“Being Formed in Community” - Acts 17: 22-31

Why are you part of a church community? How do you hope to be formed through this local church? How are you helping to form others? What is the body of Christ - worship on Sunday morning? Sunday School? Fellowship meals?

Relevant Magazine released an article earlier this year entitled “5 Really Bad Reasons to Leave the Church”. Number one - I’m not being fed. The article went on to claim that too many people leaving church under the guise of this excuse instead of looking for ways to be fed and feeding others spiritual substance.

John Wesley created the Methodist movement as a place to be fed - as a place to experience revival within the Anglican Church. He wanted to make disciples who commune with God, both learning about the faith and putting those beliefs into practice. He saw the faith community as a place where this learning and living faithfully intersect, for loving God and neighbor at its very core is both a belief and a practice. 

Wesley affirmed that we are each at a different stage of our faith journey, but this lead him to question what the Methodists should teach, who should teach, and how they should teach. Everyone needed to be nurtured, even in these different places of faith. Everyone needed a place to help live out their faith in order to give their lives meaning. But how could that be done when people were in such different places?

Saint Paul struggled with some of these same questions about teaching - who, how, what, and where. As he went from place to place, experiencing new cultures he found that how he may have proclaimed the gospel in the last town may not work in his current location. So he tried to connect the gospel culturally to what people experienced - and one beautiful example of this teaching doctrine while being culturally sensitive took place in this mornings scripture lesson. 

Paul arrived in Athens - a place where people loved to learn. In fact their love for learning was so deep that it was both their work and their pleasure. One of the areas of study that interested them the most was religion. Paul entered into Athens and first perceived the culture around him. He noticed the idols that surrounded the city, but one alter in particular caught his attention - the alter ‘“to an unknown God.” Paul had an opening.

Notice what Paul did not do in his teaching. Even though he didn’t believe the same thing as those in Athens, even though he saw many, many idols which were against his own religion, he still chose to affirm how religious the people were. He affirmed their quest to find meaning and truth in their lives. He took what the culture provided and expounded upon it for the sake of the gospel, claiming that he knew this unknown God. It was the God who created the heavens and the earth. A God that could not be contained in an alter, shrine, or idol. This same God, created us, and in him we live and move and have our being. We are his children. 

Paul had the attention of the city. He connected with them on a level they understood, talking about their own shrine, but also about so much more. He spoke about a God who wants to be in relationship with his creation, and calls humanity to repent when we stray. A God who both judges and raises the dead. A God unlike any the Athens had ever known.

In this moment, Paul was a gifted teacher. He instructed the people after observing what was important to them. He truly embodied the wisdom John Wesley would later give about teaching to “use all means, but seek God alone.” The early Methodists used culture as a teaching tool as well. In a day an age when theatrics were valued, they preached to large crowds outdoors. They sung hymns with words crafted to familiar tunes. Wesley used the culture of the people to connect them with Christ, just like Paul.

But notice what Paul does not do. He does not devalue the message or person of Christ by putting him on par with all other gods. Paul firmly claims that this God was the one to whom all people would have to give account. Wesley didn’t water down his message either. Instead, he used it as a way to wet people’s appetites. To get them to crave knowing God more. As people grew in their faith, he equipped them with groups where they could learn through their relationship with others. Within these groups, more mature faith emerged and people were able to ask questions about the scriptures and instruction they had received - they were able to make their faith their very own. These groups also provided a place where people could live out their faith through serving others. People grew from seekers to servants.

We live in a world where people are still searching, like the people in Athens when Paul spoke, and people in England when the early Methodists emerged. People are searching for this unknown God, who we claim to have faith in. If Paul wouldn’t have shaped his teaching to his audience, using their culture to connect people with the gospel message, he would have missed an opportunity to make the message of Christ understandable. He looked for an opening to share about Christ and he seized it.

Not so long ago people grew up learning about Christian values in the home. They went to Sunday School in droves where they learned the basic stories of the faith. Then they went to Church services where they were instructed on disciples to help grow with God - such as prayer, devotional reading, fasting, and communion. There was a point where the Church simply had to open its doors and people came. We are no longer living in that time.

Paul and Wesley are calling us to re-examine how and what we are teaching. They are inviting us to have an adaptive witness - one that will do whatever it takes to reach a new generation with the message of Christ. Two examples of churches that are reaching a generation for Christ: Right around the corner in Lawrenceville, people are finding that the old model of people coming to church, joining, then serving, no longer is normative. They have a community of people who want to serve, who want to give their lives meaning. So they use mission trips as opportunities to invite people who are new to the faith or do not have a relationship with Christ to come and serve. They work along people strong in their faith, who are passionate about Christ. During the week, conversations naturally emerge through relationships and basic instruction takes place as people truly begin to listen and meet each others needs. Another example: The Open Door Church in Pittsburg strives to have people connect with their worship gatherings through their small group. They have small groups that meet in public places and people are encouraged to bring their friends. Through this time of fellowship and study of scripture, a generation of people are coming to know Christ. 

Friends, what are we willing to do to reach a generation for Christ? Does our heart break to instruct people in the faith? Are we willing to change things that may be comfortable for us in order to teach others? Are we willing to be fed in order to feed other’s spirits? Are we ready to seize the moments God provides to speak to a new day and age about the love of Christ? Amen.