A Divided Church #1

Acts 2:1 "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place." (ESV)

Allow me a moment of commentary on the verse. It seems there is a redundancy when the Bible says "they were all together in one place." If people are in one place, then they are obviously 'all together.' It would seem that something else is being said here. The KJV maybe says it better: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place."

There was a unity of purpose in the upper room. Yes, there had been times when the disciples had argued about who was the greatest, but this time was not one of them. They were "on the same page" now!

That unity, I believe, was an essential ingredient in the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers. Allow me a series of posts on some of the things that bring division in the local church (as apposed to the universal church).

#1 Age

Why does the church always set up the youth against the older Christians?

Older folks so often attack youth as less than what they were. The youth are viewed as the problem of the church of today. They are accused of compromising, liberalizing, and just plain turning the church over to the devil.

For any older Christians who are reading, has it ever occurred to you that maybe it is your fault this is happening, if in fact all the accusations are true? I mean, you raised them or you raised their parents? You are not an innocent bystander, but an active participant in what the next generation will be like.

Since I am still fairly young, 27, I would like to argue that every generation has bad fruit, but it also has some good fruit. (I'd like to believe I am some good fruit!)

On the other side of the coin, young people so often attack the older Christians. They are spiritually dead, don't want change, refuse to do anything, don't know how to worship, along with other accusations are the words that encompass the finger pointing.

I wonder what the church of Jesus Christ did before 1980 when my generation began to come on the scene? When the older generation was a little younger how did it ever survive without our long hair, guitars, "Jesus tattoos," and 'Christian' rap? Poor folks never realized how upset God was that people wore ties to church, played the organ for worship, and actually preached from the Bible!? (Now we preach from movies.)

For any younger Christians that may be reading, has it ever occurred to you that some of the older Christians might be.... right? Maybe instead of ignorance, stubbornness, or legalism, that is wisdom speaking when they don't think we should open up a Starbucks in the foyer of the church!

Maybe my generation needs to realize that we are simply a link on a long chain called the church... our responsibility is to hold tight to the truth in our hour.

Some of the greatest lessons in life that I have learned have come from some of the oldest members of churches to which I have been a part. Sure, some older folks are "set in their ways" for the sake of ignorance, but certainly not all (or even most).

What if the young and old could come together and be the church? We might just have another Pentecost!