The Neglected Inheritance
The great danger of losing intentional community at the heart of Church
I’m a connector.
I recognised this after reading Macolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point.
I connect, I can’t help myself, I just see connections in lots of different places, but I believe one of the key strengths and thus weaknesses of a connector is that we believe that a connection is an end in itself. I won’t spend time arguing for this, (Gladwell effectively makes the point about how useful connectors are) but I do want to acknowledge that some people only see a connection as a means to an end. That’s not my position, but I want to be honest, so as we journey together I will try to identify connections and justify their importance…. See how I do!
In making this confession, I am also recognising my innate bias. I believe connections, community, relationship, and shared life are not only desirable but essential for successful human life. This seems even more apparent to me as a follower of Jesus.
I grew up in a church tradition, which gave particular emphasis to community. Unfortunately, there is not an agreed way of describing this particular movement in recent church history, but you may recognise terms such as, the house church movement, restoration, new churches. The common feature is often that at one-point churches related to this tradition had the word community in their title. Some went further still and rejected the term church and called themselves a ‘Fellowship’. For Lord of the Rings devotees ‘fellowship’ has a special resonance - a fellowship being a troop bound together for a quest to make a difference in the world!
Let me give a rough context to this church movement. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a renewal of interest and experience of the supernatural in Christian experiences, in what became termed the charismatic renewal. This was experienced over different wings of church expression, in the UK and beyond, with Catholic and Anglican as well as non-conformist and Pentecostal Christians being affected by this move.
One of the outworking’s of this awakening, was that many existing church structures and traditions could not cope with these new/ renewed expressions, despite the biblical precedence in the New Testament and particularly in Acts.
The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
Many in the late 60s and early 70s, found themselves increasingly unable to express this newfound charisma within the churches that they were part of. Some were asked to leave, others found they wanted to find a new expression for this new revelation. Over time small clusters of these believers started to meet in homes, they did not tend to have separate buildings to meet in, hence the moniker ‘House Church’.
Although the name house church was merely a description of where they met and worshiped, the home or household took on a further significance. It was this de-institutionalised, organic expression of Christain life that was an aim in itself, not just a location title.
For my parents and their close family, the choice to pursue this relationally based faith expression was central to their choice to leave the Pentecostal Church they had grown up in.
The restoration of Apostles and Prophets and practice of spiritual gifts was important. However, the pursuit of community and practice of Shared Life was to be the defining feature of my dad’s ministry and central to the journey of Lifeline Church (formerly North London Community Church).
Definition of Shared Life
Shared life is the practice, that arises from an active decision by a group of Christians (followers of Jesus) to live in relationship with each other beyond formal meetings or services. It involves tangible, practical, committed, and beneficial relationships.
The Inheritance of Intentional Shared Life
It is this inheritance of Intentional Shared Life that I think is worth emphasizing. I want to stress intentional – in 2021 I was fortunate to do a Masters with Coventry University and undertook research into Shared Life and the pursuit of church community in the UK1. What became quite clear is that Shared life doesn’t appear all by itself, it has to be pursued and shaped for. The influences of society all around and quite frankly our own selfishness, means that community within a body of believers has to be pursued actively.
‘…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,…’
Heb 10 v 25(NIV)
So, this then is an expression of the spiritual inheritance that we are liable to lose or at least neglect, as the generation who left their comfortable church situations start to leave the stage. Sadly, often the hard-fought freedoms and choices of one generation are not appreciated by the next, but with a quick look around us, we will see what a prize we have, or at least a treasure that is still in our field.
Whether it be the constant reminder of rise in mental health referrals, the epidemic of loneliness or the post lock down shocks to the young – we know not all is well with ‘business as usual society’. Coupled with the breakdown of peace in local areas, tribalism denoted by flags and marches. We can hardly say we are a nation at peace with itself! ‘Community tensions’ would be better expressed as ‘group tensions’, as using ‘community’ as a description of people who are only bound by a postcode seems inappropriate.
But yet here we have within the Body of Christ a living organism of example to the world – imperfect though it maybe. A place where there is;
‘….no male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free’
Galatians 3 v28 (NIV)
Shared life, the fellowship of believers, moves us from a potentially performative Sunday morning corporate gathering, to the sharing of life and food, troubles and successes, joys and tears. Freely going into one another’s homes, is an expression of being in one another’s lives.
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.
Acts 4:32 (NIV)
This is where we have to be intentional. Shape our lives for sharing. Give room to the involvement and quite frankly the interference that that will feel like. Not small nuclear family units of 2.4 kids - households in name only, where we may sit together but are all glued to our own individual screens, not fighting over the remote control, or the ketchup. But instead, we need vibrant extended families where ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ where we share our lives- express office in practical ways to one another bearing each other’s burdens and joys and did I say? sharing meals, a true picture of communion.
So what are we to do? How can we harness this inheritance for our own benefit and for that of wider society?
The starting point has to be to gather some that God is stirring in the same way – share this blog as a discussion starter – do you want to do this? Do you yearn for an Acts expression of Church? What will it mean to our behaviour the way we live our lives?
Do we want shared life?
Maybe we should count the cost.
Photo by DJ Singleton - North Coast Ireland
28 ‘Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”
Luke 14 – 28-30 (NIV)
Here are some facets of Shared life to consider
Shared life is intentional
Shared life is the practise that arises from an active decision by a group of Christians (followers of Jesus) to live in relationship with each other beyond formal meetings or services.
Shared life involves tangible, practical, committed and beneficial relationships.
Drawing from the pictures of everyday relationship in the gospels and the New Testament, shared life involves a proximity and involvement reminiscent of extended family the signs of which could be meals and possessions shared confrontation and sharing of experience as well as prayer worship and teaching.
Shared life means there is someone to call at 3:00 AM there is someone who will join me to rejoice when I rejoice and mourn when I’m mourn.
This research is available in full at https://www.danielsingleton.org.uk/