Good News
Acts 17:1-4, 10-12
It has been interesting to me as I notice the difference between doing church here on the Front Range and doing church in the Bible Belt. I’ve worked in various capacities at churches in North Carolina, Texas, and now Denver. One of the biggest differences is the relativity of size.
A large church in Texas averages at least 600 to 700 in worship. A large church out here, even in Denver? 300-500! The role of the church as vital to its community in the Bible Belt is intrinsic to itself: people out there want church to be church and for church to be available to them!
Out here, there is just less perceived need for church, it seems. I’m not complaining, in some ways I find it to be refreshingly honest. It forces us to really ask ourselves, as the church: “what is it, exactly, that people are yearning for? How does the church share the good news in a way that people around here might receive?”
Perhaps this is a challenge that Paul and Silas had as they arrived in Thessalonians in Acts 17. They have been traveling across the Roman Empire, seeking out (mostly) Jewish people to share with them this radical news: the messiah HAS come, he committed incredible miracles of healing, and has been resurrected from the dead!
I wonder how difficult it was for them to convince their audiences of their news.
Maybe we can feel a sense of connection as a church on the front range ourselves, where identifying as a Christian is not as normal as it might be in the Bible Belt. I remember one instance where Becky and I were at a garden store getting supplies for a youth group worship service I was planning and when we told folks who asked about what we were buying why we were doing it, we were taken aback by the grimaces!
It isn’t as if people aren’t deserving of their skepticism of Christianity. There is quite a bit to lay at our doorstep, and the most public faces of Christianity present mostly scandals, evil forms of politics, or obscene wealth that uses the church to evade paying taxes on it.
What good news do we have to share? And what good news do our neighbors need? This is the question that seizes me as I think of Paul and Silas’ journey (and all of the other disciples spreading good news in those early days) in spreading the news of the gospel.
