The Church has its Beginning in the First Early Christian Community in

Jerusalem(Lesson 2)

The Church Developmental History Started after Christ’s death

and resurrection. A small group of people who had heard His message and experienced Him started gathering in homes to pray, to share the Word of God, to break bread, and to share their goods with one another.

The house church was the genesis of the Church.

The First Christian CommunityMission is to proclaim the Kingdom

of God.Made tangible the life of unity and

love of the three-personed God. God’s love was given equally to all

regardless of social standing.Everyone have rights to marriage,

both men and women are expected to be faithful to their spouses.(Driedger, 2006, 69)

With their witnessing of unity and love, people became attracted to the community.

It constituted the basis of the Church (Harrington, 2001, 22)

Their practices became the basis and later serves as our frame of reference to evaluate the state of our present-day church.

Church’s Frame of ReferenceA communitarian profession of Faith In

the Lordship of Jesus (Acts 2:41-47);Proclaiming the Word of God to and

outside of the Christian Community;Celebrating our Communion with God

and another in the sacraments;Having a strong sense of fellowship;Having a plurality of ministries andContinuing Jesus’ mission of

Proclaiming the kingdom.

Jewish ChristiansGrew out of Jesus-event were the Jewish

communities that believed in Jesus yet still felt bound by the Mosaic law.

Held their communal prayer services while they still kept the Old Law and its traditions by partaking in the temple worship/ritual.

Circumcision as a sign of their covenant with God.

Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week and added a celebration of Ressurection Sunday.

Faith was the fulfillment of Judaism.

Proclaimed Christ even beyond Jerusalem.

Period of Jewish Christianity, centered in Jerusalem.

Only thereafter they carried the Gospel to the Gentiles (Matthew 8:11)

As a sign of the ever presence of the Spirit of the Risen Christ

That bought about the growth and development of the early Christian Communities beyond Jerusalem.