The First Missional Church - Authentic Community (Part 4)

When people live in authentic community God's kingdom is very appealing to the unchurched world. God created people to live in authentic community with Him and other believers. Jesus taught his followers the importance of creating a place where everyone could live in authentic community.

A passage in the book of Acts which is never overused that describes such a community is Acts 2:43-48: "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the Apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread together 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."

There is no doubt their number grew. God's presence was at a high level and people were entering into authentic community with Him. Part of the reasons His presence was at such a high level was because the people were in authentic community with each other.

This community was described later in Acts 4:32-35 and when the community was broken in Acts 5, two people dropped dead. God loves for His people to live in authentic community.

There is an event in the Restoration Movement which testifies to the power that is unleashed in when there is authentic community. In August of 1801, at Paris, Kentucky, 12,000 people from different denominational backgrounds came together as one. The denominational barriers were removed and a movement of God was unleashed. People came together as one and the kingdom of God was proclaimed. They came together for almost a week living in authentic community.

I sat in John Wimber's office one evening and asked him if he had heard of the Cane Ridge Revival. He responded by saying something like, "Wasn't that an awesome movement of God?" Yes it was. And I believe it was a direct result of Authentic Community.

This is one of the reasons the first missional church made such an impact in the world. With nearly 40,000 denominations world wide we need to pursue authentic community. If we could only be intentional in pursuing the same authentic community we could only imagine how God would move.