Preparing For Failure

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47 (NLT)

We’ve all seen this scripture before. As a matter of fact, this piece of scripture has been the model for the Sunday Night Service – a weekly gathering different from the Sunday morning services– since it’s inception.

This afternoon the church staff began a 10-week discipleship journey that I believe is entirely based on this model. The goal of of these ten weeks is that we as a staff would be a beta-testing group for this study, and after revising the study (if need be), eventually the entire church would be asked to join us in this.
So today we saw the introduction to this journey– met our groups, learned a bit about each other, and began talking about what we expect to see out of these upcoming weeks. As we wrapped up our first two hours, my table leader, after asking a few other questions, posed this question: “What are you nervous about?”

I’ve seen this before too. As the answers came back in varying capacity of

“I don’t understand what it means when it says, “They sold their property and possessions and shared [...] with those in need”, that’s always been hard for me to get what that means…”

in my deepest cynicism I always fire back a snide mental remark, “What do you mean, you don’t understand? It means, you give your shit away, and anything you sell and make a profit on, you turn and give that money to those who are in need!”

Luckily, that was all in my mind, and it should be noted that I’m very thankful I’m not so quick to say what’s on my mind…

However, I did in fact chime in and give my two cents on why I’m nervous:
I’m nervous because I’ve seen this before. I’ve been a part of an “experiment” [in the Sunday Night Service] for a year or so; that passage has been the mission statement for that group, and yet week in and week out, none of those values have been practiced. We settle in to our chairs, maybe say a few niceties to the people around us, zone in to the “worship” and the message, and get out of there before too much is asked of us. The people in that place are complacent. They’ve already attended a weekend message. Attending the Sunday Night Service to them is in the same vein as a heavy drinker ending their day with a beer. It’s not necessity to these people. It’s extra credit. There’s no life change there. If there are hurting people in that crowd, they’re still too afraid to let anyone know. They won’t break down their walls. Their pride keeps them from being in themselves. Their pride keeps them from breaking down. It keeps them from serving others. They attend their weekly meeting and they let that sustain them for the week, only to come back in the same guilt that brought them there the week before. They feel empty. They’re in need of a savior. They’re in need of a friend. They need a companion, they need someone to help and love them without looking at them like they’re a charitable cause.

I’m nervous about this journey because of how much this scripture means to me. To me, this scripture is huge. This passage is revolutionary. I’m tired of seeing people fail at it. I don’t want another go at this because I’m fearful that, at best, we’ll cheapen this experience entirely, or worse, we won’t do a damn thing.

Just in case, here’s the disclaimer: claim it