Unfortunately, we’ve replaced using our spiritual gifts with doing church chores. You know the usual suspects; folding bulletins, laying out the donuts, working an overhead, changing the slides… Not really the kind of thing that excites the average believer, is it? Believers tend to get fired up when their gifts are coursing through them, and in a microchurch context, they get to do the real stuff; what Paul calls “the work of the ministry” In a microchurch, leaders aren’t feeders. They aren’t star players that everyone else watches. Instead, leaders function like coaches who support others as they run the ball of mission down the field as a team. Average everyday believers score the touchdowns, resulting from a team effort. The leader is on the sidelines most of the time, and the points go to Jesus. After years of doing ministry like a losing team, it took reinventing the game to start the turn around and start winning.
Everyone would agree that the church was winning in Acts 2:42. After all, everybody wants an Acts 2:42 church. Just ask a Christian to quote it on demand, and you’ll get a wispy-eyed conversation about “how church ought to be”. However, what we often miss in that verse is that it’s not about leaders, but about everyday believers and the effect they had on their community. That entire verse is what the old ladies, housewives, laboring men, slaves, and dopey teenagers did together. They all met, devoted themselves to the teaching, prayed, ate together, and gave generously. As a result of everyday believers activated in their gifts, the Lord added to the scoreboard by adding to their numbers…daily.