Well, I've been searching for the New Testament church and I found her. I think. Maybe. Perhaps. However, you will need a time machine to find her. Or a Bible. She is firmly embedded in the time and culture of the 1st century. I just do not believe it is possible to re-create the New Testament church that we find in Scripture.
To actually recreate the New Testament church, we would have to re-create 1st century culture. I don't believe you can separate the Biblical record from the time and culture in which it was written. That is not to say we should not take the principals and elements we see in Scripture and incorporate them into our church experience. In fact, I believe that is precisely what we must do. But in actual practice, how is that going to look?
We need to build personal, one on one relationships. We also need to rebuild our sense of community and service. We need to practice all the ''one anothers'' of Scripture . I could go on and on...
I am just starting to unpack some of these ideas which I hope to attempt to explore further in subsequent posts. Happy New Year!
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Jeff, wow - you make a great point. So many people want to create a 1st century church, but they never mention the need to create a 1st century culture, which is, of course, impossible.
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog, thanks for commenting! I think there is much we can learn from the early church, but it was by no means ideal - they experienced many of the same problems we find today.
-jeff