In the Book of Acts, Chapter 17, the Apostle Paul, is deep into his second missionary journey, after leaving Jerusalem. He and his companions traveled far to bring the good news of Jesus to those who’d never heard of him before, courageously getting into trouble again and again. At one point, Paul and other Christians are dragged out of a home, and Paul’s opposition declares, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have also come here!”

The movement of the church has taken many twists and turns in our 2,000 year history and the Book of Acts introduces to many of those first changes, as the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples to become apostles … who make more disciples … of every nation, race, gender, age, ability. As you can imagine, and we can read, the church overcame many conflicts in the first few years of its existence from within and without and came to many crossroads as opportunities arose to share the Good News that Jesus came to love all people.

It turned the world upside down then, but how about now? Could we find our way to acting as the church of then to be the church God’s needs for today?