3 minute read
The Day the Church Was Born
by John Upton
During this time of simultaneous crises, I find myself revisiting scripture because the moment offers fresh eyes with which to see familiar texts. One of those was the day the church was born. Let me share just a few of the interesting insights I have discovered in Acts 2.
1. The Holy Spirit got hold of a group of Jesus followers and made them into a new kind of community that would come to be called church. The New Testament Greek word for church is ecclesia, which means, “those who are called out.” It dawned on me that word was both spiritual and literal. The Holy Spirit was a new wind blowing literally pushing them out of the house they were in. The Spirit took them out of the house into a waiting world full of opportunities. Truly, they were the “called out ones.”
2. On that morning, the disciples heard a strange, loud noise—a violent blowing of the wind. They began to see something that looked a lot like fire in the place where they were. The fire divided like a light over each head and danced like a flame. Outside, the streets were filled with people from all over the world. There was even a man there from Africa—Ethiopia—who later would be joined by a long-time disciple. The Gospel from the beginning valued all people, all nations. From the beginning, the church has been multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual. Everyone in that crowd heard the voice of their own language speaking Good News. Today, many are hearing the Good News in the voice of their daily language of technology; they were just waiting for us to be called out.
3. There had been followers of Jesus prior to the day the church was born. What had it been like to be a follower of Jesus before this day? What is different now? Well, before this day you followed Jesus literally. You followed behind him on foot from village to village. You heard him speak, and you witnessed the wonders he performed. Everyone spoke a similar language and were from the same general area. You helped where you could.
Now, Jesus is physically gone, and you cannot walk behind him. Jesus knew this would be a challenge for his followers, so he told them to do something. He told them not to go back to where they came from. He told them to stay in the new place where they were. Stay here. They stayed, and they were astonished. A new Spirit descended upon them for a new kind of day. Leave your enclosures, go to strangers, share new ways. Men and women together proclaimed. Old and young were speaking. There were new outcomes, too. Three thousand from that diverse crowd said “yes” to this Good News and were baptized. It was a kind of drive-in church that first day.
4. The world changes, and the church creatively adapts. The church adapts in how we extend the love of Jesus. Can’t be in the sanctuary? Then get online, learn new platforms, use technology, and do it with all your heart. You lose a lot of what you cherish, but you also find yourself happily surprised by new gifts, new people joining in worship and prayer, new ideas of what ministry can be, and a renewed love of each other at church.
So much of that first day the church was born feels like today. In an otherwise awful time, the Spirit is offering new opportunities, pushing us out, giving us new language, new power, and a new sense of being brothers and sisters with all people. We are being called to new ways of thinking, to a new sense of ourselves, to new imagination, to new ways of welcome, to new ways to bear witness. What a day!
John Upton is the Executive Director of the BGAV.
