Core Practice::Biblical Community

We fellowship with other Christians to accomplish God’s purposes in our lives, others’ lives, and in the world.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:44-47

Go back and read that passage again. It's radical. The first followers of Christ took this community thing really, really far. They had major skin in the game: money, time, property. They lived very communally. This is not a recipe for some kind of government social program. These were believers who knew each other in the neighborhood. They hung out together, shared meals together, praised God together. They loved God and loved each other sacrificially. Their spiritual development was not compartmentalized. They learned information about following Jesus in a context of close relationship and mutual care.

What would that look like in my neighborhood? If the family from that church, and that church, and my church started being the church in my neighborhood, we could get close. If we started sharing meals together, sharing our stuff if we needed it, spending casual time together, talking about the Scriptures with each other, challenging each other to grow. If one of us sold some of our stuff because another one of us was in need.... It would make headlines, because people just don't do that.

I'm thrilled to say that the seeds of that kind of life are sprouting in my neighborhood. We know who the other believers are on our block. We have been blessed with one other family who has taken the plunge with us. All our neighbors don't share our vision or even understand it, but some do. We PLAY together, BELONG to a degree. We don't' GROW together or SERVE together much yet, but we're getting there. In many cases, relationships take time and repeated investment.

How to get started:

1. Get to know people in the neighborhood (which itself is major step for some of us).
2. Pray for and identify one other person or family in your neighborhood who is a Christ-follower, who you think may be willing to pursue biblical community with you.
3. Agree to devote yourselves to the four functions: PLAY, BELONG, GROW, and SERVE together, which fulfill the practices of the first Christians in Acts 2. You might start with just sharing meals periodically, and build from there.

Parenting this practice:

Biblical community is more caught that taught with kids. How our kids define community will depend on what they experience. Because most of us were raised to believe that biblical community was about attendance at church functions, we struggle with the ideas mentioned above. If our kids, however, experience true biblical community in our homes and neighborhoods, it will be a no-brainer for them as adults. I already see this happening, and it is very cool.