The Church, today

We've been studying the book of Acts in depth at church this year and it's been making me think a lot about how the church functions/looks today compared with how it looked when the NT was written. I feel like my mind is in a place where it was a few years ago when I was devouring every book I could get my hands on concerning church growth, post-modern church planting, etc.

I'm not going to write any novels here this morning. Been there, done that. This is another of those posts that I'd much rather talk to you about than just write from a one-sided perspective. The big question I've been thinking about is what would it look like if Jesus had come today to establish His Church, die to offer forgiveness and restoration to the world, and rise again in evidence that He definitively reigns over any other power at work in creation? What would it look like?

More questions about comparisons with the New Testament church...

• Would we meet together daily to "break bread" together, pray, and worship? They had to be busy, hard workers in the 1st century. It seems like they had to have worked harder, yet with fewer things going on after work to take up their time. We are so busy today.
  
• Would we be selling off possessions to make sure that there wasn't a need person among us?
  
• Would we depend so much on "professional clergy" to do ministry or would each person feel compelled to jump in and work hard to share the message of Jesus Monday through Saturday as well?

These are just a few of the questions I've been asking myself lately. Of course, if you know me well, you can imagine that there are a multitude of "what if..." questions attached to each of these questions. The one that comes to mind most often is what if we tried to establish even a small group that tried to come as close to the NT model as possible? Is it possible? Would it be artificial, manufactured?

As I type, I'm listening to Casting Crowns. The song "What If His People Prayed" just came on. The question in that song is probably the best place for us to start with all of the other questions in mind.