The book of Acts is one of the most exciting books to me. It is about the early church. It is about how things began in the church. It describes what was done when the church began.

Over forty years ago, I asked God to take me to a church like I was reading about in the book of Acts. The early church described in Acts was on fire. They were bold; they were committed; and souls were being saved and discipled. Power was manifested in their lives and in their prayers. And most importantly, God was working mightily among them.

The disciples of the early church were not just talking about God. They were working with Him. He was guiding them. They were listening to Him. Whatever God wanted, they did. There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for Him. That is the kind of church that will excite a committed Christian.

But a more careful look at the church shows that it did have flaws. Paul and the apostles at Jerusalem had a meeting of the minds over disagreements. Paul said he withstood Peter to the face because he was to be blamed. Barnabus and Paul separated to continue their own ministries their own ways. The church at Ephesus was sliding into legalism. The church at Corinth was filled with pagan practices and carnality. The church at Laodicea was dying from self-sufficiency and pride. The church at Sardis was dead. The church at Jerusalem had squabbles over how meals were being divided up.

Welcome to the real world.

The church, from the beginning, had chinks in its armor, weak links in its chain, and flies in its ointment. But in spite of imperfections and problems, they were blessed. Fortunately, by the grace of God, they were blessed. They were not perfect, but they were good.

Churches are only as good as their members. And members are only as good as their commitment to Christ. And even the best members must contend with their flesh. In other words, there is no such thing as a perfect church because there are no perfect people. There will always be chinks in the armor, not just among a few members, but in each individual member as well.

Yet, churches must strive for perfection, or they will die. Imperfection is a good reason to strive to be better, not an excuse to quit trying to improve.

Like gravity, the flesh is always present and always pulling us down. Standing upright and doing right require resisting gravity every day of our lives. Churches will die if the members in churches do not resist the flesh and the constant pull to lower standards of commitment to Christ.

But churches must balance their vision for perfection with realistic expectations. We cannot beat ourselves up for our imperfections and remain healthy. We cannot beat each other up and still be healthy. If we as churches hope to survive into the future, we must strive to be better, or we will die. But we should strive for perfection with compassion. We are weak and frail, and we fail. So for churches to be healthy, members must help each other back up in order to keep moving forward.

The key to moving forward and making our church better is improving our commitment to Christ to be better for Him. As we each strive to be better, the church will be better. Better members make better churches.

I know that many churches have been struggling with their mission to save and disciple souls. But some churches are fulfilling their mission and enjoying the blessings of success. Some churches have resorted to increasing their membership with drive-through options, and others with pep squads. Some are hiring marketing professionals.

Personally, I do not fault any of these approaches. I sympathize with the frustration of not being able to attract folks to church. And I do not oppose most things that are done to expose people to the Gospel.

Let’s do whatever it takes to win souls and not fault such efforts. But let’s be wise. Relying on gimmicks to win souls in churches today is not the answer to making a church successful. I use the word gimmick, not because something done is wrong, but because it is not the solution. Gimmicks are a poor substitute for what churches really need.

During the first five years as discipleship director at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church, I studied every discipleship book and lesson in the market. I examined churches and organizations that were reaching souls and making disciples. I discovered that most of what they were doing was not as important as why they were doing it.

Growing groups had commitment. Growing churches had growing members who were committed to Christ and to one another. And their commitment was determined by their love for Christ and for one another.

Acts 2:42 gives us a little glimpse into what the early church was like, even with their imperfections. It says,

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The members in the early church were together. They worked together, they prayed together, and they ate together. They were friends. They were in unity. And what makes for friends like this? They loved one another.

Being in a church with your best friends makes for a strong and fulfilling experience. It is not what you do but the people you are with that is fulfilling. This is what makes a church successful and strong. This is what holds a church together and gives it hope to sustain itself into the future.

Leaving California and the few churches I knew about was not difficult because there were very few friendly connections. I wrote the pastor of the church that I had attended occasionally to tell him that the Lord moved me 1,600 miles away to place me in a church where I could learn what a church should be like.

That pastor was very gracious and sincere. He thanked me for sending him the letter. That church had good people in it, and, as a church, they were striving to win souls and to do right. But my experience was that it was relying on events and gimmicks rather than on relationships. And relying on productions and gimmicks rather than on relationships creates a church ever more dependent on professional performers.

Culturally, coming from Hollywood and a west coast lifestyle, I should have found being in the South difficult. But I didn’t. I found Christ and friends. And one of the things that captured my attention was the sincerity and genuineness of the members at MBBC.

We did not have a paid orchestra, a paid choir, a professional staff of paid church leaders, and a polished facility. MBBC had sincerity. It was a family. And like most families, it wasn’t organized with a paid staff and a choreographed service. We had fun. We enjoyed being with each other. It was somewhat tedious at times, but we laughed at ourselves and kept going.

As 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, love bears all things. And we did. It helps to be young and ignorant. We had more disciples than members. And we did not replace church services with home Bible studies. We did both.

For me, the family church is far more successful and appealing than the commercial church. It is the example given to us in the Bible. This is the strength of good churches. There is nothing commercialized about a family church. It is sincere.

In a family-like church, you learn how to love God and to be yourself in Christ. You learn how to relate to others as they are and not as performers. You learn to listen to God rather than to marketers. You see what is genuine, not what is fabricated to attract you. You see each other, warts and all. But that is what makes us real. We are not performers. We are being ourselves.

I am not saying that it is wrong to want things in your church to be done well. It’s not wrong to do things excellently. It’s not wrong to organize services. The larger a church, the more it needs to give attention to orderliness. And it is not wrong to attract big crowds to hear the Gospel. I think that is wonderful.

But it is wrong to confuse an outreach event with church. Bringing crowds to church is fun and exciting, and I think it is a worthwhile endeavor. But an outreach crowd is not a church membership. Most of those who come do not make up the membership of a church. That is where the confusion comes in and where the presentation of the church is wrong.

An outreach event is conducted by a church for Christ. An outreach event is a ministry of the church. It is not the church. Substituting outreach events for vital church member activities that build church members as a family produces weak churches that become more and more dependent on paid professionals and marketers to keep them going.

I meet people who tell me that they are members of a church. And when I ask them what they do in the church, they usually say, I attend the Sunday service. If that is all membership in a church is about, then what do you call those who attend the movie theater once a week or who stroll through the shopping mall at least once a week?

This is the kind of church environment I was in when I lived in California. This is the kind of church I came out of. It was shallow and uncommitted. The environment created to reach and to minister to the community, with sincere intent, resulted in superficial membership who relied on paid professionals to do the work of the ministry. It was not what I saw in the Bible, and this is why I asked God to show me a “real” church. What I meant by that was a church more like the ones described in the book of Acts, where the members were doing more than just attending a weekly meeting.

A family recognizes its success in how it loves and strives to be better. It accepts family members as they are, not as performers. And we should recognize who we are, what we are, and why we are, so that we do not fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to commercial churches. Our standard as a family church should be the Biblical standard, not the commercial standard.

What does Christ want us to be?

We should ask ourselves, “What does Christ want His churches to be?” The early church was a family church. Its size was the result of friendships built in Christ and time spent together. As a church, we should strive to make ourselves friendlier and more sincere in our walk with Christ.

A friendly church has friendly members. A genuine church has genuine members. A growing church has growing members. And a better church has better church members.

If each one of us will be friendly and genuine, we will have a church that is better, more fulfilling, and more successful, regardless of anything else we may do.