Last year, I had the chance to revisit St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York.  This is a church that began construction in 1892 and has no completion date in sight.  It is an amazing church that is over 600 feet long and totals 121,000 square feet.  St. John’s is a gothic church and as such has the usual elements that have always been part of the pattern.  The parts that I recognized are the narthex, the nave, the transept, and the chancel.  As I recall, all gothic churches have these basic elements that cause the floor plan to look like a cross.  It is a simple pattern with an elaborate product on Amsterdam Avenue and 112^th Street in New York City. 

J.A. Bengel was a contemporary of John Wesley.  Bengel was one of the leaders of the German movement encouraging people toward more piety and practice as Wesley was encouraging the English speaking world.  Bengel wrote at the conclusion of his commentary on the Book of Acts, “Here, O church, is your pattern.  It is your responsibility to preserve it and to guard it.”

We have been focusing on Faithfulness to Fruitfulness in the past several weeks.  The five common practices of fruitful congregations have been identified as radical hospitality, passionate worship, risk taking missions and service, extravagant generosity, and faith forming small groups.  Today we look at Faith Forming Small Groups lived out in the pattern of community.  Patterns are important.  Builders examine them often, dressmakers consult them regularly, even preachers recognize the patterns of a sermon. “Here, O church, is your pattern.  It is your responsibility to preserve it and to guard it.”  Listen to how that pattern is expressed at the beginning of the church’s story.  It is found in Acts 2:42-47.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶Day 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, ⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage Luke reported to his readers the primary pattern of the community of faith.  Let us pray.

This is the beginning of the church.  The miracle of Pentecost had just occurred, Peter had just preached a powerful sermon about Jesus, and three thousand people had just been baptized in response to that message.  Now we discover what happened next.  Christ creates community wherever he is proclaimed.  The pattern is simple – Christ creates a learning community, a sharing community, a caring community, and a growing community.  Look at this simple four-fold pattern.
 

First, Christ creates a Learning Community

The first thing we discover about this newly formed church is that the insiders devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.  This is the didache, the instruction for insiders, the next steps for those who had just responded to the grace of Jesus Christ.  Luke distinguishes between the didache, the teaching, and the kerygma, the preaching.  The preaching is what had just happened.  120 people gathered together and prayed.  The Holy Spirit overwhelmed and empowered those who had gathered and there was an emotional, spiritual outburst that continues to amaze readers even as it did the first witnesses.   People were hearing about God’s power in their every language represented.   Some made fun of the Pentecost people, but then Peter stood up with the kerygma, the preaching.  He told them about the Messiah who was promised and only recently present.  He preached about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  They felt the weight of their guilt and the pain of their blindness.  “What must we do?” they cried out in response to the preaching used by the Holy Spirit to cut them to the heart.  It was an emotional moment.  However, the church is not to move from one momentary emotional outburst to the next.  Instead, the church devotes itself to the didache, the teaching, the instructions for those who have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ.

Richard Wilke was serving as the Bishop of the Arkansas Area of the United Methodist Church in 1986.  I am not sure if he made the discovery of a problem while he was a bishop or if he simply saw how deep the problem ran.  The problem was the biblical illiteracy of United Methodists.  We simply did not know the Bible.  This concerned Bishop Wilke to the point that he did something about it.  He and his wife, Julia, and a team of educational experts began working on a curriculum that would introduce United Methodists to the Bible.  He would later confess in a facilitator training that I attended that the Disciple Bible Study had become much more successful than he had ever imagined.  This 34-week study has been completed by nearly two million graduates in more than 10,000 congregations and 30 denominations.  The DISCIPLE series is now available in German, Korean, Spanish, and Chinese.  He reflected that its success was due to the hunger within God’s people for the didache, the teaching, and also for community, as Disciple Bible Study is done in small groups, even as it was in Acts.

The pattern has not changed.  The hunger for teaching and for community are still real.  If you don’t know this book, filled with the apostles’ teaching, start now.  The best place to start is in a small group.  Dr. Gilbert Bilezekian defined a small group as, “a group of people few enough in numbers to sit around in a circle, facing each other and sharing the joy and benefits of togetherness.”  Bishop Robert Schnase, in his book The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, points out, “Growth in faith does not come easily or automatically, but requires placing ourselves in community to learn faith with others.” If you have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ in your life, you are ready for the next step.  Christ creates community wherever he is proclaimed.  Christ creates a learning community.
 

Christ creates a Sharing Community

Luke described the newly formed church as one being lived out in koinonia, fellowship.  I like the word Greek word, “koinonia”, and I like the English word employed in translating koinonia, “fellowship”.  However, they seem to communicate two different things to me.  Fellowship seems to convey coffee and doughnuts.  I love coffee and doughnuts.  I like being invited to the Fellowship Hall because almost always it indicates that there are snacks waiting for me.  Koinonia communicates more of a partnership.  Next month we will send a group of our youth to Mexico to participate in a Spring Break Partners in Missions effort.  Many of you have helped to fund that trip through your participation in the Valentine Banquet last Friday night.  You are in fellowship, koinonia, with them and they are in koinonia with each other as they partner together to minister with each other.  The new church described in Acts is a koinonia, a partnership.  As such they are a sharing community.  St. John Chrysostom, the 4^th Century Bishop of Constantinople wrote, “Observe the increase of piety. They cast away their riches, and rejoiced, and had great gladness, for greater were the riches they received without labor. None reproached, none envied, none grudged; no pride, no contempt was there… The poor man knew no shame, the rich no haughtiness. This is gladness.” This is the description of a sharing community and it has an amazing impact on people.

