How do we keep our spiritual focus?

Recently I saw the following quote on a friends status message on Facebook:

"Do we see the members as necessary to retain the structure and ministry of the church, or do we see the church as a place for equipping its members to live authentic Christian lives in the world?"

A thought-provocing question that was further supported by some of the comments he received.


In the history of the early church, the Acts of the Apostles, the church was clearly the latter, in my opinion.

Before Pentecost the 11 stayed together in Jerusalem as they were told by Jesus after his ressurection (Acts 1:4-5). They lived and prayed together with the newly elected Matthias (1:26) and met daily with the earliest church (1:15).

After Pentecost they continued to meet daily in the temple court as a family. They shared everything even their personal property and they continued to add to their numbers.



So was the early church the necessary structure or was it a place of authentic Christian living? As 'the Lord added to their numbers daily' (2:47), I would image that the latter was the case.


In my view this 1st generation church, just as later 1st generation churches, seem to be focused on the service and equipping. They seem to have something at stake that 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc generation does not seem to have. To these new churches their (spiritual) lives are at stake.


The 'old' churches seem to have more and probably too much structure. It seems too easy to be part of the pew warmers either physically or spiritually. The comfort zone is too comfortable. And 'we've been here for generations, so we will still be here'. They may be very active in their community, helping and caring, but their eyes, their treasure might be in someone else than Jesus. Maybe not out of spite or lust. But they simply lost their focus by trying to be a copy of Christ, rather than having Christ as the head of their Body (Col 1:18).



So how do we as Xth generation church revive that sense of that our spiritual lives and the spiritual life of our familiy, our church is at stake? How do we make that Christ have Supremacy in and with our lives?


Curtious Comments are always welcomed and encouraged!


Thank You, Henrik Andersen, that you allowed my to use your statement as a start for this blog post!