Efforts to Replicate the Early Church in the Modern Day

[The_Patriot21]

I see no issue with seeking to replicate the early church. But, in order to do so one needs to replicate not only the methods but also the heart. The early church sought Christ above all else. 

If one replicates the early church perfectly but forgets to seek Christ first, the the church becomes more important and you are met with nothing but legalism, and are no better then the pharisees of old.

[com7fy8]

I would say that when those early Christians shared all in common, they still were new in the Holy Spitit. And, therefore, they were not mature!

And we see how they did have problems. There was discrimination against the Hellenistic widows, who were neglected in the distribution > Acts 6:1.

So, something works only as well as the character of the people doing it . . . possibly.

As we grow in Jesus, we discover how well we can do things, and we do better and better, with more and more mature loving.

This brings us into more unity with God plus with others truly growing in Jesus. In the Holy Spirit we can share all things of Jesus in common with others all around the world and all through eternity. We can be in our one prayer meeting ongoing, all the time in the Holy Spirit.

And discover who we become able to share with intimately wherever we are in this world. And we discover what we can do with each other while we reach to others who need to mature in how to relate.

And, whatever we do, be prayerful not to get yoked the wrong way and entangled and snagged with ones who can trip us into arguing and gossiping.

Don't get codependent.

Don't try to impress people with what you are doing. They can do it only as well as their character works.

But reach by feeding good example. How we really are can be used by God, to spread this to help make others the same way 

 

[com7fy8]

17 minutes ago, The_Patriot21 said:

I see no issue with seeking to replicate the early church. But, in order to do so one needs to replicate not only the methods but also the heart. The early church sought Christ above all else. 

If one replicates the early church perfectly but forgets to seek Christ first, the the church becomes more important and you are met with nothing but legalism, and are no better then the pharisees of old.

I have been told there was a pastoring-accountability movement, in which you would be assigned a mentor and you would do whatever the mentor told you to do, even if it was wrong.

And lives were ruined.

The founders of the movement all saw how bad things got, and they left!!

So, I would say something is only as good as our character with ability to submit to how the Holy Spirit has us doing things.

And I trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us creatively better than we plan and organize ahead of time 

[Marathoner]

3 hours ago, Yes, and said:

So, how did that fellowship start? Did various families intentionally decide to live in close proximity to one another? Or did it just spring up ex nihilo?

A small group of families who attended the same church in a different state were invited to visit a big family who lived on a large farm (that farm, incidentally, was where everyone corporately gathered when I arrived a few years later). The owner of that farm was a friend of one of the elders of the visiting families. The Lord convicted everyone in his farmhouse (it was a big one) to begin something new with that farm as the central gathering place. That was how it began. 
 

3 hours ago, Yes, and said:

Because of various factors (esp. this new phase of life and a desire to live in closer proximity to brothers and sisters who desire to live similarly), I am thinking through what it might look like to do so, in a way which avoids creating a thing. The created thing carries all the baggage, but what about just deciding with some others to converge on a mutually agreed upon location, deciding to live our lives together?

No one visited that farm with the intention of starting anything but rather, it happened. By "happened," refer to what I wrote above. 

Not long after the original families made the move to the elder's farm, people from all over the place started to show up. In the beginning, they parked RVs on the farm and pooled resources until they were sufficiently established to secure housing in the area. The addition of locals and people from the greater region to the fellowship opened up more opportunities, which really didn't take that long to happen. Everything fell into place.

Examples:

A friend of my brother (and teacher) from another state asked him to open and operate a warehouse in that area on behalf of his company, which was where I worked after I arrived. A brother from the original visiting families was a licensed contractor, and so I worked on one of his home construction crews (staffed entirely by our fellowship). Those who lived together pooled their resources and shared financial burdens, contributing funds to an account we used to provide for single mothers and the elderly. 

People kept coming in, my friend. How I came to be there myself is a part of my testimony that I might share some other time.  

[com7fy8]

About the Lutheran group who changes pastors in order to avoid personality cult stuff around the pastor >

That is a method. Method alone can not make things right. If there are people capable of cult-worshiping a pastor, just changing pastors does not solve their problem that they are capable of that > they can find other ways of acting on that bad ability!! They can marry the wrong people, and make idols of others not the pastor.

By the way > you don't change husbands every so many years, do you?  You don't change mothers for children so the kids won't worship Mommie . . . do you??

A good young father can mature into a great senior father. And he can feed his good example to younger ones. Likewise, a mother can mature and help the children not to idol-worship her, but put Jesus first.

But yes there can be church members who are a cult ready to happen. And we must warn such people and teach them how to love so they don't make idols out of . . . anyone.

I have had mature pastors who preached for us to never put them above question, but make sure with the word of God, and do not accept anything they say which does not line up with God's word. 

