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01.  Simple, Not Easy

In October 2002, I planted Providence Community ChurchSermons from Providence Community Church can be found at https://providence-community-church.sermoncloud.com/ (access 13 February 2023). in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. From the outset I knew that I wanted this church to be different from much of what I had seen and experienced. I wanted it to reflect the type of community that I read about in the book of Acts, but had rarely experienced in the church. Mindful of the fact that I live in a very different time and culture than the one present in the book of Acts, I set out to shape a culture that would be driven by theological convictions on community rather than pragmatic approaches.

It took a lot of time and energy to accomplish this, but by God’s grace our church began to reflect the sort of churches that we were reading about in the New Testament. It was a slow and painful process that required us to rethink success. We gave up worrying about how many people attended on Sundays and became far more interested in the number of people sharing their lives, their food, and their homes with one another.

As time went on, a number of church planters and other pastors became interested in our way of being church. Many of them would contact me because they had heard about what we were doing and they wanted to know how to do it. Some of them would even come and spend time with our church, simply hoping to learn by being with us. I always took time to explain that “doing church” the way we did it was not easy. It was simple, but it was not easy.

It was simple because we didn’t have a lot of programs or events. We simply lived our lives in each other’s homes, sharing meals together as a regular rhythm of life. On average, my wife and I would have people in our home about four nights a week (in a ten-year period that is around two thousand meals shared in our house). But, you see, that is also where it is not easy. It is much easier to put “fellowship” on a church calendar and in its specifically designed location, “the fellowship hall.” Opening our lives to others was not easy, but we believed it was necessary.

Churches, and individuals, typically do things for purely pragmatic reasons. As long as something is working we will continue to do it, but if it stops working or becomes too difficult, then we quickly move on to something different. This is very true of the way many churches “do community.”

For many churches, especially in the West, community has been reduced to a value and a program. This is the result of community being merely a pragmatic concept rather than a theological necessity. We believed that community was a theological necessity, and therefore we kept going even when it was painful or difficult. We patterned our whole way of thinking and living by looking at the gospel preached by the apostles and the way the early church lived in response to that message.

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02.  The Gospel and the Early Christian Community

Sadly, very few people are originally exposed to a gospel message that has anything to do with the in-breaking of God’s kingdom into the world in the person of Jesus. For many, the gospel is typically thought of as an eternal transaction, a way to be forgiven so that “I can go to heaven when I die.” The gospel has been reduced to “Four Spiritual Laws” or “The Roman Road” or “The Plan of Salvation.” The result is that the gospel has become about me and my life after death (heaven and hell), but not about us and our life during life.

The gospel preached by the apostles centered on the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the exaltation of Jesus. It was not simple advice, or just another option; rather, it was a royal announcement—Jesus is now king—that demanded repentance and allegiance to Jesus. The apostles taught that the Holy Spirit had been poured out on God’s people—an end-time event signaling the restoration of God’s people; because Jesus had been exalted on his throne as Israel’s king and the world’s true Lord, therefore all people everywhere all called to reorient their life to Jesus (repentance) and show their allegiance to him (baptism).

It is this gospel that is preached by Peter in Acts 2. When Peter preaches the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus, the people are “cut to the heart” and ask how they should respond (verse 37). Peter’s reply is, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (verse 38, NRSVScripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition, copyright © 1989, 2021 The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.). We are then told, in verse 41 (NRSV), “those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.”

There are a couple of things we should really take notice of. First, when Peter preached the gospel it was not about going to heaven after one’s death. It was about the exaltation and present reign of Jesus, and therefore had major implications for life during life, not simply life after death. Second, we are told that those who responded “were added.” The NIVAll Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ translates this as “added to their number [emphasis added].” I think the NIV’s addition of “to their number” is helpful. When we think of the gospel as being about how to get into heaven after we die, we can easily see this verse as meaning that three thousand souls were “added to the book of life” or “onto the guest list” of eternity. This is in no way suggesting that the gospel does not have implications for life after death. The gospel has huge implications for life after death, but it also has huge implications for life during life. These three thousand people who repented and were baptized were added into the Christian community. This meant that their lives, as lived in the present, on earth, were reoriented not only to Jesus, but also to the community of Jesus’ followers.

The story in Acts 2 moves from the preaching of the gospel to the response of the people and then on to the communal life of these people.

 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved (verses 42–47, NRSV).

 

The first thing we discover about the early Christians is that they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. What were the apostles teaching? They were teaching the gospel, as described above. This means they were teaching the community about the present reign of Jesus and how their lives were to be lived as citizens of his kingdom.

The second thing we discover from this passage is that the early Christians were devoted to fellowship.

 

They devoted themselves to . . . fellowship [koinonia], to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . All who believed were together and had all things in common [koinos]; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts (verses 42, 44–47, emphasis added).

 

The word “fellowship” has a much richer meaning in the New Testament than it oftentimes carries today. Many of us think of fellowship as simply gathering for a potluck meal. Koinonia is the Greek word that we translate as fellowship, and it meant communion, commonness, togetherness, or oneness. Notice the similarity between the Greek word koinonia (fellowship) and the Greek word koinos (common) in the passage above. To say that the early Christians were devoted to fellowship is to say that they were devoted to one another—they were together and had all things in common.

Now, notice three things about this commonness as described in Acts 2:

First, all who believed were together and had all things in common. This was not just the way of life for the radicals. There was no such modern division as believers and disciples in the early church. Remember, the “all who believed” are the three thousand who were baptized and added to their number. This was simply normal Christianity.

