Please note that this article is the fourth article derived from a five-part teaching series on the Nature of the Local Church given in Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the audio of which can be found here.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47)
‘No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’ These now famous words, published in 1624 by John Donne, a poet and Anglican cleric, are often used to express the fact that we cannot merely think of ourselves as isolated individuals. Our lives are interrelated, not isolated. Each of us lives within complex webs of contacts and connections that we call communities.
When we use the word community, we can mean various things. Growing up in Northern Ireland, community was used to refer to the political grouping that you belonged to, whether unionist or nationalist. These communities took on physical form in locations, with different communities living in different locations, the colour of the painted pavements and flags on lampposts ensuring you know exactly whose territory you were in. Here in London, community take on a distinctly non-geographic character. While hundreds might gather on a Saturday morning for a park run, happily swapping stories with each other beforehand, the same people will likely avoid eye contact in the hallways of their buildings, and certainly do on the tube! Community in central London revolves more around activities than it does areas. However, no matter what you associate with the word community, at its very heart it is a ‘a group of people having a particular characteristic, attitude or interest in common’.
We previously identified the local church as being a group of Christians partnering together in a locality and committing to the apostles’ doctrine, the fellowship, the gatherings and the prayers. The local church is by its very nature a community of commitment, with these common commitments at the very heart of every healthy local church.
However, the community created by the local church grows on beyond these common commitments. Or perhaps better, grows on from these common commitments. Because we believe certain things, and do certain things, we become a certain thing. A community with certain characteristics. A true commitment to the apostles’ doctrine and to the local church will inevitably produce certain fruit in our life together. Such commitments have consequences. And if we are committed to the same doctrine and principles as the early church, we can expect to see similar consequences in our community. The lenses of culture and the centuries will mean that our community will not look exactly like what is described in Acts 2:44-47. However, with the underlying universal and timeless principles running underneath we should expect similar communal fruit even in the 21st century.
Two particular characteristics of the early church community are identified in verse 44, before then being expanded and reversed in verses 45-47. They are communal presence and communal possessions.
1. Communal Presence (v46-47)
The original band of Jesus’ disciples were a closely knit community. Not only had they spent several years together during Christ’s ministry, but they had dealt with the tragedy of his death and the triumph of his resurrection alongside one another. Therefore, in many ways it is unremarkable that at the start of the book of Acts we see a community that had a communal presence in each other’s lives (Acts 1:14; 2:1).
However, it is remarkable that this characteristic of the community is not limited to the original disciples, but is replicated almost immediately by the thousands of new Christians after Pentecost. Right from the beginning the local church exists as a community where strangers from different backgrounds and places form close relationships and spend time with each other.
‘And all who believed were together…’ (2:44). The statement that they were ‘together’ may imply a unity beyond that of mere location, referring the fellowship and partnership that they had together. However, it is this aspect of ‘being in the same place’ (Bock) or doing activities together that is picked up in the narrative (2:46).
We previously thought about the gatherings of the local church, those times where the whole community came together and had a meal. The main time probably occurred weekly (Acts 20:7). However, what we see in this community in not just that they had a weekly presence in each other’s lives. Rather, we are told that they had a daily presence. They would day by day spend time with each other.
What did they do together? We are told that they spent time together both publically and privately. Publically they would go to the temple courts – which we see throughout the book of Acts (3:11; 5:12). There were few places in the city that could hold that size of a crowd at one time – but the temple, and specifically Solomon’s Portico, was one of them. This became a gathering place for the early Christian church.
However, they would not only gather publically, but they would also gather privately. ‘Breaking bread in their homes…’ we seen previously that this refers to a common time of fellowship over food. Intentionally coming together and spending hours with one another. Not as a gathering of the whole community, but little communities within the larger body, they were with each other and involved in each other’s lives on a daily basis. These disciples were devoted to daily discipleship.
This picture we are given here of the first church community is replicated throughout the rest of the Bible. You can’t read the book of Acts and fail to see the integration of Christians, the communal presence they had in eachothers lives, living and journeying together. Whether it is Peter and John travelling to the Temple together (3:1) or Paul and Barnabas travelling the known world, whether it is Paul staying in the homes of believers (15:16) or Christians like Priscilla and Aquila taking Apollos aside to disciple him (18:27). The local church is a community that are involved in each other’s lives, they have a consistent communal presence together, they are daily discipling each other.
