering them to think for themselves or am I squelching their creativity? Are they ever allowed to disagree with me? Should they be allowed to disagree with me? Or am I teaching them to simply step in line behind me?

I don’t want my children to simply be followers, even if they are just following me. Yes, I want to positively influence them. But, really, I want them to be leaders. That may mean they don’t stay in lockstep behind me.

So, how do I help train them to be leaders?

Let me know what you think.

Rejoice in Truth, not Wrong-doing–Love Yourself

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(If you’ve stumbled across this post, let me explain where you are. You have landed smack in the middle of one of my favorite series ever. We started some time ago by learning that God expects us to love ourselves. Now, we’re going through the definition of love in I Corinthians 13:4-7 to help us understand how we can love ourselves in a healthy way so can love others better. Go back to that first post to read the series from the beginning and to find an index of all the posts available. Enjoy today’s post as well.)

Rejoice in Truth, Not Wrong-doing

According to I Corinthians 13:6, love does not rejoice in wrong-doing, but in truth. But how does that apply to loving ourselves in a healthy way? I think Romans 1:18 and 2:8 help us understand.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).

“…but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8).

These passages demonstrate two different standards by which we can live. We can either live by the truth or we can live in unrighteousness (the same word as is translated “wrong-doing” in I Corinthians 13:6). It seems odd to see truth contrasted with wrong-doing. We would expect truth to be contrasted with lies or wrong-doing contrasted with right-doing. The point is that following truth leads to doing what is right and wrong-doing comes from following lies.

Satan is a liar. He doesn’t get us to do wrong by telling us the truth about the wrong. He doesn’t get us to commit adultery by telling us how awful the consequences will be–destroyed marriages, destroyed families, lost jobs, loss of trust, guilt, shame. No. He tells us how fun it will be. He tries to convince us it will be fulfilling and meaningful. We’ll get from the adulterous relationship what we are not getting from the marriage relationship. Isn’t that exactly how Satan started the mess the world was in? He didn’t tell Eve about the pain in child-bearing. He didn’t tell her about the marital conflicts that would come from it. He didn’t tell her about getting kicked out of the garden. He told her about being like God. Perhaps there was a kernel of truth in the statement. Certainly, she would learn something that God knew and in that sense would be more like God. But that wasn’t what she was looking for.

Loving Ourselves not Seeking Self

So, how does all this fit in with loving ourselves in a healthy way? Romans 2:8 helps out. Following Satan’s lies that lead to wrong-doing all stem from loving ourselves in an unhealthy way. It stems from being self-seeking. But when we love ourselves in a healthy way, we ignore the lies of Satan. We think soberly about our lives and live them based on the truth God has revealed for us. We do not allow ourselves to get caught up in the fantasies of Satan’s promises. We recognize them for the lies they are and command Satan to get behind us.

When we rejoice in vengeance, slander, lying, stealing, hurting, outbursts of wrath, immorality, gossip, and other sinful behaviors, it is because we have succumbed to the lies of Satan. Instead of loving ourselves in a healthy way, we have decided to put ourselves above others. We have decided that others are here to be the sources of our pleasure. We can abuse and misuse them however we want as long as we get a moment’s pleasure out of it. This is certainly not loving others, but it is not actually love for ourselves either. Why not? Because in the end, we are the ones hurt by this kind of behavior. We must be careful; if we bite and devour one another, we will be consumed by one another. We are only hurting ourselves when we take these cheap and easy routes offered us by Satan. He parades them around as loving self, but instead they are destroying self and others.

Love yourself. Don’t succumb to Satan’s lies. Don’t fall prey to his deceit. Don’t dwell in his fantasies. The cheap and easy route of his errors will always come back to bite you. Instead, love yourself and rejoice in the truth God has revealed. Follow His way. It works.

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(Remember to come back for our next installment about loving ourselves in a healthy way. We’ll see that those who love themselves in a godly way bear and endure all things.)

Jerusalem Church (Part 10): The Vision–Problem Solving Not Problem Free

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(If you landed on this post without seeing the others in this series, let me explain what is going on here. Thursdays is my day to talk about God’s way for our congregations. Right now I’m in the middle of a series on the Jerusalem church and it’s success. This is the tenth post in the series. I encourage you to check out the introduction to this series to know more about what is going on and to find an index of the posts in this series as they are put up. Enjoy.)

