Drew University Library : University Archives : Theses and Dissertations
    
author Heemoon Lee
title Recovery of Biblical Koinonia: A Case Study of Central Methodist Church
abstract The reason God, who has no problems even if he does nothing, created this world was to create humans in the land and establish relationships and fellowship with his creatures there. The God of love enters into a relationship with us and expects us to trust Him more, rely on Him more, and love Him more through that relationship.

The church began on this earth through a new covenant relationship given through Jesus Christ. And in accordance with the nature of God, who delights in fellowship with us, the church community fellowshipped with each other in love, shared and shared what they had, and participated, served, and devoted themselves to God's work together. This could be called koinonia. For a long time, Koinonia has played an important role in connecting and growing church communities. However, modern churches that focused only on the functional aspects of koinonia for church revival and growth made the mistake of trying to program koinonia or apply it only to specific content, such as fellowship time. If you look at the early church communities, you can see that there was no separate program for fellowship. It was a community that worshiped and prayed together, praised God, took Holy Communion together, shared a common meal, remembered the words of Jesus Christ, and thought about grace. In it, each other naturally experiences koinonia. This study is a record of these concerns and efforts to apply them in actual ministry settings. What we must not forget is that koinonia is not something that only occurs through relationships between believers or between people. The Holy Spirit is with you in that relationship. The moment you think of it as a human relationship, you cannot reach true koinonia. This study is a report on the process and results of efforts to apply biblical koinonia to actual church ministry. Although this paper has many shortcomings, it is hoped that through this study, churches will arise that realize the koinonia of believers and believers, churches and churches, and churches and neighbors.

school The Theological School, Drew University
degree D.Min. (2024)
advisor Leonard Sweet
committee Byoungho Zoh
Younglae Kim
full textHLee.pdf