What do you think? Is the greatest challenge to the church in the United States external or internal? Does our greater danger lie within the church or outside the church?
We have seen that the church in Jerusalem faced intense persecution from local religious authorities. The apostles were imprisoned, beaten, and threatened for preaching about Jesus. This challenge made the church more bold in its witness and more effective in its reach. As Tertullian would later say, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
The more difficult challenges emerged inside the church itself. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and died. This incident could have compromised the integrity of the church and the mission. Instead, the church weathered the storm. Now, Luke tells us of a second internal issue. While the church was growing, some of the widows felt neglected in the daily distribution of food. The church cared greatly for the poor members. But the Greek-speaking widows felt they had been given less food than the Hebraic widows. What would the apostles do about this new difficulty?
Thankfully, the apostles knew how to prioritize their work. Feeding people was important, but preaching the word of God was more important. They decided to delegate the seemingly urgent so they could focus on the most important work.
Two millennia later, the church still faces external pressures in our world. Isn’t it amazing that the places of greatest persecution are so often the places where the churches experience the most dynamic growth and power? But where the church stops proclaiming the word of God it is in the most trouble. In the same way, we may fear someone attacking the church from the outside. But our real challenges are internal. Will we be faithful to the word of God? Will we use our freedom to attack each other or to accomplish our mission? God is greater than any external challenge we may face. Will we care for the urgent issues so that we do not neglect the ultimate work of sharing Jesus with a lost world? Time will tell.
