Not Putting Up Obstacles

Yesterday we looked at how Jesus learned and grew and changed, particularly in the face of learning from a woman from a different culture than him. The early church followed his model.

The early church stuck around Jerusalem and reached out to the local Jewish population there. Then some folks moved up to Antioch and ‘accidentally’ reached out to some Greeks who became Christians. The Apostle Paul jumped in on the action and started freely connecting with non-Jewish people, which caused quite the scandal.

So the church called its first council, the Council in Jerusalem, which we read about in Acts 15. After hearing stories of what God was up to in the lives of people who were of different ethnicities, the Council made a huge decision about their role in what God was doing outside of their preexisting conceptions:

We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. - Acts 15:19

First they recognized that outsiders were turning to God. Then they recognized that they had been the ones putting up obstacles to God’s work in these outsiders… and they needed to change their ways.

Just like Jesus, they learned and grew and changed.

Where do you sense the church in general needs to grow in not making it difficult for others to turn to God? Where you you think our church puts up those obstacles? And how about you personally - what would be a simple step for you to take to not make it difficult for outsiders to become insiders?