Ingrown Toenail

So I was thinking about the Acts church today. It wasn't so random that I was thinking about this; it's not like I sit around all day and ponder about if this church plant in Takanosu is operating like it should (though maybe sometimes I should...). No, I was just being a good student and doing my homework. (For those of you who didn't know I'm now finishing up CLBI by correspondence.)
I remember in Canada how it seemed to be the trend in churches that they model the so-called 'Acts church' because they seemed to do everything right. But is that really the case? Let's look at it: They shared everything with each other, met often for joint worship and fellowship and grew exponentially. Most people would call that success, and so would I... until today.
What are they missing?
That beginning church was like an ingrown toenail. They were growing and growing and growing...but all inwards. No reaching out beyond themselves as a Jewsish community. No missions. They were getting all cozy in their rapidly growing faith communities, but rarely thought of going out of their comfort zone into Gentile territory.
Eventually they did go "out into the world" as Jesus commissioned them, but look at what it took: a whole lot of hounding from God (through dreams and eye-openers), and persecution. The beginning church faced immense persecution and it got split up. Was this bad? I don't think so. The persecution forced the believers to get out of Jerusalem and actually go, to make disciples of other nations, not just the Jews.
I think the church in North America should get persecuted. Maybe that would flush out all the lukewarm believers, the people who say they believe for two hours on Sunday but blend in with the rest of the world every other hour of the week. Maybe that would open people's eyes so they see that unlike them, 95% of the world doesn't know Christ. Maybe persecution would cause people to actually go. To make a difference. To make them see there's more important things about Christianity than the weekly attendance at their own churches and what color the sanctuary carpet is.
How many churches don't have carpet? How many people don't have a church? And how many people groups don't even know the reason for a church, know Jesus?
I'm not against the Acts church, and I'm not against church; I just think that the rest of the world should know Jesus' love and power ( a responsibility that has been left up to the existing churches by Jesus himself). I think people should get out of their comfort zones and stop being the average 'Jone' that's just trying to keep up.
And I think God should get out his surgical nail clippers and start working on this North American sized ingrown toenail.