"Wow, what a difference!"

Blockbuster Video had an awful TV commercial in the early 90s with a jingle that was nearly impossible to get out of my head. "Wow, what a difference! Blockbuster Video! Wow!" Annoying, but incredibly effective. At that point, Blockbuster was the first big, national chain. No more was a customer relegated to renting videos from small, privately-owned, independent stores with sometimes maddeningly eclectic collections. Now, you could be anywhere in the country, and be assured that Blockbuster Video had lots of videos in lots of genres. The stores stuck out like a sore thumb.

This weekend, I will deliver a brief meditation to nursing home residents. Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and I've been spending a lot of time in the book of Acts. Here's what the Scripture says the early church looked like. Prepare for a shock. This is Acts 2:42-47, from the NASB:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Wow, what a difference! I don't know about you, but the picture given us by the Scripture looks nothing whatsoever like the average church I come across today - including my own - and I'm reasonably certain that the church in Acts will be unfamiliar to anyone who happens to reside in the nursing home I'll visit on Sunday. Why? Why are churches today not following the Biblical model?

Can you imagine what would happen if members of your church, awed by the presence and power of God, started selling off their possessions and handing the money to the church, to be distributed to anyone who had a need? Can you imagine how drastically different the church would look if we "h[eld] all things in common," and devoted ourselves to prayer and the breaking of bread together? Can you imagine what it would be like to enjoy the favor of all those around us, instead of being the butt of a joke? Can you imagine the impact of new converts being added to the body of Christ, "day by day?"

Sounds a little cultish, doesn't it? We're so far removed from the spirit of Pentecost that the church as described in Acts sounds like a group David Koresh would head up. Yet that's just the model we're given. Rather than stick out like sore thumbs in this materialistic, pagan society, we blend right in. The church of the Pentecost built not just a church, but a miniature society, and it drew ire, curiousity and - occasionally - converts from the people around them. These people were really odd. They were unlike the greater part of the society around them. Wow, what a difference!

The Western church, on the other hand, is awash in "church growth" models drawn from the pagan, corporate world. We regard the breaking of bread (which happened "continually" for the church in Acts) as the occasional bean supper or pancake dinner. We give grudgingly, and usually only from our excess - I know of no one, including myself, who has ever sold their house or car to meet someone else's need. And our church will listen to anything - absolutely anything, from Oprah to Deepak Chopra - except the teaching brought down to us from the Apostles. And then we wonder why our churches don't grow, why no new converts are brought in, why we feel so powerless and benign.

O, faithless generation! If the Church of the Pentecost sounds like something from an alien world, it is because we have alienated ourselves from the teaching of the Scripture. The Church in Acts is not separated from us by two millenia; we have, over two millenia, separated ourselves from the Church in Acts. Wow, what a difference, indeed.

I am praying that God would open my eyes and make me see what radical changes I need to make in my life - on an individual, personal level - to recapture the spirit of Pentecost. I want to be a person who sticks out. I want to be part of a church that is completely focused on God, utterly repentant of our faithlessness and totally dependent on His leadership and instruction. In years to come, I hope pagans can only look at the church in awe, and say "Wow, what a difference!"