God's Community: Different Looks at Life Together

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."  Acts 2:42

I've often heard this verse and the verses that follow it (Acts 2:43-47) outlined as the ideal way that Christians should be in fellowship with one another.  I've heard it talked about as the ideal way that we live our Christian lives together with one another. 

But I have to admit that I have always struggled with thinking that.  It's not that I think what they did was bad or wrong.  In fact, I see a lot of strengths in how those Christians lived together and cared for one another.  The thing that I have struggled with is the idea that these verses tell us how all Christians should pattern their lives together.

Let me explain for a moment.  In some cultures, sharing possessions such as is described in Acts comes much more naturally than in other cultures.  If we suggested doing that same kind of thing in North America, however, I doubt there are many churches that would be able to pull it off.  Our culture is just different.  It's not to say that one culture is better or worse than another, but the idea of independence and ownership is just different for most Americans that it likely is for much of the rest of the world.

In other words, part of our challenge is to figure out how to incorporate the principles behind what these disciples in Acts did, and then act upon those principles.  It may not result in a shared pot, but consist of, say, a church benevolence fund that is continually given toward.  It may mean that we find different ways to pray for one another and to let each other know about it (facebook, email, text message, or some other means of letting someone know prayer needs or that we are praying for them).  It may mean that we have to be more intentional about being in connection with one another simply because our lives don't bring us into that regular contact with each other that those Christians in Acts experienced, as they saw each other in the market or along the towns streets.  The principles remain the same, but the form that they take varies from culture to culture.

Perhaps the biggest thing that has started to stand out to me is that it has to be intentional.  We don't live in a society where we regularly run into each other anymore.  We have to plan the times we see each other, and so, if we are to maintain the community life together, it will require planning and intentionality.  That doesn't make it any less of a community than that which is spoken of in Acts.  It just means that the same things happen, but the way they happen looks a little different.