What happens when we remove faith from our sense of "calling"? Insecurities, doubts, and self-imposed limitations. This is exactly what you see in the calling of Moses who went through a gamut of self-doubt when he was being called to lead God's chosen people out of bondage in Egypt. In each instance, we can see God repeating over and over again that it is not through Moses' capabilities or limitations that greatness will be achieved, but through the providence and power of God.

The way we act as a community has a direct impact on our ability to spread the Gospel. That is the picture we see in Acts 4 when Luke sandwiches the idea of "community" around a verse talking about the apostles spreading the good news (verse 33). It's easy to see involvement with your church as little more than volunteering, similar to what you'd do for little league baseball or a community organizations, but in the church it's something more profound. By the testimony of our actions, we can demonstrate to a lost world the selflessness that Christ first showed us.

The early church was definitely a community-driven organization, but do we really HAVE to be a part of the whole "church thing" today? Absolutely. Christ, Paul, and all the apostles seem to place a high premium on the value of community. The word "Ekklesia" used to describe "church" in our Bibles makes no distinction between vague concepts of a "universal church" vs our locally organized church. It's all a part of the body of Christ and we can't claim to want to know Christ while also spurning his body.

It has become somewhat trendy to say "we want to be a first-century church", but what does that really mean? It is just serving more? Giving more? Is it a theological code? The early church can be identified most readily by their strong sense of community. There was no such thing as a "church problem" because it was "our problem". Believers didn't have church branding or institutional programs to unite them, so they had to rely on what really mattered: their identity in Christ. No matter how we cut it, the individualism we see throughout the western church poses a stark contrast from the communal philosophies of the church in Acts. So the question for us is... what type of church do we look like?