The First Church by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

  A few years ago, archeologists uncovered what they believe to be the remains of THE first church meeting place located in the country of Jordan. The church is in a cave in the ground underneath a church called St. Georgius. Scholars believe this is a church that housed the original disciples of Jesus, and was used in the first decade after Jesus’ death. They found evidence of its use for early Christian rituals. 

 

This first church, we’re told, grew quickly to more than 3000 members. Peter and the other disciples were filled with spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Peter preached one heck of a sermon, and 3000 adult men, plus the women and children in their families, were baptized. Then they began to be church.

This is what their community life looked like:

    A high commitment community; Studied the teaching of the apostles;  Prayed together, worshipped, and praised God; Held possessions in common, pooling their resources so all were cared for;  and·         Shared meals that were a celebration

The Village has many of the traits of this first church. Our Lead Team has developed some plans for our ministry in the next year or two. Tomorrow we are mailing out some information to you. There will be a document called “How Can I Get Connected to The Village?” (And we’ll post it online as well) In that document you will see a list of opportunities for you to help us build a community just like this one. 

You can be part of a new study group to discuss the Sunday Scripture and message after worship – “studying the teaching of the church leader.” That would be me. You will have a chance to talk about what I say and discuss how it applies to your life. We have a new team called “Serving through food” that will help us feed hungry people, pooling our resources to help others. That is one way to pool our resources and share with those in need. There is another team called “Dinners, game nights and outings.” That is so we can eat together and have some fun. The early followers of Jesus shared meals that were a celebration. Disciples get to have fun together. 

There will be a “time, talent and treasure” commitment form where you have an opportunity to say how you will support The Village both with your time and financially in the next year; and what special donation you will give to our Bedrock fund for financial independence. In this way, we will all pool our possessions in common, and pool what we have so that we will have the resources we have to do the ministry that we believe God has given to us.

We believe we have a plan to be the church God put us on this earth to be. It seems like it is lining up pretty well with the community that got started in what is now the country of Jordan. 

However, there is one more trait of that early church that I have not mentioned yet. It is the characteristic that makes a church a church. It is the thing that separates a living, growing, spirit driven church from one that begins to turn into just another gathering of a group of people who could be any group of people – a country club, or the Kiawanis, or a softball league. What separates the church of Jesus Christ from some other support group. This thing is what we call “Communitas.”

Mission focused church guru, Allan Hirsch uncovered the term “communitas” back in 2001 but he got it from an anthropologist named Victor Turner who wrote about it back in 1969. The idea is that a community does not really reach this rich, deep level of what we call communitas, until we endure some kind of challenge that puts us out on the edge together. (article by Michael Frost, http://www.lutheranrenewal.org/newsletters/1106.pdf) 

Turned explain, that in Zambia, in tribal life, the older boys, at a certain time in life were sent out of the village into the jungle to fend for themselves. They “were visited regularly by the community’s holy men to be taught the lore and learning of adulthood.” When they were brought back to the village, after then had been in this sort of “limbo” stage, they reported that they had formed a bond with one another. The sense of community they felt with one another, having been through this intense experience of living out in the jungle, being mentored by the elders, gave them a deeper connection than what we would normally call community. This deeper thing was giving the name communitas.  

What we have come to understand, is that when you take a group of people who are already in a community, and then you take them out to do something that stretches them, takes them outside of what is comfortable, and sort of puts them in limbo, and gives them a shared experience, they form a deep bond. 

Although this anthropology may seem somewhat obscure, the concept of communitas isn’t as unusual as it first appears. You don’t have to be in a Village in Zambia’s jungle to experience this. We all know that when people are thrown into a challenge, an ordeal, they develop a much deeper sense of communion. Think of any group of people in a state of being on the edge, in a state of separation from what is familiar, and in all likelihood they will have experienced a deeper sense of community than those in mainstream society.

We know it happens, for example, when people go on a mission trip, or even when people are thrown into a crisis with a group of people and have a face a challenge. People form a bond.  You are separated from the usual, facing challenges that help you form a bond.  You never forget this bond and you can face things you’ve never faced before.

So, think now, about the first church. They did not stay in a cave, enjoying comfortable community, sharing good meals, and uplifting praise and worship. Soon they broke down into mission teams and went out as evangelists. They went far and wide to places they had never been. Some went to places they had never heard of. I read this week that Joseph of Arimathea, the guy who gave his tomb for Jesus, actually went all the way to England, right after Jesus died, and he planted the first church there.  I can’t imagine how long it took him to get there. It was risky and bold to travel across the world, even to the next country, to tell people about Jesus, to form the first churches. 

They formed communitas. Going out and being separate from one another, was HUGE. It would have been so much easier to stay in that wonderful comfortable community: They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

What a wonderful community – taking care of each other – turning inward and loving one another as Jesus loved them. But Jesus did not love them so they could be a only a closed community. Jesus wants his communities to spread – to be communitas. This means that even though we care for one another, we care called to push ourselves to the edges of our comfort and consider – who is out there that Jesus wants to send us to?

Which brings me to The Village, Did you know that original vision for The Village was to be a network of progressive churches across Northwest Ohio and to start five worship services or communities in the first five years? Okay, my original vision was a bit overly ambitious. But perhaps we can start one every five years. That would mean that it’s getting to be time to think about the next one.

There are more people in Lucas County and Wood County, over in Fulton County, and across the border in Michigan who need a church like The Village. They need community and we need to be communitas for them. There are people who drive from further than those places to get here.  A few of us could go out as missionaries and start something new. It could be another church that looks much like The Village. But it could be something much simpler.

All across the country, churches like ours are starting house churches and small communities that are extensions of the mother church. Groups of 15 to 30 people could meet and watch the video of our worship message and have their own discussion in response. They could to acts of service together in their own towns. They could be community for one another without having to drive all the way to Toledo to be part of The Village.

The precise vision of what God is calling us to do is not clear to me, because it can’t be my vision, it has to be OUR vision. But I want to pray about it, and I invite you to pray with me. I believe that God might be calling some of you out there in our congregation, to be comunitas.  

Because you see, if that first church had become a closed community, and stayed inside a cave, and turned inward we would not be here. For 2,000 years, people have come to know that God loves them because people have reached outside their communities, and taken risks to reach new people. I believe it is because of the deep love, and the care and the warm wonderful feeling we experience inside this community that we are propelled out into the world to share that love. We can’t keep it to ourselves.

I find this idea of Communitas really compelling – this deeper form of community that calls us beyond ourselves to share God’s love with those who don’t know it. Let’s pray and talk about this over the next few weeks and months. Let’s talk about it together over the coming weeks and months. Let’s ask God what it might looks for us to be 21^st century missionaries in NW Ohio, in a way that is authentic for us. How can we spread the wonderful sense of community we have here inside The Village, out there, to reach others? I know it sounds big and bold and risky. It was big and bold and risky to get us here.  But with God’s help, anything is possible. Communitas is big and bold and risky. Communitas is why we are here. It is how the first church moved out of this cave. Let’s pray about it, and let’s see what God will show us. Amen.