Carrying on the Mission of Jesus

Do you ever wonder why the church today is so different from the church we see in the book of Acts? How did the early church do so much with so little, and we do so little with so much? How did a dynamic Christian movement become a fixed Christian institution? If you have ever asked these questions, or others like them, Carrying On the Mission Of Jesus, offers a challenging, informative journey back to the heart of the early church. The New Testament paints a compelling, exciting, dangerous picture of the church as God designed it to be. Carrying On the Mission Of Jesus is a 12-week personal or group devotional that takes the reader through the entire New Testament book of Acts. The anchor of this study and its central thesis is that the church we have known for 1,800 years is based on the wrong model. Rather than drawing our model from the New Testament, we have actually inherited a form of church based out of 4th and 5th century Rome. The continued irrelevance of the church in our society, the demise of Christendom, ongoing membership losses in the major denominations, overworked clergy, and apathetic laity all point to a deep-seated issue in the church. It is not a lack of resources or opportunities; it is a famine of Holy Spirit power, prayer, missional motivation, and clear purpose that imperils the 21st century church.