I am starting to get woke. Are you “woke”? Not awake, but woke. Maybe you’ve heard that word, as it become popular in recent years. I recently read the book Woke Church by Eric Mason, and in the book he describes “woke” as “to utilize the mind of Christ and to be fully awake toContinue reading “Should the church be woke? – Acts 8:4-40, Part 1”
Tag Archives: early church
Did Stephen make a mistake in his sermon? – Acts 6:8-8:3, Part 2
How are we to live in liminal moments? As I write this, our world is in the throes of the coronavirus. As we saw in the previous post, the early church experienced a liminal moment of their own, the threat of punishment and persecution from the powerful religious leaders in the city of Jerusalem. HowContinue reading “Did Stephen make a mistake in his sermon? – Acts 6:8-8:3, Part 2”
The coronavirus is our moment of liminality – Acts 6:8-8:3, Part 1
I have a vocabulary word for you: liminality. Have you heard of that word? The dictionary defines Liminality as “a state of transition between one stage and the next, especially between major stages in one’s life or during a rite of passage.” It is a threshold. Sound familiar? In the last week or two, doContinue reading “The coronavirus is our moment of liminality – Acts 6:8-8:3, Part 1”
Important lessons from a food crisis – Acts 5-6:7, Part 5
I don’t really love food crises. At all. But there is one that happened among the first Christians that we can learn a lot from. The sad fact is that there should not have been a crisis at all. They actually manufactured the crisis because of their poor behavior, which might have been some racismContinue reading “Important lessons from a food crisis – Acts 5-6:7, Part 5”
If you lie, you’ll die? – Acts 5-6:7, Part 3
Do you think the title of this post sounds harsh? I think it sounds very harsh. That’s why I put a question mark at the end of the title. But what does it refer to? If you lie, you die? It refers to the next section of Acts that we’re studying. So far this week,Continue reading “If you lie, you’ll die? – Acts 5-6:7, Part 3”
How the earliest Christians eradicated poverty – Acts 5-6:7, Part 2
Wouldn’t it be amazing if no one was poor? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone had enough? The first Christians found a way to get there! Let’s look at what they did, and perhaps we can make strides to eradicating poverty in our communities. To do that we need to move on to the secondContinue reading “How the earliest Christians eradicated poverty – Acts 5-6:7, Part 2”
Was the early church communist or socialist? – Acts 5-6:7, Part 1
I typed “crisis in the church” in Google’s image search, and what do you think most of the images depicted? The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. It’s an absolute mess. I live in the Harrisburg (PA) Diocese, and it made national news recently when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Before weContinue reading “Was the early church communist or socialist? – Acts 5-6:7, Part 1”
Why we need the Holy Spirit to help us speak in tongues – Acts 2, Part 4
The purpose of the filling of the Holy Spirit is to motivate you for mission. This is why Christians would do well to gather, to cry out for the Spirit to fill us, to motivate us to mission, to outreach, to boldly preach the Good News, to fill us with a method of communicating theContinue reading “Why we need the Holy Spirit to help us speak in tongues – Acts 2, Part 4”
The first revival (and could revival happen again?) – Acts 2, Part 3
Revival. What is it? We sometimes talk about a revival of an old musical production. Or when a person stops breathing, they can be revived through CPR. Revival is the breathing of new life into something that is dead or dying. While there is physical revival, as we continue studying Acts 2, we’ve come toContinue reading “The first revival (and could revival happen again?) – Acts 2, Part 3”
How would you start a church? – Acts 2, Part 1
What would you do if you were starting a church from scratch? Would you dream up a creative architectural design for a building that would draw attention from the community? Would you focus on the gathering for worship and put together a certain kind of musical or artistic program? Would it be multi-cultural? What doctrinesContinue reading “How would you start a church? – Acts 2, Part 1”
Engaging Scripture 