One of the most iconic TV shows for our generation was Friends. Set in New York, it involved six friends who lived and hung out together. Right now you might be picturing the early church like an episode of Friends. They always seemed to be hanging out in the same café, loafing around having fun and living life together. It is the kind of community some of you may have had at school or university or where you grew up. You seemed to spend all your time with a certain group of friends, with hom you formed deep and lasting relationships.
There are certainly some similarities with such groups, for they too are communities. Communities that also have a communal presence in the lives of their members. However, the church is far more than that. Not only does this communal presence result in social good, but far better than that, it causes spiritual good. We are not just seeking to meet each other’s needs as friends, but as fellow children of God. When we look at the gatherings of the early church, when we examine what they are see doing together we see that they pray with, teach, encourage, discipline and share with each other. Spiritual life rather than social life was the aim of their communal presence.
PRINCIPLE 8: The local church is a community of people with a regular public and private presence in each others lives, resulting in both social and spiritual good.
Two clear consequences of this principle are immediately apparent: Christians are reliant and receptive.
Christians are reliant. No Christian is an island entire of itself; every Christian is a piece of the church, a part of the main. I don’t want to sound needy, but I need you. And I don’t want to sound arrogant, but you need me. That is, we need each other. It’s not just that if we are to thrive as a church, we have got to spend time together. Rather, if we are to survive as Christians, we have got to spend time together. That is the emphasis that the New Testament puts on this kind of daily discipleship.
When faced with the daunting prospect of unbelief, disobedience, failure in the Christian life, the writer to the Hebrews instruct his hearers to watch and exhort one another (Hebrews 3:12-13). So deceitful is sin, so twisted are our hearts that we can kid ourselves into believing and behaving contrary to God’s word. In those moments we need the right people to say the right things and to point us in the way to go. Is that not what James envisages? That the people of God will bring the wanderer back into the fold (James 5:19-20). If you wandered off this week, who have you got to bring you back? Have you opened your life off in such a way that somebody will catch, confront and comfort you? Our perseverance in our Christian lives in a large part will depend on having people in our Christian lives. ‘Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.’ (Proverbs 27:17). Our Christianity is a community project.
It’s not just that you need to show up to a church service every now and then, when work or your life allow you to. We need to be part of a community of Christians that have a communal presence in each other’s lives, intentionally spending time together as a whole, and in little groups in the form of daily discipleship. In the words of Bono, sometimes you can’t make it on your own. I need you, we need eachother.
Christians are reliant, but they are also receptive. I live in London, arguably the greatest city in the world. However, while whether it is the greatest city or not is up for debate, it was recently named the loneliest city in the world. London is a lonelier place to live than New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, Rome and every other major city in the world. London is one of the loneliest places to live on the planet.
Against such a backdrop, how beautiful would a community that is receptive to outsiders be? And not only receptive, but responsive. Not only bearing with outsiders, but befriending them. If Jesus was called the friend of sinners, should we be anything less? And not just sinners, but also other saints. Befriending our brothers and sisters in Christ, being receptive to them when they happen to come by our church.
With the cultural context around us, what an opportunity we have to be salt and light. Jesus said that the world would know that we are his disciples by the love that we have for one another (John 13:35). Is that how the world knows us? How glorious would it be is the gospel was made powerfully visible in our interactions with outsiders through our communal presence.
2. Communal Possessions (v45)
If the first characteristic of this community focused on relationships, the second focused on resources. Not only were the early church generous with their presence, but they were also generous with their possessions. If the characteristic that confirms to the world that we are God’s children is love, well surely next to friendship in this lonely city the other striking way this is apparent is that in a city chasing prosperity and material comfort, we would hold our possessions and money loosely.