My first Disciple Bible Study was the result of some shrewd negotiating.  Pat had wanted me to facilitate a Bible Study and I knew Pat possessed the spiritual gift of hospitality.  The deal was struck, “I will lead the study, if you host it.”  She agreed and for the next nine months, we met at Pat and Sonny’s home every Wednesday night.  We watched informative videos, had fruitful conversations, and ate incredible snacks provided by the members of the group on a rotating basis.  There were about 16 of us in all.  That did not seem to be that many people, but it did spark the curiosity of the neighbors.  Finally, one of the neighbors could take it no longer.  He asked Pat why so many cars were in front of her house and his house every Wednesday night.  She responded casually, “That’s when the Christians come over.”  John was not a Christian so the statement frightened him a little bit.  She invited him to stop by for snacks the next Wednesday night.  He did.  He saw the sharing community and noticed a hunger inside of his heart.  Soon John started attending church with Pat & Sonny.  Then he visited with me about giving his life to Christ.  Now we continue to keep in touch remembering the Wednesday nights that changed his life.

I have a feeling that this is exactly what happened in the early church.  There was something about this sense of community that ministered to a basic need.  Christ creates community wherever he is proclaimed.  Christ creates a learning community, a sharing community.
 

Christ creates a Caring Community

This newly formed church was mindful of those in need.  In fact, their whole perspective of resources changed.  If anyone had a need, the members of the community would liquidate their personal assets to reach out to the need.  Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, points out that as one becomes a Christian and realizes the extraordinary grace in one’s life, the attitude toward money and resources change from mine to how can I invest this in the kingdom of God.  The procedure for giving changes, moving from guilt induced passive and spontaneous giving to a faith inspired active and intentional giving.  He points to Scrooge in Dickens, Christmas Carol.  Scrooge is passive at first, people come to him and ask, no beg, for money.  He is spontaneous and gives what the guilt strings prompt him to give.  Keller likens this to those of us who watch the Jerry Lewis Telethon and give out of guilt.  Jerry Lewis recognizes this and promises, “Tomorrow when you look at yourself in the mirror, you won’t have the guilt that you have today if you give.”  Keller doesn’t condemn this tactic of fund raising, but he does say it doesn’t need to be part of the Christian response.  When Scrooge awakens on Christmas Day he is active, searching for ways to be generous and intentional planning a great surprise for the Cratchit family.  We who have tasted of God’s grace give actively, intentionally, and proportionally.  The benefits of giving also changes.  No longer are we driven by the desire to reduce our guilt, but we give to increase the sense of God’s grace.  In Acts 4 Luke picks up this theme of a caring community and reports in verse 33 that “great grace was upon them all”.  That means those who give and those who receive experience great grace through this act of caring.

It is lived out in community.  Robert Schnase wrote, “Most new members will not feel like they really belong to a church until they find meaningful connections in small groups.”  This is where they feel the care of others.  Christ creates community wherever he is proclaimed.  Christ creates a learning community, a sharing community, a caring community.
 

Christ creates a Growing Community

Luke proudly proclaimed that as the church lived out its pattern for community, they grew.  The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  John Stott, wrote this about that statement in his commentary on Acts, “Christ did not add them to the church without saving them (no nominal Christianity at the beginning), nor did he save them without adding them (no solidarity Christianity either).”  There was an expectation that Christ would continue to create community all around them, changing lives and growing communities.  Stott declared, “We need to recover this expectation of steady and uninterrupted church growth.” 

Do you remember what Bishop Schnase wrote in the last page of his book? I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago.  He wrote, “Congregations are called to change the world, not just keep the doors open.”  I believe that we are on the right track to being a growing community.  We are blessed today to receive Heather and Sara, Randy and Suzanne, Nicole and Jeremy and Caitlyn into membership of this church.  I am excited about these individuals plugging into the community that is A&M United Methodist Church.

There are more individuals all around us who long for the grace and group found in a Christ-centered community of faith.  I am reminded of the closing scene of Schindler’s List when he is thanked by all those whose lives he saved.  He is struck with the sobering reality that he could have done more.  There were lives that perished because he did not sell his car or his gold pin.  He wanted to invest what he had in lives and 1100 people were not enough, not if he could have saved one more.

Are we willing to be the community of faith that makes a difference in the lives of those who are hungering for community? “Here, O church, is your pattern.  It is your responsibility to preserve it and to guard it.”  Christ creates community wherever he is proclaimed.  Christ creates a learning community, a sharing community, a caring community and a growing community – most frequently lived out in faith forming small groups.  Amen.