The teachings of love, inclusion, and authentic community transformed my life. I learned what it really means to be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and that this grace extends to all people, regardless of their background or identity. In this blog, I will share these truths with you in the hope that you too will come to know the living God who alone can bring salvation.
Susan Boyle: The First Viral Moment You have no doubt heard about the incredible Susan Boyle, the middle-aged spinster who auditioned on the popular TV show, Britain’s Got Talent. She was a very unassuming, unimpressive contestant with no previous record of accomplishment other than a single CD that sold about a thousand copies. But her stunning rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserable left the judges completely speechless. The video soon appeared on YouTube and within a week had become the most viewed clip in their history with over forty million hits. In this age of instantaneous global communication, such a sudden exponential spread of information is called ‘going viral.’ Susan Boyle’s moment was a beautiful and unexpected gift to the world.
The first recorded example of a message that went viral in the Bible was the massive response to the gospel at Pentecost. The Book of Acts describes the scene this way: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)
Apparently, the Holy Spirit caused such a great commotion that it drew a crowd of Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem from all over the ancient world to celebrate a national holiday — the day commemorating their exodus from Egypt under Moses. People of many different languages were amazed that these Galilean Jews were speaking to them in their own native tongues.
Pentecost had the makings of the perfect viral moment. The timing was right. Jews had gathered from all the surrounding countries to Jerusalem for a solemn celebration. It came while the land was still abuzz with the news of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Peter struck while the iron was hot, urging the people to confess their sins and turn to Christ. And the result was that three thousand people were baptized and added to the church in one day. The gospel spread not through a structured, deliberate program, but through a spontaneous, powerful moment that captivated the masses, just like Susan Boyle’s performance captivated the world.
Unleashing the Virus The gospel is the most compelling message of all time because it tugs at a need we all have for spiritual restoration. If any message has the potential to go viral, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet too often we try to quarantine that virus in the familiar confines of our church buildings and programs. How many people have come to Christ in your church during a Sunday service? I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone make a profession of faith in Christ during a church service or Sunday School class because the moment is so often contrived and controlled.
The Christian faith spread rapidly during the first century despite the absence of church buildings. Believers like Priscilla and Aquila reached out to people in the marketplace where they plied their trade as tent makers. It was there that they met the Apostle Paul on his way to Corinth from Athens. They struck up a friendship and Paul, himself a tent maker, set up shop with them. Together they preached the gospel in the marketplace and courts of the Jewish Synagogue. Those who believed began meeting in the home of Priscilla and Aquila, receiving instruction in the scriptures from Paul. They went to the people, and the people responded.
John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, William Carey, David Brainerd, William Wilberforce, and a host of other Christian saints did not wait for the lost to come to them. They took the message where it was not necessarily welcome, sometimes at great peril to themselves. For the church to make an impact in this generation, we will have to leave the comfort and convenience of our sanctuaries and move out into a world that is morally ambivalent and often hostile. Church marketing can never replace authentic evangelistic outreach because people are much more receptive to the gospel when it comes to them in an unexpected and genuine way. Church can be a forbidding place to those who have never been inside one.
Our churches need to be less intentional in providing and nurturing a welcoming environment that connects people in vital relationship throughout the week. The most powerful connections happen organically, not through a contrived program. One day a week in a building is not enough to build a close-knit, caring community.
The Most Compelling Witness — Love and Authenticity In a day when the extended family has been replaced by the nuclear family, often consisting of only one parent, and parents struggle to juggle all the responsibilities of child rearing with busy careers, churches can play a vital role by providing an authentic network of supportive Christian family. The early church did this masterfully, as described in the book of Acts: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” The early believers lived in close community, sharing resources, meeting daily for worship, eating meals together, and praising God. Their example of genuine love and organic community won the favor of the watching world, and the church grew rapidly as a result.
Because we do not live in such close proximity due to our modern lifestyle, we may not be able to duplicate all these things, but we certainly can try to capture the spirit of love that permeated the early church. It will take a level of authenticity that wasn’t necessary in the early church because then people lived and worked closely together. Their paths crossed more often. More people did the same job because there were far fewer occupations than today. So they knew their neighbors from associations in the workplace and marketplace. Today’s church needs to be more focused on organic and authentic connections, rather than contrived programs. One day a week is not enough to build a close-knit, caring community.
Some churches do a much better job of this than others. Large churches typically provide small groups for people to associate with others with similar interests, needs or mission. Other churches have parishes that divide people up by elder or small group leader. No matter the means, it takes deliberate and intentional effort to cultivate community in these smaller groups.
