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Doing Life in Groups and Teams

Dan Sullivan · August 3, 2017 ·

at onelife we do life in groups and teams

Ecclesiology is as much about what you don’t say as what you say. This is something they say a lot at One Life:

At One Life we do life in groups and teams.

Not to speak for One Life, but I want to offer my own commentary on this. This is one 2017 paradigm of

Acts 2:42-47

[42] And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. [43] And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. [44] And all who believed were together and had all things in common. [45] And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. [46] And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, [47] praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (ESV)

When they say that life happens on groups and teams, they are saying that it isn’t dependent on the Sunday morning church service. The Sunday morning thing is a thing, and many of the teams are teams because of the Sunday morning thing, but if you talk to the people in the best of teams you’ll find out that they grow up into something much bigger than volunteer group.

The job or activity is just a framework to be together. Where the real Acts 2:42-46 part happens is when the group breaks out of just serving coffee on Sunday and turns into people playing volleyball together on a Tuesday night. When we structure our lives around time spent with people instead of things, our life is enhanced. That’s when our family life is the happiest and the most balanced: when we are spending time in the community of The Church.

I need to disclose here, that my family is part of the People of Praise, so we do community bigger and badder than a lot of people, but that is just part of our way of life.

In the Sunday morning church service, you are going to get some singing and some teaching, but if that is the full Christian Community experience for you, you are missing out. Joining with other people, changing your schedule and prioritizing deliberate time with Christian people, will change your life.

I used to have people over and they’d ask “Is this a Bible study?” my answer was that it was whatever we made it. If our hearts overflowed with YouTube videos and complaints about work, that’s what it would be. If our hearts overflowed with cool stuff we read in the Bible this week, then it would be that. Both are OK. We are free in Christ to talk about whatever. But there are some things that are going to grow us more than others.

best thing you can give your team: honest transparency

The more we share together, the more we live life. Life in abundance is an overflow of everything that life is. Pain, suffering, joy, victory, you name it. If you want to up your game and have a richer, fuller life, do it. Adjust your schedule, cancel and quit the shallow stuff. Spend time with the people you want to be more like, and watch God show off and add to your number daily those that are also being saved.

Bible Study, Handwritten Blog church, community, ecclesiology, fellowship

ACTS Church? Really.

Dan Sullivan · May 3, 2013 ·

When someone tells you they go to an ACTS church, I’d like you to ask them if they are these four things, one at a time.

Stained Glass Inside Mission San Francisco de Asís

  • Attractional
  • Corporate
  • Titanic
  • Stable

Attractional

Does your church draw people in? What about it draws people in? What about it has magnetism? Are those good things that Jesus used to draw people to Himself? What if people never came to where you are waiting? If an Urban church opens, do the lost in the suburbs know about it?

Corporate

This word means something connotatively as well as historically.

1. Does it work like a business? Is it run like a business? Does it feel like a business? Are the leaders of the church leading like it’s a business—like they are the leader? Is Jesus the head of it or is He CEO Emeritus?

2. Are the members of the church linked as if they are a single body with Christ as her head? Is there unity and togetherness at supernatural levels? Does it feel like a non-dysfunctional family?

Titanic

Is it big? Is it huge? I mean, like 3,000 added in a single day huge?! (You didn’t think I was going to say that big was good, did you?) Are the poor riding with the rich? Is the worship band playing even though passengers are dying? What about life boats? Can people leave safely and survive on their own?

Stable

People like McDonald’s because it is consistently mediocre. People like the corner tavern burger because it’s unpredictable and likely to be astounding and delicious. Is your church stable? How so? What features are restful and certain and faithfully stable? What features are lulling people into thinking McDonald’s meat is real meat? Is your stability rooted in God or in the status quo and devotion to keeping things the way you liked them in 1972?

None of these are meant as a direct attack, but they are meant as a loose root on the trail to trip you up. It’s all too easy to take the easy and deadly way out when it comes to our ecclesiology. There is a lot that we do, not realizing we are eloquently reading the wrong directions. Check out the last chapter of each of the gospels and then read Acts.

It’s a beautiful thing. It’s attractive and corporate and titanic and stable in all the right ways, and I’m still looking for it.

Bible Study, Featured Acts, Bible Study, church, ecclesiology, mission

Evening out with the People of Praise

Dan Sullivan · May 1, 2013 ·

Last night we went and hung out with some folks in an intentional Christian community. (How is that for a list of adjectives!)
Here are my notes.

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Bible Study, Featured, Handwritten Blog, Urbia Acts, church, community, ecclesiology, life

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