The church in the book of Acts literally lived together and literally met together every day to break bread and take part in communion. By communion we mean interaction with the spiritual community.

Somehow that expression has mutated into the present day “church” that meets together once a week in a special building, each member to be sent away to live their lives alone for the rest of the week.

In many churches, mid-week services, home groups, or some other assembly is supposed to replace the community described in the first days after Jesus’ ascension.

Literally living together in community has many advantages, both spiritual and socioeconomic.

When we live with others in communion we can more easily work together and balance our ideas. We all get crazy notions and ideas about religion from time to time, when we’re constantly discussing these things with others we can separate the good from the bad to keep each other safe.

So it’s said, many hands make light work. How much easier is collaboration when we’re together all of the time? We remove the practical limitations to God’s work such as schedules and transportation. If you and I need to work together on something, we’re literally right next to each other.

We can also reduce our cost of living and the impact on our environment when we live together, leaving more resources available for the work of the Lord. Why pay to maintain six homes when we can live together and maintain one?

Why have 6 couches in 6 homes instead of 2 couches in one home? Why have 6 cars when we can all share 1?

Why should each of us buy an individual two pound bag of flour and waste six packages, when we can buy one huge bag together? When we work together in a home we can always find better ways to use energy and waste less.

Living together is also fun. Humans are not meant to section themselves off. Let’s be a tribe.

Human fulfillment comes through interaction with others. What could be better than being in constant assistance to one another and constant communion?

When we live together the cost of living dramatically decreases, we’re more friendly to our Earth and better equipped to do God’s work. Those all sound like very good things to us. The only thing we have to sacrifice is a little bit of privacy and a lot of ridiculous American ideas.

We need to live in such a way that stimulates curiosity amongst our neighbors. When we live together religion changes from something that we talk about over the fence to something real that non-Christians can witness every day. We can change from telling others about perfect communion in Christ to literally showing them such a thing.

How much more can we help others if all of our resources are pooled? We can decrease our dependence on the government and society, all the while doing more for our neighbors than the government ever could.

Our houses will be a safe place that are an example to the rest of the community. By placing ourselves amongst the poorest people around us we can truly help them. We’re no longer outsiders coming in to pity and “help”, we’re neighbors committed to one another.

What better way to be “in the world, but not of the world”?