"I Don't Have a Problem With That."

I was talking with a Christian friend a few days ago. He attends an institutional church, but loves the Lord and displays the fruit of the Spirit in his life. Despite our differences on church issues, I learn much from him and enjoy being around him.

In situations like this I often avoid discussions of ecclesiology. However, he brought up the subject and asked me what I thought. After I talked about simple church practices for a few minutes, he said something I've heard a number of times from other Christians. The exact words were, "I don't have a problem with that." He meant that he specifically does not have a problem with churches gathering and functioning like we read about in scripture, in particular the book of Acts.

This is an interesting issue. What is difficult for me to understand is why any Christian would have a problem with churches meeting like we see in scripture. After all, the apostles were present as part of the early church. They either approved of church practices or told them to change what they were doing. For example, Paul wrote many of his epistles to commend churches for the positive things they were doing and rebuke them for their problems.

We see, therefore, scriptural support for the actions and activities of the early church. Because of this there is no reason for any Christian to say, "I don't have a problem with that."

If you are striving to be the church as we see it in the bible, I commend you. You don't have to worry about whether or not other Christians have a problem with what you are doing. The bible is clear on the issue.

When it comes to the simple church model there is quite simply no problem.