We once belonged to a church that had parishes. Each parish had a ruling elder. Leadership would assign a parish upon acceptance into membership. But the parishes never met. We didn’t even know who the other members of our parish were. The only time they were activated was during COVID when church attendance was restricted and the congregation had to be divided up for worship purposes. So in that case the small group served not for uniting members in closer fellowship, but dividing them! That’s not the way to use small groups, needless to say. But that same church had a reputation for being cold. They had a number of handicapped people who struggled with the stairs. Money had been appropriated to install an elevator, but it was used to refurbish the pastors’ offices and upgrade the kitchen facilities instead. During COVID leadership actually asked people with a Body Mass Index of over 40 not to come to church! Until that time I had never heard of a church disinviting people to come!
The church we attend now has a vibrant small group ministry. There is a cancer care group, a seniors fellowship, Bible study groups for various age groups, one for widows, and on and on. This church also takes groups on evangelism projects overseas three times a year. They have ministries in the unreached areas of India and east Africa. They have planted hundreds of churches in these areas over the past few years. They have built a very vital and loving community that is growing at about twenty percent per year. Pastors regularly express their love for the congregation and they are warmly loved in return.
Another church we attended was very small. The only ministry they had was Sunday worship and an occasional Bible study group or summer Vacation Bible School. But if the members didn’t take the initiative, nothing would ever happen midweek. The pastor had a side job of selling vintage guitars and spent the weekdays absorbed in buying and selling, shipping and receiving, customer relations, and promotion on all his websites. He had little interest in expanding the ministry because it would take time away from guitar sales, which was a very lucrative business for him. This church was from the same denomination that refurbished the kitchen and offices instead of putting in an elevator for the handicapped. Needless to say, neither of these two churches are growing. Both just manage to keep their heads above water.
The Bible says that the world will know Christians by their love for one another. It is truly a challenge to show that love today because of the demands of the modern lifestyle. Our jobs and other responsibilities have a powerful tendency to pull us apart. We need to fight that by finding ways to stay in vital connection with each other during the week. We have to be deliberative and intentional in cultivating and nurturing fellowship in the body of believers. If we aren’t, we will naturally drift apart.
Churches used to do midweek prayer services, but these have gone the way of the DoDo Bird, for the most part. That is sad because midweek prayer services were a great opportunity to encourage and support one another in prayer. Perhaps churches should make an effort to resurrect them.
The Apostle Paul’s Ministry Partners The Apostle Paul was arguably the greatest evangelist of all time. He extended the gospel’s reach throughout the Roman empire and Asia. But he had no formal program for all situations. He always went to the synagogue first if there was a community of Jewish believers in town, showing respect for their shared heritage and faith. If not, he would go to the place where believers’ met for prayer. In Thyatira, it was the riverside. There he met Lydia, a prominent member of the community who sold purple cloth. She and her whole family believed the gospel and were baptized in the river. The church began meeting in her home and spread from there.
Paul also formed a church while he was imprisoned in Rome. Several members of Caesar’s household came to Christ including the guards who were chained to Paul.
In Athens he preached at the Areopagus to a crowd of religious seekers about the “Unknown God” to whom they had erected a statue (just in case they omitted one among all the other statues of gods they had erected there).
In Ephesus he set up shop in the Hall of Tyrannus where he preached for two years to all the wayfarers who passed by on their way between Asia and the West. It would be hard to estimate the impact of this ministry on the growth of the church, since people from all over the ancient world came to Christ here and no doubt went home to establish churches in their own towns and villages.
So Paul was not limited in the means he used to spread the gospel. And he worked with many different people to get the job done. He showed an incredible ability to adapt and connect with people from all walks of life, including those who were Jewish, those who followed different customs, and those who were considered weak or marginalized by society. His example shows us that the love of Christ is for everyone, regardless of their background, beliefs, or identity, including our Jewish and gay brothers and sisters. There is lots of room for creativity in the church, as well.
What to Do We can all make an attempt to stay in touch with our friends from church during the week. Call them once in awhile. Pray for them. Invite them over for a meal every so often. Offer to drive folks to church who are incapacitated or don’t have transportation. Try to make it to fellowship groups during the week. Join a small group. Encourage your leaders to start a small group program if your church doesn’t have one. Perhaps you will want to consider joining a church closer to home so it is easier for you to attend mid-week activities. We drive forty five minutes to church, so we don’t have as many opportunities to get together during the week, unfortunately. But it took us four years and a dozen churches to find one that was suitable and it just happened to be forty-five minutes away. But the drive is gorgeous, at least! Through a beautiful river valley with a view of Mount Baker on the Canadian Border to the north and Mount Ranier to the south. But we wouldn’t be making that drive if we could have found a church much closer to home.
