Anatomy of a Church: Witness

Acts 2:42-47

Introduction

What is the process by which new people come to faith in Jesus? There are accounts of God speaking directly to people by dreams and visions but most often this takes place through the witness of other Christians.

Just to give you a very short overview of my journey, I was raised going to church, became an atheist in my mid-teens, returned to faith and started attending church again in my early 20s. During that time in the spiritual wilderness, I was on the receiving end of other people’ witness. There are times that it was a positive witness. Other times not so much. It would be very easy for me to criticize those witnessing attempts but unfortunately, I have stumbled myself in these areas. There have been times when my attempts to witness were not ideal. Strangely, there were times that my witness was effective but they were times when I was not actively trying to witness. That is one way for people to encounter Jesus, the witness of individual Christians.

But another way is the witness of the church. How does a church witness to the outside world? In the past, churches have held revival meetings and hosted evangelistic events. Those things can work but I want to look at a different aspect of the church’s witness. This brings to our conclusion of looking at an anatomy of a church, that a healthy church is a positive witness.

Early Church Witness

I have read numerous books on church growth. I even have some ideas of my own. But I really believe that we need to go to the Scriptures, to go back to basics and to rediscover what the church was at in the beginning.

A number of years ago, I was going through Acts and Paul’s letters and I was absolutely shocked at what I discovered. I was taught that an effective church was always outward focused, that the mission of the church is not about what happens with us, but what we bring to the outside world. That seems completely logical to them. But what I discovered in the New Testament was a focus on the inner life of the church. There was generosity, but the generosity was first of all aimed at those within the family of faith. There was worship, not as something impressive that would attract new people, but that was aimed at God. The focus was on building community as we have seen over the past number of weeks. The goal was to create a very healthy community of believers. But the purpose of that was not just so that believers could be happy. The creating of a healthy community was a witness to those around them. 

Friends, family, acquaintances, became aware of what was happening among the followers of Jesus. They saw communities of love, love for God and love for people.

This was not about people seeing how happy and prosperous the Christians were and then desiring to get some of that blessing. Part of it was how they dealt with suffering. There are accounts of people converting after seeing the martyrdom of Christians. One church father stated “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The was not because people wanted to be executed but this was a witness that the church really believed what they were saying. While we do have examples of individual Christians evangelizing, the emphasis was on the witness of the church. This was not just another religion or social club, this was something life transforming that was worth even dying for. 

Luke concludes this summary of the early church by saying that the Lord was adding to their number. This is the counterintuitive principle of the biblical model, the more they focused on their own community, the more their community grew. The health of their community was a witness.

Modern Church Witness

So what does this look like for us in this time and place? First, we have to acknowledge that there are two witnesses of the church. There is the witness of the Church and there is the witness of churches.

Imagine a person driving by our church building. What will determine if they have a positive or negative reaction? They may be familiar with this church. Perhaps they were part of an event here when they were a child or they personally know someone who attends here. They will be familiar with the witness of this church.

But what if they are new to the community or are just travelling through? Their reaction to seeing our building might be based on their experience at a different Baptist church. It might be based on what they know of churches of other traditions. It might be based on a documentary they saw about televangelists or a book they read about abuse in churches. The point is that the witness of the church is not just affect by what we do. We need to understand and respond to what people think of churches in general.

The first thing we need to respond to is the existing negative witness of the church. People judge churches based on the residential schools, even their denomination was not actively involved in them. People judge churches for participation in racism and sexism. A number of years back, there were revelations under #metoo about sexual abuse that was going on in the entertainment industry. We looked at that, always knowing that Hollywood was corrupt. Then came #churchtoo and the revelations that sexual abuse was also going on in the church, not just the Roman Catholic Church but in every tradition. For a long time these things were hid because it would hurt our witness but now the fact they were hid has hurt the witness even more. 

What does this have to do about us as a witnessing church? The shift that has happened is that people are not just asking if Christianity is true, they are asking if Christianity is good. The witness of the church is not just the factual knowledge that Jesus died on the cross. The witness of the church must be that because Jesus died on the cross and we really believe it, that we allow that truth to actually transform us. Our job, not just as individual Christians, but as a local congregation is to demonstrate that this transformation is taking place. We want people to look at us and, while acknowledging that we might not be perfect, we really do follow Jesus and are trying to live out the kingdom of God. This is not exactly evangelism, it is more pre-evangelism. Because of the way society looks at the church, we need to win back a seat at the table so that we can share the Good News. That might not be the kind of witnessing you want, but it is the kind of witnessing we need.

Conclusion

Where do we want to go as a church? We may have goals for increases in members and givings and programs. I hope to see that as well. But before any of that happens, we need to make sure that we are a healthy church. That doesn’t mean that we are currently an unhealthy church. But just as you may be physically healthy at this moment doesn’t mean that you should forget about diet and exercise, we as a church need to be on a continual trajectory toward greater and sustainable health. What does church health look like?It is about extravagant generosity, especially within the family of faith. It means worshiping God, with the focus actually on God and not on our personal preferences. It is about building up community, not just as fellow members of a congregation, but seeing ourselves as a spiritual family. Finally we must be a church that witnesses, not just individually but as a congregation. We must show that Christianity is both true and good. We must acknowledge the mistakes of the past and demonstrate that we are daily being transformed by Jesus. That is the anatomy of a healthy church.