God answered my prayer! He allowed me to lead two New Testament churches for more than thirteen years. Sometimes it might be best if God spared us by answering some of our youthful prayers with a resounding no! But in my case He answered yes and allowed me to experience the gamut of pastoral leadership in two contrasting settings—as pastor of a traditional church in a conservative community and church-planting pastor in a secular city.

In my idealistic zeal to pastor a church modeled after those described in the Bible (as I imagined them), it never occurred to me to study the New Testament churches before praying to pastor one like them. My naïve assumption was that biblical church life was idyllic—with the early church following Jesus "from victory unto victory" as a historic hymn suggests. During college and seminary courses, I discovered the truth about those memorable congregations. With rare exception they were a mess! Moral failure, doctrinal divisions, personality cults, and divisive fellowship were the norm. That's why, as it turned out, the churches I served were New Testament churches. They, no we, were a mess—starting with the pastor and including everyone from the preschoolers to the patriarchs. We were similar to many New Testament churches at one time or another and in one dysfunctional way or another.

This may sound like a diatribe against my former churches. It's not. The church (expressed as local churches) is God's eternal plan, the summation of His redemptive work, and its glorification the culmination of history. Local churches, warts and all, are God's strategy for advancing His kingdom. The incredible and certain future of the church means giving your life in church leadership is a worthwhile investment. Taking an honest look at first-century churches doesn't diminish their significance or the value we place on churches today. Instead, it increases our appreciation for churches, then and now, by giving us a more realistic vision of actual church life. First-century churches were flawed, but they also changed their world and ours.

In today's church we seem to have the "flawed" part down pat. It's the "change the world" part we are struggling to emulate. While many biblical churches had struggles and shortcomings, their portrayal paints a backdrop for understanding one remarkable New Testament congregation presented as a healthier model—First Church, Antioch. While it also had its problems, it rose above them to change its world and ours, extending its influence through the centuries. To understand how remarkable this church really was, let's overview the record of some other first-century churches.

Jeff Iorg, The Case for Antioch (Nashville: B&H, 2011).

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