What Kind of Church Was That?
In the first century A.D. there was this “sweet” church. They didn’t know they were a church as 21st century people might know themselves to be a church. All they knew was that they were believers in Jesus of Nazareth’s resurrection and Messiahship, and that mysteriously He wasn’t with them at the present, that He had ascended into heaven, but was coming back to receive them and institute the kingdom that God had promised to them. They were a little confused about what they were supposed to be doing in the meantime. But they were pretty sure they were living in the final days, and that their resurrected King was coming back at any time. They understood that God was giving His people one last chance to repent and believe in Him and His anointed Messiah, Jesus. And so they figured that they would just try to persuade their Jewish brothers that the resurrected Jesus who had ascended to heaven was coming back to be their King and Messiah if they believed and repented. These basic beliefs bound them together; made them a community. Besides preaching that Jesus was the resurrected king, they also lived very unique lives. They were given the Holy Spirit, and so the Apostles, a.k.a. “the commissioned ones” were given Jesus power to heal and cast out demons. They preached the good news that Jesus was the resurrected king coming again to set up the promised kingdom. They initiated those who believed this by baptizing them into their faith community. They listened to and complied with the Apostles teaching, and fostered relationships with them and each other. They ate together. They remembered Jesus and his death by breaking bread. They prayed together. They remembered that when Jesus was with them he taught them that possessions could not give them eternal life, that if they wanted to lose their soul they would keep their things, but if they wanted to win their own souls they would give their possessions away. So they sold all of their possessions and divided them amongst themselves as anyone had need. Every day they went to temple and hung out. They went from house to house remembering Jesus by breaking bread and eating together very casually. Every day they went to the temple and praised God and made friends. And every day God added more people to their faith community.
Without going into deep theology, I want us just for a moment to think about how beautiful this is. Most of what I have said about the first church I got straight from Acts 2:41-47. In a strictly literal sense, this is not the exact formula for the perfect church. Time has made it difficult to be a mirror image of that first church. In general, however, how can one read this and not breathe a sigh of relief to know that there was once a community in the history of the world that got it right? And if they got it right due to their unflinching commitment to Jesus, why can’t we do the same in our context? We can. We may have to make radical changes, scary changes, unpopular changes, but if our Messiah is their Messiah, there is no reason that we cannot have the same kind of community today. May we mull over what a first century church would look like in the 21st century? May we be willing to make the necessary changes no matter how radical, scary, or polarizing they may be to be the kind of church we ought to be today?
In an earlier writing I asked the question; “What Kind of Church is This?” It was a response to the confusion I had heard expressed in the Scranton community and even in the Steamtown Church community about Steamtown Church. I hope that this writing; “What kind of Church Was That?” starts us thinking about what kind of church we are going to be.

Acts 2: 41-47
Those who accepted the message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 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.