Problem Solving Not Problem Free

As we continue to look at the Jerusalem church as a model for all congregations, we will notice victory after victory. We will see positive example after positive example. We may begin to wish we could be more like the Jerusalem church. If we were, then we wouldn’t have all the problems we have now.

That, however, is not true. The Jerusalem church had people in it just like we do. Those people were imperfect sinners just like we are. Do you understand what that means for that congregation? It means they had problems.

In Acts 3, there was the persecution problem. In Acts 5, there was the hypocritical members problem. In Acts 6, there was the partiality problem. In Acts 15, there was the circumcision problem. These are just the problems that we see recorded. No doubt in the Jerusalem congregation people got their feelings hurt. No doubt tensions flared. People struggled with sin. People argued with each other. Someone was slighted. Someone didn’t get invited to a party. Someone taught something that was incorrect. Some people lost their jobs. Some people had marriage struggles and parenting struggles. Their leaders made mistakes. On and on the list would go.

We don’t see problem-free in Jerusalem. Rather, we see a group of people committed to solving and overcoming the problems as quickly as possible. Because they admitted their problems, faced their problems, and worked on their problems, they had a surprising amount of unity.

What other choice did they have? There were no other churches to run to. If they were going to stay with Christ and His church, they were going to stay in that congregation. It didn’t occur to them to solve the problem by starting the East or Westside congregation.

No doubt the numerous congregations in many places is a blessing in some ways. However, it can also be a curse as people who want problem-free hop from church to church instead of facing the problems. Sadly, all too often, the reason we never face the problems is because we fear we might find out that we are the problem. It is easier to run away than recognize that dealing with the problem may mean we have to deal first with ourselves.

Don’t try to develop a church that is free of problems. That will never happen. Rather, develop a congregation that deals with the problems at hand. That is the Jerusalem vision.

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(Keep coming back. This post wraps up our look at the Jerusalem Vision. As we continue looking at the Jerusalem church we are going to see seven principles that caused them to set the world ablaze.)

When Should I Punish? When Should I Show Mercy? You Tell Me

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Alright, I’m struggling as a dad. I have some big questions. So I thought I’d just throw out what I’m thinking and get some discussion going. Hopefully, we can come up with an answer together.

I understand that my job is to discipline my children. I am to train them up so they can be productive parts of God’s kingdom and man’s society. Part of that means using the rod. At the same time, I’ve learned that the mere threat of the rod doesn’t necessarily produce great behavior in my children. In some cases, it simply helps them get really good at being secretive and avoiding detection.

There have been some times where something has happened, we have no idea which child did it. We threaten and cajole and don’t get any closer. I know some suggest simply punishing them all, but I keep going back to treating others the way I want to be treated. I don’t want to be punished for something I didn’t do just because the one who did it won’t fess up. On some occasions, we finally got to a point of saying, “Look, somebody here has lied. We know what lying can do to your heart. We know the guilt and shame it can produce and we don’t want you to live with that for the rest of your life. When whoever the guilty party is has had enough of the guilt and shame, come talk to us. We won’t punish you, we just want to help you overcome this sin.”

In most cases, the guilty party eventually comes clean with us in a private setting. We have a good talk. I think the child was helped.

For a time, I wondered, “Hmm, does punishment not really work? Is that hindering my kids from being honest with me? Should I remove the threat of punishment?” But I can’t square that with the Bible. Obviously the Bible talks about parents disciplining and punishing their children.

Then I got to thinking about how God deals with me. I saw four things and I’m trying to figure out how to bring them into my parenting with consistency and wondering if I’m even on the right track. Here is what I saw.

  1. When I’m caught in impenitent rebellion and dishonesty, God punishes.
  2. When I come to God to penitently confess my sins, God forgives and shows mercy. He doesn’t punish.
  3. Whether I’m in impenitent rebellion or penitently confessing, God lets me face the natural consequences of my action.
  4. When I penitently confess my sins, God teaches and provides boundaries to overcome the sin in the future, pruning and disciplining me.

So, here are my questions for you.

  1. Are the above four points accurate? Is that how God really deals with us?
  2. If they are accurate, how do we implement the same strategy in our parenting?
  3. When should we punish? When should we show mercy?

In other words, if my child confesses before getting caught, is there never any punishment? How do you distinguish between punishment, discipline, and natural consequences? You tell me.

Thanks ahead of time for letting me know what you think.

And remember, God’s way really does work for our families.

Edwin