I think verses 43 and 47 are the key to a truly successful community. You need that sense of collective purpose and achievement, that momentum is on your side.
However, ordinary Christian communities live in a completely different fashion compared to how the Apostles are described as living. These tenets may be the idealized pillars of a Christian community, but they are emphatically not the pillars that have held up the Christian church for the past 2 millennia. It may be that the Apostles’ style of life, although optimised for short-term success, is not the key to perpetuating communities over much longer periods.
However, ordinary Christian communities live in a completely different fashion compared to how the Apostles are described as living.
That may be true for firmly established communities.But this sermon was held at a small new community. And I guess whenever new communities e.g. in new municipalities form this process repeats.
I do not think the Apostolic process repeats when new Christian communities are formed. Some of these pillars may be followed, but not all. In particular:
New Christian communities do not normally work on the basis of sharing everything they own and giving each other everything they need, although this has occasionally been tried (e.g. the disastrous results at Plymouth).
New Christian communities do not normally work on the basis of being together always, or meeting every day. This is too intense for most people.
New Christian communities are not necessarily respected by their non-Christian neighbours—indeed, they often draw strength from a sense of adversity.
Essentially, this lifestyle is too demanding and requires too high a level of trust for all but the most committed believers. Some monastic communities manage it (although even there you see failures), but otherwise it’s impractical. Indeed, the strength of Christianity is that although in theory everyone is supposed to pick up their Cross and follow Jesus, in practice it gives space for multiple levels of commitment. So the preacher can urge the community to be more like the apostles, and even point to real examples of Christians living that way, which acts as an ideal for the new community to aspire to. But at the same time, the community doesn’t actually go that far, which would result in their destruction by free-riders.
I think verses 43 and 47 are the key to a truly successful community. You need that sense of collective purpose and achievement, that momentum is on your side.
However, ordinary Christian communities live in a completely different fashion compared to how the Apostles are described as living. These tenets may be the idealized pillars of a Christian community, but they are emphatically not the pillars that have held up the Christian church for the past 2 millennia. It may be that the Apostles’ style of life, although optimised for short-term success, is not the key to perpetuating communities over much longer periods.
That may be true for firmly established communities.But this sermon was held at a small new community. And I guess whenever new communities e.g. in new municipalities form this process repeats.
I do not think the Apostolic process repeats when new Christian communities are formed. Some of these pillars may be followed, but not all. In particular:
New Christian communities do not normally work on the basis of sharing everything they own and giving each other everything they need, although this has occasionally been tried (e.g. the disastrous results at Plymouth).
New Christian communities do not normally work on the basis of being together always, or meeting every day. This is too intense for most people.
New Christian communities are not necessarily respected by their non-Christian neighbours—indeed, they often draw strength from a sense of adversity.
Essentially, this lifestyle is too demanding and requires too high a level of trust for all but the most committed believers. Some monastic communities manage it (although even there you see failures), but otherwise it’s impractical. Indeed, the strength of Christianity is that although in theory everyone is supposed to pick up their Cross and follow Jesus, in practice it gives space for multiple levels of commitment. So the preacher can urge the community to be more like the apostles, and even point to real examples of Christians living that way, which acts as an ideal for the new community to aspire to. But at the same time, the community doesn’t actually go that far, which would result in their destruction by free-riders.