“All the believers were one in heart and mind.” (Acts 4:32)
We are a Bible church. We believe the church of the 21st century should be the same as the church of the 1st century. God’s church today should strive to have the integrity of his church in the 1st century you read about in the book of Acts, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) The church in the book of Acts was a unified movement of churches working to accomplish the great commission of Jesus – world evangelism! The church in the book of Acts is the model in which we must follow as we build God’s kingdom today, accomplishing the same great commission. What is incredible to see is how unified and solidified the church was. The Bible says in Acts 4:32, “All the believers were one in heart and mind.” The church was totally unified! Which fulfills Jesus’ prayer in John 17, as he pleaded with God for the believers to be completely unified so the world would know that Jesus really was the Messiah! Jesus knew that the disci-ples could not just be united, they needed to be totally unified! There is a stark difference in those two words. To be united means to simply be together. A student can be united with his classmates in a classroom, but it does not mean he is unified with his classmates. To be unified means they share the same heart and mind; they desire to be together as if they are the same single person. The word for “heart” in the Greek is kardia; which means the fountain of our thoughts, passions, desires purposes and endeavors. To be unified like we see in the church of the book of Acts, means the disciples in the church share the same thoughts and passions, we desire the same things, we live with the same purpose and work to accomplish the same endeavors. It means we have the same heart, as if we are one person! When you bring together a group of people with a heart and mind like that, it will surely change the world!
The remainder of this article will discuss some convictions that we as a church, as a movement of churches, are totally unified on. This is a call to get totally unified and behind these Biblical convictions we share and hold to in this fellowship, so that we may imitate our 1st century brothers and sisters, and strive to be “one in heart and mind.” Theses convictions are as follows…
WE BELIEVE IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF ALL NATIONS IN THIS GENERATION
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:4, that “God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” This means that God’s want all men to be saved… now! This does not mean that God desires for all men to be saved later or in the next generation, but God’s will is for all men to come to a knowledge of his truth now! Thus, we believe that the call for every disciple and every church is to have the same heart and will as God. Jesus also calls us to “make disciples of all nations,” (Matthew 28:18-20). God’s will is for his church to evangelize the world, this is her sole purpose. The question is: Is God’s will your will? This is why we collect Special Missions Contributions. Using money to plant churches in every nation “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10)!
WE BELIEVE THE TRUE CHURCH IS ONLY COMPOSED OF SOLD-OUT DISCIPLES IN DISCI-PLING RELATIONSHIPS
Jesus had one standard of discipleship. The church is made up of many different people with differ-ent talents and gifts and abilities as God has assigned each of them, and we are expected to use those God-given abilities to build up God’s kingdom. There are different roles in the church that certain disciples fulfill. However, with all of that being said, every disciple in the church is still called to the same level of commitment and discipleship as the next. Jesus never made concessions with what it meant to follow him. In the first century church, the Bible says “they devoted THEMSELVES,” (Acts 2:42) meaning the disciples willingly devoted themselves; no one was chasing after them to get them to read the scriptures or pray or be committed to the fellowship. There was no difference in the level of expectation of commitment and loyalty to God and his kingdom from the Jesus-trained apostle, to the brand new convert. All made the good confession and commitment, “Jesus is Lord!” There will always be weak or timid disciples in the body of Christ, but weak disciples are capable of still being committed to Christ under any circumstances, thus, that is the expectation. We may be weak, but we may not allow ourselves to stay weak. Some may think in order to be fully committed to God one must be strengthened first, and then get totally committed… however, nothing is further from the truth! In 2 Chronicles 16:9, the Bible says, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” One must decide in his heart to be fully committed first, and then God will strengthen us! There is no expectation of strength needed for a fully committed heart.
Secondly, every totally committed disciple must be engaged in discipling relationships. This is in direct obedience to the command Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:20, “teach them to obey.” This was never an optional part of the great commission. Just like going to all nations was not optional, being baptized was not optional, neither is being discipled to obey optional! Even the idea that if a disciple wants discipling they must “go after it and get it,” is incredibly unbiblical. Jesus never asked us to ask for and get discipling, he simply commanded us TO disciple one another to obedience! Therefore, asking for discipling being the only means of being taught obedience is disobedience to the command! Jesus did not say “teach those who ask for it to obey…” He simply tells us to do it regardless of who asks for it. Much like we should preach the word of God to people whether or not they have asked for it! And as one will find, it is almost always when we don’t necessarily “want” discipling is when we need it the most! Thank goodness Jesus just commands us to obey this teaching instead of having to use our own judgment to ask to be taught obedience when we think it is best to obey.
