“Everyone who believes that the Messiah is Jesus has been fathered by God. Everyone who loves the parent loves the child as well.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:1

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In this Sunday’s message, Pastor Amy Perez invites us to see the Church not as an event we attend, but a group project God Himself initiated. The early believers called it koinonia, a shared life shaped by love, marked by formation, and carried into the world as a witness. Koinonia is not sentimental community; it is participation in the very life of God.

Participation – A Shared Life

• The first picture Scripture gives us of the Church is a people who lived together in devotion.
• Koinonia means participation not spectatorship, but a shared life.
• The early Church didn’t just meet; they shared bread, prayer, resources, burdens, and joy.
• They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayer. (Acts 2:41–47)
• They held everything in common, meeting needs with generosity and sincerity.
• Hebrews calls us to encourage one another, stirring one another toward love and good works. (Hebrews 10:24–25)
• You cannot love God and refuse His children.
• Koinonia is where love becomes visible, practical, embodied.
• Shared life is not convenient it is covenantal.
• It forms a people who see one another not as interruptions, but as gifts.

Formation – A Shaped Life

• Koinonia does not just gather us, it forms us.
• Paul invites the church in Philippi to allow their shared life in Christ to shape their thinking, posture, and affection.
• Hold on to the same love; keep your lives in harmony; consider others above yourselves. (Philippians 2:1–4)
• As iron sharpens iron, we shape one another. (Proverbs 27:17)
• Love must be sincere not performative, but rooted in truth. (Romans 12:9)
• True community isn’t built on idealism.
• “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” - Bonhoeffer
• God forms His people through real people, the ones who stretch us, sharpen us, interrupt us.
• Shared life becomes shaped life.

Restoration – A Renewed Life

• Koinonia is also the place where God does His restorative work.
• Paul’s letter to Philemon shows the gospel reframing relationships once defined by power, debt, and history.
• Partnership in faith reveals every good thing God is working in us. (Philemon 1:6)
• What was broken is restored into family — “no longer a slave, but a beloved brother.” (Philemon 1:15–18)
• God is leading all creation toward renewal, not abandonment. (2 Peter 3:13)
• “Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project — not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” - N.T. Wright
• Koinonia becomes the place where heaven touches earth, where forgiveness takes root, where relationships heal, where new life breaks through the old.
• The Church is not a perfect people it is a restored people.

Commissioned – A Sent Life

• Koinonia doesn’t end with belonging, it extends into mission.
• Paul’s journey with Barnabas and Titus shows a shared calling carried in different directions but empowered by the same Spirit.
• They recognized the grace in one another and extended the right hand of fellowship. (Galatians 2:1–2, 7–9)
• Mission isn’t optional: “Our mission is people.”‍
• The same Spirit gives diverse gifts for one purpose. (1 Corinthians 12:4–6)
• Community is not the destination; it is the launching point.
• We are shaped together so we can be sent together.
• Koinonia is formation for the sake of the world.

Discussion Questions

• What relationship, responsibility, or rhythm is God inviting you to participate in more deeply?
• How is shared life shaping you — sharpening your character, humility, or love?
• Where might God be restoring something in you so He can send you into someone else’s story?