Intenioning 'Koininia'

All of us have a semblance of ‘Koininia’.  Koininia is best defined as having a fellowship, community, and/or a network of safe, mutually desired relationships.

Your family of origin may or may not be 'Koininia'. But those relationships you continue to desire or invest in, or in which you regularly experience reciprocity (healthy give and take) would generally be defined as Koininia. Having a functional Koininia; whether it is original or one you have chosen and mutually built, (i.e.--church family, fellowship, marriage, friends, or shared cultural identity) is vital to personal fulfillment, joy strength, well being and wholeness.

This is a life-long journey where you intention joyful wholeness through Koininia. And it is incredibly dependent upon successfully creating a Christ-centered family of authentic, shared, common life where every individual can naturally and super-naturally connect. This will require a common relational reality and conversation that most just haven’t been equipped with; at least not functionally!

“The development of ‘meaningful’ relationships where ‘every member’ carries a significant sense of belonging [and connecting] is central to what it means to be the church.” (Randy Frazee, ‘The Connecting Church’)

The following passage (beautifully expressed in The Mirror Bible, by Francois du Tois) from Paul’s writings in his letter to the Church at Ephesus sheds necessary light on our “darkened understanding,” especially as it pertains to building and maintaining successful life connections.

4:11 What God now has in us is gift wrapped to the world; (the same content and the same intent,) Some are commissioned to pioneer; others are gifted as prophets, some as announcers of good news, some as shepherds with a real gift to care and nurture, and others have a gift to impart instruction through revelation knowledge. (Couriers, communicators, counselors and coaches. Rob Lacey)

4:12 Each expression of His gift is to fully equip and enable the saints for the work of the ministry so that they may mutually contribute in their specific function to give definition to the visible body of Christ.

4:13 The purpose of the gifts are to present everyone on par and  in oneness of faith; believing exactly what the Son of God believes and knowing accurately what He knows concerning us. Standing face to face in equal stature to the measure of the completeness of Christ. (A life filled to the brim with Christ, like a freight ship carrying its Cargo.)

4:14 The most dangerous life you can live is an ignorant one. You're left like an infant on a ship out of control in the waves and winds of the storms of life. (Vulnerable to the ‘sleight of hand’) The fall of the dice dictates (your relational reality) while the deceptive teachings of men and their distracting tricks entertain.

4:15 Love (the revealed value that God sees in every man) gives truth its voice. In this atmosphere spontaneous growth is inevitable. The whole person is addressed in Christ who is the head of the body, (pictured as a conductor of music, epichoregeo.)

4:16 From Him flows the original composition and detail of our design like words intertwined in poetry, they connect layer upon layer to complete the harmony, following the rhythm of His thoughts like footprints. Meanwhile the body thrives and pulsates with the energy of love. Each individual part (portion) finds its full measure there.

What a description of the majesty of our ‘shared’ and ‘common’--‘unity’. “Let me remind you, friends, that Christ’s disciples were all of one mind prior to Pentecost (see Acts 1:14).

"If there had not been unity among the disciples, there would not have been an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The outpouring did not create unity (common-unity); unity made the way for the outpouring. Christ-centered unity is just as essential today, if we will see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit repeated in our world" (In Christ’s Image Training, Francis Frangipane).

The future of the church depends on whether it develops true community. We can get by for a while on size, skilled communication, and/or programs [that are designed] to meet every “need”, but unless we sense that we belong  to each other; with masks off, the vibrant church of today will become the powerless church of tomorrow. Stale, irrelevant, a place of pretense where suffers suffer alone, where pressures merely generate conformity rather than the Spirit creating ‘shared life’—that’s where the/our church is headed unless it focuses on community.” (Adapted from Larry Crabb in forward of The Connecting Church)

What then is the absolute foundation for building “Christian Community”? The shared relationship within the Trinity displays the clearest picture of what the foundation of true community is.

26 “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Gen. 1:26a)

Jesus spent most of His time imparting and teaching focusing His disciples on the relationship between Himself, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit and us. So; the building and maintaining of Koininia is foundation-ally the sharing of our life immersed in the Fathers, Jesus', and Holy Spirits shared love--[‘in common’ and ‘in unity’].  And their sharing of relational life through the Church (the Body of Christ). Another biblical picture of "community" comes from John's first letter.

1 “From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in - we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. 2 The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. 3 We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:1-3, Msg)

4 "Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joys will double our joy! 5 This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him. 6 If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth - we're not living what we claim. 7 But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin." (1 John 1:4-7, Msg)

44 "And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. 45 They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met. 46 They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, 47 as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved." (Acts 2, Msg.)

1(So) “My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. 19 This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. 20 It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.” (1 John 3:18-20, Msg.)

What are some of the building blocks of Community?  They are functionally sharing the gifts and fruits of Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Word (logos and rheama), mutual love, comfort, encouragement, edification, joy, peace, and mission. Also experiencing shared Communion, shared sufferings, joys, hope, forgiveness (absolution as a Priest), exhortation, The Cross, Resurrection power, Overcoming-Abundant life (God Life) Co-Reigning as Kings) and the sharing (Shekina Glory-Manifest Presence) of Praise and Worship. Wow! We share so many awesome experiences in Koininia. So; let’s…

1 “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. 2 If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. 3 But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you're letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. 4 The one who prays using a private "prayer language" certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God's truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. 5 I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don't stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It's more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands."(1 Cor. 4:1-5, Msg)

Bottom Line: we are challenged by Scripture (it's not optional) to a shared life of mutual love! That will motivate 'Koininia'. Ron Ross