Comments on: Contagious Communities (Part 3)

By: Caffeinated Thoughts

Caffeinated Thoughts — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:57:54 +0000

A Contagious Community (Part 5)…

When I was a kid my family and I attended a small rural church several miles outside of the town I grew up in. I remember going to VBS, Christmas programs and the fact the church didn’t have indoor plumbing. I remember that the pastor…

By: Caffeinated Thoughts

Caffeinated Thoughts — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:09:21 +0000

A Contagious Community (Part 4)

One Sunday a visitor showed up in a more formal, liturgical church than he was used to attending. The church was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. That made it all the more obvious when this visitor got excited about something the minister said and h…

By: societyvs

societyvs — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:13:29 +0000

Phil – I really dig the way you think!

By: Phil Whittall

Phil Whittall — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:57:04 +0000

Thanks for the post, I appreciated it. I think one of the issues many in the western church face is that we do not actually know anyone in material need. At least not personally anyway. So it becomes a harder question to answer – the first shift then is away from the comfort zone of people who have the same as me to the arena where I connect with people who have less. Of course in Acts 2, this mix of rich and poor are in the same household of faith. For us today, perhaps there should be no one in our churches without medical insurance because the rich have provided for the poor, where no child should have sub standard education because the rich have shared with the poor. Certainly then we begin to create a community that makes the world sit up and take notice.

By: societyvs

societyvs — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:24:47 +0000

‘fools’ can also be interpreted ‘proves’ (lol)

By: societyvs

societyvs — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:24:14 +0000

“Are you living a sacrificial giving life?” (Shane)

I like this idea the most in that passage – it’s all about charity and love for one another…something so central to our Master’s teachings it becomes a central tenet of the very first Christian community in Acts. It’s communalism when you truly think about it – which is somewhat counter to capitalism on some levels (that ‘me’ society you speak of).

I actually tried to start something like this in a few churches in my city – guess the result? Flat-lined. However, we did help a few people and the results were the greatest gift one could see.

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need (Acts 2:44-45, ESV).”

‘All’ (used 2X) – by all we mean ’some of the time’ right? I would hold this passage up and say quite simply ‘does any church you know even so much as do this?’. I don’t think this was a ’some of the time’ event – it was an on-going procedure for the benefit of the whole communal community – so none went ‘poor’ – as you point out. This is like a forgotten art in churches.

As for the commanality aspect of this – the church has taken this to mean ‘doctrine or statement of faith’ and what we believe – I tend to think otherwise. This passage is very clear on what they all had in common – this spirit of charity and sharing – so they all had a common experience. This aspect of the faith cannot happen in capitalistic societies – and I pray someone fools me very wrong.