Part 4: A New Community

One of the immediate changes that took place in the lives of the newly-converted Christians was the establishment of a new kind of community...

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"For this reason, what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was actually fulfilled in the early church, as were indeed all his words. Fellowship in His Word meant life-creating and life-shaping power. It meant the fellowship of being truly bound together in prayer and in the breaking of bread, of becoming a genuine community, embracing the whole of life. Christ came to gather His people, and thus when the Spirit descended, "All who had come to this faith remained together and had everything in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need (Acts 2:44-45)....
What did the first believers experience? They experienced the kingdom of God — the revolution of all things and the revaluation of all values. They experienced the complete changing of all conidtions and all possibilities, the switching of all relationships in business, state, society, and everywhere. A completely different scale of values took effect, quite different from all other values that had existed so far. God became the highest value; he reigned and revealed himself. Christ replaced the other sovereignties; He swept away the power of lying, of impurity, and of murder, and instead of them the peace of God took hold. This was the expectation and experience of the original church-community....
In Jesus' resurrected presence, the invisible kingdom of God has become visible reality. The word had taken shape, love has become real. Jesus showed what love meant. His word and life proved that love knows no bounds. Love halts at no barrier. It can never be silenced, no matter what circumstances make it seem impossible to practice it. Nothing is impossible for the faith that springs from the fire of love...."
~Taken from "Spirit of Fire" from Innerland: A Guide into the Heart of the Gospel by Eberhard Arnold, Farmington, PA: Plough, 1999. Reprinted in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. 2003, Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA. pp 397-399.
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Please realistically consider the following questions:

• Are you so radically sold out on Christ that you would be willing to give up everything for His glory?
• Are you willing to take the counter-cultural risks in community that the early Church did?
• What are your concerns about this concept of community?

In the next posting, we will consider this community concept in light of our Living Room Conversations family.