Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 2 verse 42:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
What was true in the beginning to make church work is still true today. It's not gimmickry or false promises about prosperity or some universal formula for doing church that is being peddled at the next big conference.
It's simple. It's basic. It's fundamental. It's a small group of people doing life together in such a compelling way that they end up attracting others to come and take part also.
The group is authentic, its self-sacrificing, and its faithful. And, it's dedicated to those same shared practices that the early church started with: to study, to shared time and mutual belonging, to eating and drinking and genuinely being in one another's presence, and to praying for and over one another and one another's families.
This community isn't perfect or ideal; I know. My former pastor and good friend Charlie Johnson used to say, "This ain't heaven; it's church." And as Bonhoeffer said, those who idealize the church will end up destroying it.
It's not heaven. But it is that place and that people that God has chosen to bring the kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. It's church. And it needs you.
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