Jeremy Hoover

 
 
I read a report of a survey that indicated, out of 800 people, only 16 percent viewed churches as a place to meet up with or make friends. As a minister, this disturbs me. In this 8 minute audio, I discuss the survey, my thoughts about it, and a way forward. Please leave your comments below, on Facebook, or at Twitter.

Group Publishing Survey: The Friendliest Place in Town
 
 
Here's a thought: What if, in trying to recover the "pattern" of the early church, we overlook the actual patterns that exist?

It's interesting that in the Church of Christ, we claim to represent and follow the biblical "pattern" for worship that is supposedly so easy to find in the New Testament yet is spread out through several different books by different authors. But we ignore the "patterns" that exist.

For example, let's look at two passages: Acts 2:42-47 and 1 Cor. 14:26-40.

Acts 2:42-47, of course, relates the church experience of the very first church. I fall in line with those who see no reason why this report shouldn't be normative for all churches. Several things describe this church:
  • They are devoted to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, sharing in meals and the Lord's Supper, and prayer.
  • They seek God's presence and are filled with awe.
  • The take care of each other in radical ways.
  • They are together and share community in ways we crave but largely don't experience.
Equally so in 1 Cor. 14, we find a church experience that is very participative. The whole church ought to actively contribute to its worship, not spectate or consume what "professionals" offer.

These two examples are found in actual passages where details unfold. They are not scattered throughout the New Testament and we do not have to pick through a verse here and a verse there to "uncover" the "clear"(?) pattern.

What if we focused on these patterns? One thing we might learn is that there never really was a uniform "pattern" that all churches followed. There appears to be a more free-flowing attitude of sharing, fellowship, and ministering together. This was, of course, expressed in many different ways.

What can we do to recover these elements of the early church today?
 
 

This is a video introduction to my sermon for Sunday.

 
 

I've been thinking a lot the last couple weeks about the forms of Christianity that we teach in the church. Perhaps I've given something away even in my description because if the emphasis in "church" is on "teaching" then the form we use primarily is information transmission. This doesn't mean we don't connect with people and other things aren't done; just that we view the primary reason for gathering is to transmit information about the bible.

The idea is, if you know more about the bible, you should be a better Christian. But the result is often very different from this.

I've been thinking through these ideas with others on Facebook and Twitter. Why is it that we seem to treat our Christianity as a checklist rather than a relationship--with Christ and others? Why do we view our relationship with God not as a true relationship but as a list of things we must do or a set of requirements we need to fulfill?

Why do we wait for others to take the initiative? Why don't we really connect with each other away from the church building?

Jesus said, "I did not come to be served, but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). We are called to be followers of Jesus. A follower, well, follows! So we should be doing the same things Jesus did.

If Jesus did not seek to be served BY others, why do many of us? Why do we criticize the minister or someone else for not visiting us when we never bothered to pick up the phone or make an appointment to spend time with someone else?

Jesus served others. He added value to the lives of others. The best question we can ask ourselves is not how we can fill a building with people, or how we can get others to do what we want them to do, or how we can make sure the minister "does his job."

The best question we can ask ourselves, to be a true follower of Jesus, is:

Who can I love right now? And how?

That's what it means to follow Jesus.