Shaping Community & Faith
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Scriptures: Acts 2
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Summary: In the fifth sermon of our series, Grounded, Bobbi explores what it means to be the church by reflecting on the early Christian community in Acts 2. She outlines four key movements: a call to imitate the early believers' shared devotion, an emphasis on lived faith through care and generosity, the invitation to communal participation that roots us in our ancient tradition and modern relevance, and the possibility of renewal within familiar spaces. Bobbi argues that the church can be a space of mutual support, sacred rhythm, and Spirit-led transformation. The church is not a static tradition but a collaborative, evolving expression of God’s life among us.
Are we them: Bobbi shows us that the early church devoted themselves to simple, sacred practices like teaching, shared meals, prayer, and community. She shares how the Greek word Koinonia is used in the text to mean more than simply “fellowship,” but the idea of permanent, active, “clapsing-of-hands” in divine participation. Our faith grows through this committed communal form of life.
Praxis: Bobbi shows that faith takes shape in how we care for each other. She points to how the early church responded to the threat of the Roman empire with generosity, not fear. Sharing resources was, and is, a radical way to embody our spirituality, especially in a community.
Participation: She highlights how the early believers acted from their Jewish roots of generosity, justice, and covenant. We gather not just to remember, but to practice who we are and live out our identity among one another. Being together shapes how we live.
New thing in old places: Bobbi concludes by reminding us that sacred life continues beyond church walls. What happens in worship must carry into homes, relationships, and our neighbourhoods. She encourages us that God keeps renewing what feels tired. Our task is to live faithfully where we are.
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Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
Connect: Bobbi mentioned the work of discernment, especially around big changes in our lives. Sometimes, when we refuse to ask, “what if?” An idea will continue to pop up again, and again.
Q: If you feel like sharing, was there a time in your life where an idea or feeling kept coming up—whether it was around big decision or small one—until you finally asked, “what if?”
Share: Share how your thoughts on Bobbi’s description of koinonia. She said that it is a tricky concept to grasp and offered a quote from Elizabeth Johnson to help us wrestle with the idea. While Johnson is focused on describing God, Bobbi points out, that in the summary of the early church in Acts 2, we are meant to also reflect this idea of koinonia. Consider Bobbi’s words,
“Divine life circulates without any anteriority or posteriority. In other words, any position of the front or back.
Divine life circulates, without any superiority or inferiority of one to the other. Remember she’s talking about Creator, Son, and Spirit.
Instead there is a clasping of hands,
a pervading exchange of life,
a genuine circling around together that constitutes the permanent, active, divine koinonia.”Q: How do you understand this idea of koinonia? Is this something more than simply fellowship?
Reflect: Reflect on the significance of praxis in your faith. Bobbi argued that participation in community is less about obligation but about becoming human and living into our calling. With a backdrop of Roman cruelty, the early church, hoping to imitate their leader, Jesus, turned to practical forms of community care as a way to express their faith. Consider this this quote from Bobbi,
“These first Jesus followers scramble around to figure out what they’re meant to do and who they’re meant to be in an empire that murdered their teacher.And instead of shrink with fear,
Arm themselves to fight,
Or fixate on what wasn’t right.
They practice faith by practically taking care of one another.Like if the city was big, Koinonia, their communal form of life together, might just be bigger.”
Q: what does this reveal about the kind of community Jesus intended to build?
Q: What challenges does that pose to the way we usually "do church"?Engage: Engage with the idea of bridging the gap between what we learn of theology at church and our daily living with one another in the city.
Q: What does it look like to carry spiritual depth and communal practices into our private, public, or ordinary spaces?
Take away: What is your takeaway from the message or today’s conversation?
Prayer from the sermon:
Loving God,
Where in our own lives are you urging us toward something new?We stop to search for gratitude.
Where have we felt a great liberty?
Where do we store our sweetest memories?
Where did new understanding shift things in life-giving ways?
Where did we trust ourselves and there find Spirits’ wisdom?All of it is gift.
All of it holds something of you.And from this place of gratitude, we return our love
We want to be of service
We want our work to matter
We want you to take us to the places where we can make a difference.
Jesus, your love and grace go with us.
Amen. -
CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 133
MUSIC Curated by Curt M.
John Mark McMillian - Ancient Love
Commons Worship - Be Thou My Vision
Worship Circle - Lord You Have My Heart
Mission House - I Don't Have Much
SERIES BUMPER
Grounded
