Reforming Church | Community

About this series: In some senses nothing has changed - the church is still the church, with the same values, the same vision and the same people. Yet, so much has changed - we are now onsite and online, people are still going through a historic event and church life will never be quite the same again. A series on the church is therefore very timely and will hopefully remind people of the unchangeable nature of the church as well as envisioning people for what has changed. We’re framing this series of Sunday talks around eight terms used in the New Testament to describe the church - people, family, community, temple, unity, body, disciples, witnesses. These are the words the New Testament uses to describe the Spirit-empowered people of God and these are key elements for how we want to build Citygate. About this talk: Scripture: Acts 2:42-47 & Acts 4:32-37 These two famous passages (along with the rest of the NT!) are a challenging reminder that new life in Christ leads to new life with one another. For all the individualism in UK culture (though there are many others represented in Citygate too) and the way church has developed online, we are built for community and will only grow to maturity in community. God is looking for a people to be glorified in and it’s in the church that people will see what community can truly look like. How do we balance the Bible’s value of every individual life (a feature of early Christianity in comparison to other worldviews) with one’s primary identity not arising from individuality. What does it mean, in the UK today, to express the principles found in Acts 2 and 4? What does it look like for our faith to be personal, but not private.