How in the world…….”

There is a game that is used a lot times as an “ice breaker” game. It is simply called Gossip. Most of you have played it or at least have watched it played. The game of Gossip is not only a fun parlor game for children or adults, but it is a good sociological demonstration of what happens to information when it is passed by word of mouth.

The game is played by having a group of people sit in a circle or next to each other to form a line. One person who is not part of the line comes up with a phrase and writes it down on a piece of paper. The piece of paper is then handed to the first person in line and they read it and commit it to memory and then gives the paper back to the person (the source) that wrote the phrase.

The first person in line then “whispers” the information, as well as they can remember it to the next person in line. Then this person does the same, passing the information down the line until it reaches the end. The last person reveals what they have been told to everyone assembled. The first person then reads the phrase out loud.

It is amazing how the phrase changes from its original format to what is actually spoken from the last person in line.

You might start with:

Little Billy was so silly in the way he would ride his bike through the streets at night while eating a moon pie.

And then end up with:

Larry and Willy got so chilly way in the woods and they hiked while wearing sheets on nights with a full moon.

Some of the words are right and some of them are not. There is usually a big laugh from everyone when the last person says out loud what he “thinks” he heard. And then usually the person that came up with the phrase says, “How in the world did you come up with that?” And people in the circle offer up, “That’s not what I heard or said.”

Great fun. If it was only a game.

In my way of thinking and I know I have a weird way of thinking or seeing things but I almost get the feeling that this is exactly what has happened to the modern day church.
In the Bible, Acts chapter 2 gives us a great picture of what the church is supposed to look like. And to me the church of today looks very little like the church found in the book of Acts.

After Jesus leaves his disciples in Acts chapter one and ascends to heaven he sends his Holy Spirit to them. Through his spirit he communicates to his disciples on how to continue the work that he started and how to set up God’s church.

And I think Acts 2:42 is a perfect picture of what the church should be. And I get the sense that God wrote it down on a piece of paper and showed to the disciples and this is what he said:

“They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings and to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.”

So this is what the early church did. They devoted themselves to each of these areas. To the apostles teachings (studying God’s word), to fellowship, (sorry Baptists but this is more than just eating together) to breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper) and to prayer (devoted to prayer not to prayer meetings).

And so, God’s church was established with these few directions.

God’s spirit whispers into the ears of the disciples, and the disciples whisper into the ears of the first church, and the first church whispers into the ears of the next generation, and on and on it goes.

And now it has been whispered into our ears. And now we have the modern day church. And sometimes I get the sense that God is standing there saying:

“How in the world did you come up with that?”


Now I am not so closed minded or so cynical to think that the church of today should be exactly like the church we see in the book of Acts. Of course the technology of our world is going to affect our spiritual world. But then again maybe it should be our spiritual world should affect our technology. Hmm

And I am not saying the church is bad or we have it all wrong. But I am wondering if this is what God had in mind. Maybe it is. Or maybe not.

Maybe all the deacon’s meetings, business meetings, associational meetings, session meetings, committee meetings, bake sales, garage sales, ski trips, staff trips, senior adult trips, meetings for the library committee, flower committee, softball committee, daycare committee, color of the carpet committee, and the fried chicken verses baked chicken committee are all part of God’s glorious plans. Or maybe they are the plans of “someone” else that would rather see us so busy doing meetings we don’t have time to be devoted to things we should be devoted too?

So what I am saying? I am saying take time to look at your church and see what it is devoted to. Look at all the things listed in your church bulletin or discussed at the last business meeting and see if they have anything to do with bible study, fellowship, the breaking of bread, or prayer.

Better yet, let’s look at our own lives and see what we are devoted to. Since we “are” the church then we as individuals should be devoted to these things. We don’t have to wait for Bible Study to be listed in the bulletin for us to study the bible and we don’t have to wait for the Wednesday night prayer meeting to pray.

God established the church and the church will always be. I just pray that it will always be what God intended it to be.

And I pray that has our generation whispers into the ears of the next generation they will clearly hear us say, “Devote yourselves to apostle’s teachings, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”