They devoted themselves to:
- Apostles teaching (Discipleship)
- Fellowship - (not just hanging out -- gathering to engage in spiritual practices)
- Breaking of Bread (sharing the table with others, hospitality, Communion)
- Prayer
- Meeting the needs of others
- Gathering daily in two places: temple courts and in their homes

The two most important practices are:
- Silence and Solitude
- Community

All other practices flow from these two.

Why are we afraid to fully commit to community?

1. Fear of Submission to Higher Authority

2. Too Idealistic
- Connection is not community.
- Chemistry is not community.
- Friendship is not community.

You can have community with people you have very little chemistry with, and you can have chemistry with people who aren’t in your community.

It’s great when you have both, but it’s not a requirement!

3. Intimidation

How does Jesus speak of His community?

For Jesus, the type of community we are is one of Family.

The Church is a Family System.

5-Minute Nerd-Out:
A Brief Look at Community in the Ancient Near East

Strong-group Society
vs
Weak-group Society

Strong-group definition:
In the strong-group, the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of the group and responsible to the group for his or her actions, destiny, career development, and life in general. The individual person is embedded in the group, and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary, only if in accord to group norms, and only if the action is in the group’s best interest. The group has priority over the individual member.

Jesus calls all His followers to act as a strong-group family of brothers and sisters.

Jesus’s call is to put His family ahead of your family.

In the church the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of the church and responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career development, and life in general. the individual person is embedded in the church, and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary, only if in accord to church norms, and only if the action is in the church’s best interest. The church has priority over the individual member.

What emotions does this statement stir within you?

Jesus’s vision for the Church is that of family.

You can’t drop out of family.

Vulnerability and Accountability
are the two most important
aspects of Community.

Accountability holds us to a higher standard after we’ve bared our soul. If all we do is share our deepest failures and regrets without a call to hold ourselves to a higher standard, nothing happens to transform us.

If we have accountability but no vulnerability, we are only accountable to the things we let others see in us. So naturally we will hold back who we are, which keeps us from change.

This is why the
center-point of community
is the Table.

“The apostles’ teaching; the common life of those who believed; the breaking of bread; and the prayers. These four go together. You can’t separate them, or leave one out, without damage to the whole thing. Where no attention is given to teaching, and to constant, lifelong Christian learning, people quickly revert to the worldview or mindset of the surrounding culture, and end up with their minds shaped by whichever social pressures are most persuasive, with Jesus somewhere around as a pale influence or memory. Where people ignore the common life of the Christian family (the technical term often used is ‘fellowship’, which is more than friendship but not less), they become isolated, and often find it difficult to sustain a living faith. Where people no longer share regularly in ‘the breaking of bread’ (the early Christian term for the simple meal that took them back to the Upper Room ‘in remembrance of Jesus’), they are failing to raise the flag which says ‘Jesus’ death and resurrection are the centre of everything’. And whenever people do all these things but neglect prayer, they are quite simply forgetting that Christians are supposed to be heaven-and-earth people.”
Tom Wright in Acts for Everyone, Part I

Suggested Practices for the Coming Weeks:
- Communion tonight

- Ice Cream Social tonight

- Start with someone you know but you don’t really know anything about. It’s easier to make a decision that you are going to love that person and take them to lunch and ask questions and get to know them than it is someone you tolerate regularly.

- Find three to five people that you will commit to having dinner with on a weekly basis and confess your sin or read Scripture together or pray together.

Thanks for worshipping with us tonight! We invite you back next week as we continue our Summer @ Elements series looking at some practices and rhythms of following Jesus.

Join us this summer on-site or online every Sunday at 5pm!

Keep an eye on the Events tab in the Elements app for our upcoming events. Here's what's happening over the next few weeks:

- Join us tonight at the Dairy Queen across the street for ice cream after service.
- Summer Family Night @ the Zoo this Saturday, July 8th, from 5-8p.
- Food Distribution: help us pack boxes this Friday, July 7th at 8:30a at Caring Ministries, or join us in giving the boxes out on Saturday, July 8th, at 8a.