Of course, they might be able to make a Bible verse case for something which is not correct or mature like it can be. So, we need to be able to make sure with God >

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

One can make themselves seem humble, by saying to check things by the Bible. So, we need how God makes us able "by reason of use" to have our "senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:14)

In God's love maturing we have how love has us seeing things and people. We can smell how a pastor or anyone is ministering to us, spiritually. We can taste the difference between Jesus and not Jesus. We can hear His voice and feel how we are affected spiritually.

[Marathoner]

I should point out that I was the odd one, @Yes, and. How was I the odd one?

Everyone who came to the fellowship from the region (or afar) were established Christians. By this, I mean that they had been attending churches for years before they came. 

As for me, I was just some young guy in the world when the Spirit of the Lord called to me from out of the blue. I was the odd one! 

[The_Patriot21]

49 minutes ago, com7fy8 said:

I have been told there was a pastoring-accountability movement, in which you would be assigned a mentor and you would do whatever the mentor told you to do, even if it was wrong.

And lives were ruined.

The founders of the movement all saw how bad things got, and they left!!

So, I would say something is only as good as our character with ability to submit to how the Holy Spirit has us doing things.

And I trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us creatively better than we plan and organize ahead of time 

Agreed. I also agree with the OP that the church has changed with the times. And I'm ok with that. But we also see modern churches who have fallen into legalism, and paganism, and wokeness and all the sins of the early church.

What's most important in a church isn't whether it's a perfect model of the early church or the little southern Baptist church on the corner singing hymns to the non denominational church down the street singing praise choruses, is whether they follow Jesus or not. If they're actively following Jesus, then the style of church is immaterial as their heart is in the right place.

Incidentally if their heart isn't in the right place and they're not following Jesus, then the style of church is still immaterial because it won't get you to heaven.

[Solus Christus]

I have to admit I am worried about the Christian Post-Modernism. That no two Christians can agree on anything, even words regarding essentials. It makes me feel nostalgia for authoritarian churches, where everyone in congregation & church denom agrees to a creed, and etc. But even that is fragmenting with schisms in Reformed Churches. Sigh. 

[Marathoner]

I suppose I might as well share a summary of what happened after the Lord called me, and how I came to that fellowship. So much for doing that at another time. 

When the Spirit claimed me as His own, He promised that if I would trust Him and believe His word, I would surely find the Son of God. The first order of business?

Life as I knew it was completely undone. I was convicted regarding that life I was leading at the time, so I ceased from living in sin with my girlfriend. She was devastated by this change of heart, but I just couldn't continue doing that any longer. 

Next, I was convicted regarding the work I was doing for a wealthy publisher. My time working for him was over, so I resigned that lucrative job immediately. He was also devastated by this, but I knew that my place wasn't in that city. I had to go. 

After that, I gave away everything I owned with the exception of whatever I could fit in my Army duffel bag, a backpack, and a large gym bag. I gave my new pickup truck to my erstwhile girlfriend (I felt badly for her) and acquired an old Chevy van, because that would be immensely helpful on the road ahead of me. 

In the process of all of this, I became a laughingstock. People thought I had fallen over the deep end, especially my flesh and blood family. I started visiting some churches in the area, keeping a low profile (I'm skilled at remaining unseen), until I came across my brother's phone number. There was this crazy guy a few states away, some folks said, and he was inviting everyone to come and visit his fellowship in the boonies. I decided to call him, of course. 

I do things like that. Why not?

It was a three-hour phone call. After this astonishing phone call (my ear hurt), the Spirit revealed that this was the man who would teach me what I needed to know. He was where I should go. 

My brother had said there was a place for me with them before we hung up. I called again and asked for directions...

[Marathoner]

1 hour ago, Solus Christus said:

I have to admit I am worried about the Christian Post-Modernism. That no two Christians can agree on anything, even words regarding essentials. It makes me feel nostalgia for authoritarian churches, where everyone in congregation & church denom agrees to a creed, and etc. But even that is fragmenting with schisms in Reformed Churches. Sigh. 

You don't have to be troubled by this, my friend. Remember that the Lord never changes and His word stands forever, but there is an appointed time for every matter under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3). 

The only constant under the sun is change. Seasons change and so do the times, just like we ourselves change over the course of our lives on this earth. The Lord declared that nothing would overcome His Church --- this is true! --- but did He ever say that His Body would remain unchanged over time? He did not.

The early churches changed over the course of time. I've written about this in the topic to encourage us all, regardless of where we came from or where we are now, that this change is not evil nor foreign to the will and purpose of God. 

Pat said it best: no matter how we gather together, pursuing Christ is all that matters. In this way, then, we remain true to our Lord and the teaching of His apostles. I'm not dismayed by anything.

Have some churches fallen away (or apart)? Yes, but this has happened time and again, so it's nothing new under the sun. No matter what happens, we keep our hearts and eyes fixated upon Jesus Christ. He has already overcome the world!