Why have multitudes given up on church? What’s missing in our contemporary American church that the early church had in Acts? Here are some possibilities . . . Humility, brokenness, awe, tears, passion, conviction of sin, excitement, self-denial, testimonies, openness, the priesthood of the believer, repentance, persecution, confession, participation, boldness, power, deliverance, miracles, opportunities to minister to one another, healing. Can you think of more things the early church had that we seem to be lacking?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Steve Simms
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About Steve Simms

I like to look and think outside the box. In college I encountered Jesus Christ and I have been passionate about trying to get to know Him better ever since. My wife and I long to see the power and passion of the first Christ-followers come to life in our time. I have written a book about our experiences in non-traditional church, called, "Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible--Ekklesia." If you need encouragement, search for: Elephants Encouraging The Room and/or check out my Amazon author page. Thank you!
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12 Responses to Why have multitudes given up on church? What’s missing in our contemporary American church that the early church had in Acts? Here are some possibilities . . . Humility, brokenness, awe, tears, passion, conviction of sin, excitement, self-denial, testimonies, openness, the priesthood of the believer, repentance, persecution, confession, participation, boldness, power, deliverance, miracles, opportunities to minister to one another, healing. Can you think of more things the early church had that we seem to be lacking?

  1. Brandon's avatar eliezer40 says:
    April 2, 2012 at 2:42 am

    Possibly the early church had to rely on God more heavily than Americans do now? For instance, we have medicine, good food, clean water, etc. I believe it is because of this that we are less reliant on God. I am not justifying it by any means. I wrote a blog called ‘The Hiding’ about this very topic. We hide God in the mix of our daily lives. http://eliezer40.com/the-hiding/

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  2. bert's avatar bert says:
    April 2, 2012 at 4:25 am

    agreed…the church has evolved into a consumer product marketed to the masses…

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    • Steve Simms's avatar Steve Simms says:
      April 2, 2012 at 11:25 am

      Very true, bert. However, the argument could be made that the early Christians were some of the best marketers in history. Maybe the difference was how and what is marketed. We market church as a product through promotion techniques. They marketed the living Christ through lifestyle and example and His Presence, the Holy Spirit.

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  3. elizabeth s's avatar elizabeth s says:
    April 2, 2012 at 8:02 am

    I DONOT KNOW ABOUT ANY1 ELSE, BUT I GOT “DRUNK” @ MILTON (P.A. U.S. of A.) CHURCH ON PALM SUNDAY! MY “MRS. MAJOR” EVEN TOLD PEOPLE THAT! SHE TEXTED ME LATER … “in the SPIRIT”

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  4. elizabeth s's avatar elizabeth s says:
    April 2, 2012 at 8:09 am

    REAL PASSION AND FIRE FOR GOD! FAR TOO OFTEN PEOPLE “GET SAVED” @ A SERVICE, THEN R NOT HEARD FROM AGAIN! :`( AND “WE” DONOT FOLLOW UP AND DISCIPLE AS WE SHOULD!

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  5. elizabeth s's avatar elizabeth s says:
    April 2, 2012 at 8:37 am

    ALSO, DENOMINATIONS “ATTRACT”/ “DISTRACT” PEOPLE! MANY PEOPLE DONOT LIKE PLACES WITH “GOD”, “FATHER” OR “JESUS” IN ‘CHURCH’ NAME, BECAUSE THEY COMPARE GOD/ JESUS TO THEIR ABUSIVE FATHER (FIGURES)

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    • Brandon's avatar eliezer40 says:
      April 2, 2012 at 3:06 pm

      We are all one church. We are the body of Christ. The church building or church denomination shouldn’t really matter, in my opinion. I wrote a blog pertaining to this topic if you care to read/comment on it. Doctrine Shmoctrine is the name. You can find it at eliezer40.com

      Reply
  6. findingtheway777's avatar findingtheway777 says:
    April 2, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    We are trying to figure this out in our own church, You have some very great points. One thing our church is trying to do is have 2 meals together a month as a church. We meet together daily for prayer. There is something in the developing of the church being in one accord through the things we do together on a daily basis. We also find that during pray, one person gets part of a message, then someone else will get the other part. The dependence on every member as a group and not as individuals. No one person is relayed on for all the answers, it is through the power of the Spirit so no man can boast.

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  7. Steve Simms's avatar Steve Simms says:
    April 2, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    “Being in one accord” is sure an important point. I think the contemporary church is far more divided and at odds than the early church was.

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  8. Matthew's avatar Matthew says:
    April 2, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    How about sexual immorality (1 Cor. 5), quarrels (Phil. 4), class divisions (1 Cor. 11), apathy (Rev. 3), heresy (Rev. 2), legalism (Gal. 2), and prejudice (Gal. 2)?

    I think the early church was made up of broken, sinful, messed up people, just the same as today. That’s not to say that it’s all hopeless and we should throw up our hands, giving up on the drive to become more like our Savior. We are called to grow and be changed into His likeness. It just seems to me that the 1st century church had its own share of problems. Their problems were sometimes different from the contemporary world’s (circumstances and environments change) and sometimes the same (the human heart is still the human heart, and sin is still sin), but they were made up of sinners who were saints more than saints who had it all figured out.

    Your list, however, regardless of whether or not it matches with the character of the early church, is valid. We do need such things. And I can’t help but toss out one rather significant one that I think is missing: love.

    So how do we get all of this into the church?

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