Second, all who believed were together and had all things in common. Another description of the early Christian community captures this point well, “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32, NRSV). To say they were together is to say that they were one. They truly were family and lived as such.

Third, all who believed were together and had all things in common. For the early Christians, community was defined by their love for one another, which manifested itself in their care for one another. This is where the community’s dual devotion comes strongly into play—they were devoted to both the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship. As the apostles were teaching the community how to live as disciples of Jesus, they were teaching the things that Jesus had taught. Central to Jesus’ teaching was that his disciples were to love one another.

 

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34–35, NRSV).

 

The way in which Jesus’ disciples were to love one another was the way in which he had loved them, by sacrificing oneself for the good of the other. That is exactly the way we see the early Christians loving each other in Acts 2 and in Acts 4. Just as Jesus loves the church by allowing her to share in his life and his possessions, so the early church loved one another by sharing in one another’s lives and possessions.

This way of understanding the gospel and the nature of Christian community should serve as the basis for thinking and living in all Christian communities. Furthermore, understood in this way, it is impossible to speak of community as a value or a program in the early church. Community was not a pragmatic concept, but a theological necessity in response to the preaching of the gospel. Jesus was the risen and exalted Lord, and those whom he called were called into his kingdom. A kingdom-focused gospel demands not only devotion to Jesus, but also devotion to Jesus’ people as faithful citizens in his kingdom.

So what does it look like to embrace this way of thinking and living in our Western context? To answer that question, let’s return to the church I planted.

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03.  Believe, Belong, Bless

After we spent time as a church studying the book of Acts, we developed a set of core practices that would shape our life together. In response to what we saw in Acts 2, we felt that there were three things we could say about the life of the early church—they were devoted to the gospel message, the gospel community, and the gospel mission. We wanted to be devoted to the same things that the early church was devoted to. We wanted these three things to be more than just confessional values. We wanted them to be functional practices.

Confessional values are those things that I confess and value, but don’t necessarily participate in. Let’s take football as an example. To say I am a huge football fan would be an understatement. I’m a fanatic who borders on idolatry! I love high school football, college football, and professional football. I watch as many games as possible every weekend during the fall, and I help coach the Dallas Cowboys from my couch on Sundays (they are obviously unaware of this). It is true, I confess, I love football and value it greatly. However, I do not practice football, as I am not a participant on any team.

Functional practices are different. These are things that I not only value, but also participate in. I confess, I love my wife and kids, and I practice being a husband and father every day by participating in their lives.

In our church, we wanted not only to value the gospel message, community, and mission, but also to practice them every day by participating in them. So we developed a simple way of describing these functional practices—Believe, Belong, Bless.

As a church we wanted to be characterized by believing the gospel and so our first practice is Believe. Believing is meant to convey a continuous, ongoing commitment to the gospel—living in the reality that Jesus is the reigning Lord and we are citizens of his kingdom. This means that we want to abide in Christ, who is the source of all life. Because of our commitment to practice believing the gospel, we as a community must be committed to living with as the people of God with a new identity, new allegiances, and new values.

In terms of new identity, we must no longer live with regard for ourselves, but with regard for others. We must no longer live with regard for sin, but with regard for righteousness. We must be known only in relation to Jesus as we abide in him.

Next, in terms of new allegiances, our personal loyalty must be to Jesus rather than to ourselves. Our familial loyalty must now be thought of in relation to the church and not just our families of origin. And, one that is very difficult for Americans, our political loyalty must now be to the kingdom of God rather to our country.

Finally, in terms of new values, we must now value the rights of others over our own rights. We must value giving to others over acquiring for myself. And we must value serving rather than being served.

It is not enough to confess these things; the community must practice them each and every day.

We also wanted our church to be characterized by belonging to one another, and so our second practice is Belong. Belonging is meant to convey a continuous, ongoing commitment to one another. When we hear the word, “belong,” it implies possession or ownership. Recognizing that the language of possession and ownership may be offensive to modern sensibilities, it helps convey more of the New Testament sense of what it mean to be in community. As we saw above, fellowship carried with it the notion of commonness and oneness. When someone takes something from us we say, “That belongs to me.” We wanted it to be clear in our church that community meant belonging to one another, devotion to one another. I am for you and you are for me. This understanding of being for one another leads directly to our third and final practice, Bless. We wanted to be characterized by being a blessing to our city and to the world. Blessing is meant to convey a continuous, ongoing commitment to the welfare of the city we live in and the greater mission of the gospel in and throughout the world. We believe that this commitment to gospel mission is best achieved through being an incarnational community of love.

The result of the early Christians’ devotion to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship was that “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47, NRSV). When we talk about belonging to one another, we do so because of our love for one another, but also because of our love for Jesus and the mission of the gospel. Failing to connect the mission of the gospel to the community of the gospel is a big part of why so many Christians struggle to remain an active part of Christian community in a local church. The mindset of so many Christians is that the community exists for me. Therefore when the community is no longer meeting their needs in the way they think it should, they cease participating in community and see the church as no longer relevant to them. When we understand the connection between mission and community, we see ourselves as existing for the community because the community exists for the mission of the gospel. This understanding of community makes my needs secondary and my gifts primary. The community needs my gifts, and to the extent that each member of the community exercises his or her gifts will result in the needs of each member actually being met, along with the needs of the world.

These three practices—believe, belong, bless—are simply the ways in which we tried to respond to the gospel in our context. The way others do it will certainly look different, as God has gifted the church with much creativity. The important thing is that we realize that all Christians are called to live in community under the reign of Christ. Community is not a value or a pragmatic concept. It is a theological necessity, as it is God’s means for bearing witness to the reality of the gospel.