The Early Church Part 1

I have recently been reading the book of Acts. One thing keeps jumping out at me.

At the end of ch. 2 and ch. 4 Luke describes the early church. They were full of life. They were selfless. They had everything in common. The growth was exponential. But one characteristic stands out beyond all the others: the early church had a unified mission.

"...they were of one heart and soul..." (Acts 4:32)

The early church shared one mission: make the name of Jesus Known. They abandoned everything for the mission. They met daily to teach the mission. The Holy Spirit empowered them to achieve the mission. Their lives were sacrificed completely for the sake of the mission.

At times in our churches it seems that we have so many programs it is hard to keep it all straight. We have a program for everyone in every age range with every preference under the sun. We give ourselves to the programs. We meet regularly about the programs. We have even dedicated programs in the name of the people who used to run the programs. But with all the programs we have going on can we truly say that our churches are of one heart and soul?

I think that is the difficult nature of the programs. It isn't that doing a bunch of different programs is "bad," but we must guard the mission of the church with absolute clarity and intentionality. We can't simply focus on the question, "How many people come to that event?" The question we should be asking is, "Does that event accomplish the mission of the church?" (not my church or their church or his church or her church... THE church...see Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8)

If we take a step back and evaluate everything we do, how much of what we do is off mission?

Can we describe our churches as Luke described the early church...as "one heart and soul?" Are we focused on THE mission?

Let's make it a bit more personal...

Is the mission of my life to make Jesus' name known? Am I consumed by it? Am I saying "no" to the things in my life that don't match the mission?

How about you?

...If not, why not?