Dorcus, What a Funny Name (If your name is Dorcus, sorry. But you have to admit it is pretty funny.)

Here is a point to pontificate on. This new focus on being more apostolic in our understanding of church has made me think of something. What does it mean to be apostolic in your understanding? A good question with a number of answers, depending on who you ask. Personally, I like the idea of being apostolic. I mean, what could be better than a church that is organic, without many years worth of tradition and learned behavior so easily influencing present behavior? Simply a church that seeks to love God and people and do all which that entails seems like a great example to follow. I mean the apostolic church was lead by the apostles, the very folks that knew Jesus personally in a they could smell Him way. It is a good thing. These folks were going out into the community and seeing God work in all kinds of ways. They just lived their faith and followed Christ.

The difference here is not that we don't live our faith in the present day. We do, and in many ways it is not dissimilar to what the apostolic church did. But the apostolic church did not have the years of established church behavior to influence their decisions. I doubt they would find themselves in the following scenario, "What do I think about situation 'X'? Um, I am Baptist and Baptist think this about situation 'X', so I guess I will think that way too." They only had Jesus' example to guide them. Of course, why reinvent the wheel every few years. I do not advocate reinventing the wheel, but relying on church to give you your understanding of situation X can easily take God out of the equation.

So, this is the main question I am working my way up to. Do we simply remodel our church (not Parkway, but the church proper) after the church we read about in Acts? I maintain that would be entirely too simple an answer. While, I think it is good to know how they did things and handled situations, I think to model behavior would be no different than asking the previous question about situation "X" but changing Baptist to apostolic church. Rather, I think we gauge our present day experience with Christ to their apostle day experience with Christ. They don't so much serve as patterns as examples of what a life following Christ looks like.

We read stories of the early followers doing amazing things. We read stories of them standing down people that would ultimately decide if they would live or die; Stephen in this example, who did not live to tell the story. We read of people being arrested and freed by angels (Acts 5:1-11). We see ordinary people doing things like the healing of Aeneas (Acts 9:32-35). Eutychus fell out a window because Paul preached too long and died, Paul restored his life (Acts 20:7-12). Paul was unaffected by the viper that bite him (Acts 28:3-5). And who could forget Dorcus, I mean Dorcus what a name, she died and Peter prayed for her and she got undead (Acts 9:36-41).

Seems to me that when we follow Christ closely, the kind of follow where we finally admit that it is totally about what Christ wants and that we are not the one in control, we will see things more like God sees them. Can you imagine coming up on the body of a friend and praying to see them wake up? Personally, I cannot say that I would be able to do what Peter did. Just praying a prayer to give someone their live back seems too... preposterous or maybe laughable. Kind of like God will just say, “No, you cannot pray that, you silly little boy, go back and cry with the widows.” Of course, the million-dollar question here is if Peter felt that way when he began to pray. Can you imagine going to God with that request? What a vulnerable position? I suppose that is why he sent the crying widows out of the room (9:39). Of course, we don't know exactly what Peter prayed; he may have been as surprised as Dorcus and the widows. Of course, we also see instances in Acts where no miracle happened. Stephen was stoned and died (6:8 - 7:60) and Paul never got over his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-10) to name two.

What we see in the apostolic church are people that followed and where open to the Spirit. They did not seem to second-guess as much; they did not seem to depend on precedent as much. What is more, it almost seemed that they expected to see things that might be a little unusual in our day. They did not so much depend on planning events and programs. They seemed to live a faith that was very real and obvious.

So, hear is the point where you are about to stop reading because I am about to stop writing. You, having read all this and had your own ideas and thoughts will comment on what my little pontification made you think about. Keep this in mind. I welcome and look forward to your thoughts. That is the good thing about a blog. I don’t just throw ideas out there with no hope of feedback. Most of you know that I have never claimed to be some renowned theologian. I am just a man who enjoys his relationship with God and wants to see Him glorified. I know that I don't know all that there is to know and I can get things wrong. I just hope to spur thought and feedback. I learn a lot from your comments and enjoy them, please comment away.