I blessed to grow up in a family where such a communal attitude to possessions was common. My father and his three older brothers grew up in economic circumstances requiring them to not only share toys and rooms, but hand-down clothes and beds. Despite each of them having successful careers and a number of them now being comfortably retired, this attitude to their possession has never really changed. Perhaps the most obvious current example relates to their shared love of gardening, for which they all share tools and equipment. For example, there is one trailer, chain-saw, hedge cutter and scaffolding set between them all. When it came to the time of year to cut the hedges, you would go for a quick trip round each of the houses and pick up what you needed. Even if they weren’t at home, you knew where the key for the garage was and that you could borrow whatever you needed.
In some ways the attitude of the community of the early church was similar. However, it also went beyond simply allowing brothers and sisters to use our belonging. The early church actually sold their possession and used the money to support each other. Not only is this a feature of the early church, but we see it also in Paul’s ministry. To the Ephesians he could say and remind them, ‘You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those that were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’’ (Acts 20:34-35). The precious time and energy of the Apostle Paul was spent not only providing for his own needs, but the needs of those who ministered alongside him.
Lest any fear that such an attitude is incompatible with the Western capitalist system, these acts were not some form of early communism. The church did not seize the goods of its members to provide for others. It didn’t have to – the members themselves were only too ready to meet the needs of others when they appeared. The giving was voluntary (Acts 4:31-5:11) and needs based. ‘As any had need…’ is the theme that reappears later when Luke records that ‘there was not a needy person among them…’ (Acts 4:34).
PRINCIPLE 9: The local church is a community of people which seeks to generously meet the needs of its members, whatever those needs may be.
As a community we are not only called to be reliant and receptive, we are also called to be responsive. Responsive to the needs of each other. Again this means that we must be involved enough in the lives of our brothers and sisters to know their needs. It also means that we should be open enough with our brothers and sisters to not hide our needs from them. Not everyone in our church is a lawyer, banker or consultant.
Or are they? If it is the case that our local church is largely made up of university educated, comfortably-paid, middle class members of society, we must surely ask ourselves the question, where are the needy? For while many of our local church communities are made up of such individuals, the wider communities in which we live are not. The reason that there was not a needy person among the early church wasn’t because none of them had any need, it was because they all had had their needs met. Today it is perhaps more likely that we are struggling to find needs to meet within our local church communities not because we have been over generous with our resources but because we have been under generous with our relationships, failing to break down barriers of entry for less privileged brothers and sisters or share the gospel with non-university educated working class neighbours.
A Mirror not a Masterplan
From the very beginning of this series I have stressed the importance of focusing on the principles within the early church rather than the practices. This is because the practices are simply cultural expressions of the underlying principles, cultural expressions that will not necessary be a faithful outworking of those principles in a different culture and century. However, we also must careful that having identified these principles that we use them in the right way. These principles are ultimately a mirror to be looked in not a master plan to be actioned.
Anybody who has tried to play a musical instrument knows that there are two types of musician: there are musicians and there are musicians. That is, there are some of us who can pick up an instrument and play a few songs. There are others who can pick up an instrument and play it. Some can sit down at a piano and follow the sheet music set in front of them, others can sit down and write that sheet music from scratch. Many musicians are copists, only a few a composers.
When we see characteristics like these set out for us, we must seek to be composers rather than copists. We should be aiming to be the kind of community that has these characteristics, not just a community with these characteristics. These characteristic, if they are to flourish and rather than flounder over time, must grow naturally out of the life of the local church. These characteristics cannot be artificially planted by a change in program and budget. Even if a change in program and budget is what is practically required, for such changes to last these must come from a change of heart. It is ultimately only a change of heart that will cause us to loosen our grip on our material resources and invest in our relationships rather than ourselves. Unfortunately, because it is heart work, it is hard work. However, in the Word of God and prayer we have the tools for such a work. And by looking at the community of the local church in Acts 2 and asking ourselves the difficult questions, I believe that we have found a starting point.
NOTE: For a far better assessment of the community of the local church and how to begin to compose that kind of community within your local church, please read 'Compelling Community - Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive' by Jamie Dunlop and Mark Dever. This book has been extremely helpful as I considered this topic and series in general. For what to do next as a result, see Jamie Dunlop's article here.
ALEXANDER ARRELL