Koinonia and Integrity: Catalysts for Growth in the Early Church

Abstract

The birth of the church on the day of Pentecost (Act 2) in AD 30 is one of the remarkable events that shape world history. On inception, this newly founded faith was greeted with great scepticism and her adherents were severely persecuted by those who see her as another unwelcome sect within Judaism. Despite stiff molestations; the early church steadily experienced tremendous qualitative and quantitative growth. Previous studies on the early church focus on how the preaching of the disciples led to growth, this paper argues that koinonia fondly calls fellowship and the audacious integrity of the early disciples as handed down by Jesus were two key indispensable factors responsible for the outstanding growth recorded by Christianity at its infancy. While, the coming of the Holy Spirit helps to convince, convict and convert people to the Christian faith, integrity and koinonia fostered the sustainable growth and development of the early church. Using the historical-grammatical method, the twin concepts: koinonia and integrity are traced from the preChristian era to early Christian ere down to the current church. Additionally, this study looked at some unwholesome practices amounting to lack of integrity and suggest that, if the current church could be more hospitable, strengthened her interdenominational and inter fellowship collaborations coupled with urging her adherents to live above sin and reproach, the spiritual and physical growth of the early church would be consolidated.