The purpose of this book is to examine the pattern of community life that existed in the early church. It suggests how the contemporary church can model this pattern in today’s society. The church must reevaluate how the world sees and responds to her, uniting as one body under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, in order to once again be effective witnesses in our communities. In order to accomplish this task the church must come together as one, like the “Community of Love,” and function as one (John 17:1–26).
This book focuses on the first century church, particularly the foundation of the church in the first three decades (4 BC to 30 AD). Though there have been great men and women theologians who have written about community, this book utilizes primarily the Word of God to convey the community life of the early church. The world around us is crying for freedom and the church has been gifted by God to take his message of salvation, freedom, healing, deliverance, restoration, reconciliation, and wholeness to our known world. As Sheldon O. Juell argues in Community Life in the Early Church, only a unified church can carry these principles forward.
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