7/9/12. A CONTAGIOUS CHURCH? IS THAT AN OXYMORON?

HOW IN THE WORLD COULD THAT BE: A CONTAGIOUS CHURCH IN A HOSTILE SOCIETY?

On our North American scene, one hardly mentions the word “church” in conversation with one’s ‘sojourning’ (as defined by someone: “spiritually confused god-seekers”) and often suspicious neighbors. The church’s image is so muddied (muddled?) and confusing, given all of the reports of scandals, bizarre personalities, ostentatious buildings, and on and on, … that it actually becomes a stumbling-block.

But consider another setting: the first century seaport city of Ephesus, which was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, pagan through-and-through. Look what happened there. The missionary, Paul, being a Jew by birth, stops by Ephesus on the way from Greece. He finds the Jewish synagogue. Take note that the Jews themselves were a suspect bunch in the Roman culture. At the synagogue he found a dozen guys who were incomplete disciples of Jesus—that is, they had only heard the message about Jesus from John the Baptist, which only predicted that Jesus would be the long-awaited answer to Jewish prayers. So Paul fills them in on the rest of the story: Jesus life, teachings, death on the cross, and resurrection. These twelve guys believe and Paul baptizes them, and they evidence the signs of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them. Then he taught them over a period of months.

Remember, this was a hostile setting. Not only was Caesar the undisputed deity-emperor, but Ephesus also had a civic deity, Diana, and the whole city revolved around her. So to come in with another teaching that challenged these powers wasn’t too cool!

Now note: Just after this event is recorded in the Acts history, there is this sleeper note: “ … so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

How did all of the residents of Asia (Minor) hear that word? From whom did they hear it? What did they hear? Who were the agents of this communication into that hostile culture? Given the setting of this passage, this could only have been done by these new believers/disciples from Ephesus! They were tradesmen. This was a commercial center. There were trade guilds. These guys traveled to the other cities in the region—and they were contagious with what they had discovered in Jesus Christ. Paul had reproduced himself in them: “…  be imitators of me” (I Cor. 4:16). Paul was consumed with the awesome wonder of what God had done in Christ, and he communicated his life-transforming and contagious faith in Christ to these. Contagious faith. Contagious love. Contagious hope. Contagious freedom. A contagious sense of the meaning of it all. That’s disciple-making, … and the implications are mind-boggling for our present mission here in neo-pagan North America, and the too-often sterile and moribund church.

Stand by. Let me hear from you.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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