WE BELIEVE IN A CENTRALIZED LEADERSHIP WITH A CENTRALIZED LEADER
When you search the scriptures, you will find that whenever God’s people were unified and in obedience to his will, there was a strong central leadership and a godly central leader. Whenever there was no singular leader leading God’s people, they inevitably rebelled. We see this in the terrible times of the book of Judges, where the Bible says that, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” (Judges 21:25) We see this principle early in the book of Judges. Joshua unified the people after Moses, and lead the Israelites through victorious battles to conquer the promised land. However, after they take possession of Canaan, Joshua dies and the people rebel. The scriptures tell us that, “The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel… [after Joshua dies] another generation grew up… who forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers.” (Judges 2:7, 10-12) Without the leadership to unify and guide the people to God and his will, the people rebelled. This pattern repeats in the book of Judges multiple times. Other examples of this in the Bible prove this principle true, such as King David, Moses and of course, Jesus and the apostles. This principle is Biblical and must be practiced if the God’s church is to remain unified and in obedience to his will. Without a centralized leadership and a centralized leader, “everyone will [just] do what they see fit,” and we will not accomplish God’s plan for his church!
The first century church operated as such. We see this leadership principle at work in the church when James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, makes a judgment decision on the gentile circumcision issue, and then he calls all the other churches to get unified on his decision (Acts 15). A decision needed to be made, and the leader made a decision that everyone was expected to get behind. Something we need to understand about leadership decisions is that whatever the decision may be (as long as it does not contradict scripture) the decision is “good enough.” Simply because God gives that leader the authority to make decisions, therefore, through his God-given authority, the decisions that are made are “good enough.” By God, he is not even expected to make the best decisions (although he should). Nor does he have to make a decision everyone else feels good about. He simply needs to make a decision, and then the rest get behind it and God’s people remain unified. God is always more concerned with and always blesses unity than someone getting what they want. And a great, godly leader always makes what he believes are the best decisions that meet the needs of those he leads the best! Perfect decision making was never a requirement for leadership. A flow-chart below helps illustrate the principle…
1. Bible speaks >> I obey >> (END)
2. Bible is silent >> A church leader speaks >> The Bible doesn’t countermand the leader’s decision >> I obey >> (END)
3. Bible is silent >> church leaders are silent >> I decide >> I account >> (END)
In Hebrews 13:17, the Bible commands all of us to, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work may be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” If we all submit to the leaders in our life, we can be unified and accomplish the Lord’s will as one people. Our leaders consist of our discipling partners, our Bible Talk Leaders, our House Church Leaders, our Church Leaders, and our World Sector Leaders. Godly centralized leadership unifies God’s people. Jesus commanded us to evangelize the world, but the details and specific ways we carry that out in the life of the church is largely up to the discernment and godly judgement of the leaders. For instance, Jesus didn’t tell us exactly which cities to go to first, how large the churches should be before we plant another one, who should go to which cities, and how to meet the daily needs of the disciples in the church. Jesus has given a large responsibility to the leaders, thus, they must stay close to God in prayer to be guided by his Spirit to make these difficult judgment decisions (Acts 6:4). As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 7:25 & 17, “I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgement as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy… this is the rule I lay down in all the churches.” Paul did not have a scripture or command from Jesus on the issue of virgins and marriage, but he gave a judgment on what he thought was best, and then also laid down a rule for all of the churches to obey, not consider, but obey! So, when our leaders make certain decisions, we must get our hearts behind them and willingly submit to them, because it is to no advantage of anyone to not submit. If we strive to be concerned with unity and world evangelism instead of what we personally desire, God’s movement today can have the same unified impact as the 1st century did in its generation! If there are any reservations or unwillingness to submit to and follow our leaders, we must get open with the sins of possibly faithlessness, rebellion, contempt or discord in our heart and choose to repent, and see God bless the unity!
As we see these Biblical convictions in the scriptures, let us make sure we are solid on them and strive to be unified in heart and mind! It is interesting in Titus 3:10-11, Paul directs Titus to “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Through the Spirit, Paul was very serious about not allowing a divisive person to remain in the church. The word for “divisive” in the Greek is hairetikos, which means to choose, factious, a heretic. Which is derived from the similar Greek root-word haireo, which means to take for oneself, to prefer, to choose. Thus, a divisive person is someone who chooses and prefers what they prefer, and just does what they want, regardless of what has been directed and decided by authority. The word for divisive is synonymous for heretic. A heretic is defined as someone who maintains their opinions contrary to those accepted by their church; anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine or principle (disctionary.com). Therefore, maintaining opinions at odds with what is officially established is heresy and that person must be warned. God takes rebellion, divisiveness, discord, dissension and heresy very serious in the scriptures. Let us make sure we do not allow ourselves to fall under God’s judgment for such sins.
Being completely unified heart and mind is the ideal of the church, therefore, this is the standard of the church. In our church here in DC, and movement-wide, being simply united, or together, won’t cut it and is never good enough and will not be settled for. We must be totally unified heart and soul! Every disciple in the DC church is called to have the same thoughts and passions, desire the same things, live with the same purpose and work to accomplish the same endeavors! Any compromises we make with this endangers the church’s health and ability to carry out the great commission in this generation. If there is any division in our heart, today is the day we repent. Let us be completely unified heart and soul and evangelize the world in our day!
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