The episode dives into the iconic and very challenging picture of community life portrayed in Acts 2. Whether that makes you nervous about what’s coming or eager, you’ll find a range of potential applications of the early church model and plenty of things to think about. As you might expect, some are quite radical but some may surprise you too.

This episode’s guests are Dr. Kara Mandryk, Travis and Rosey Zacharias, Steve Bell and Shane Claiborne.

After looking at the beginning and at the end, we’re back to the centre of the gospel story—Jesus—born and raised with a human body like everyone else on earth. What does that fact—something that’s so basic it’s easy to overlook it completely—mean for how we live as Jesus' followers? What does it mean for a believing community?

This episode’s guests, Dr. Stuart Murray, Dr. Betty Pries, Dr. Beth Stovell and Dr. Patrick Franklin consider what happens when we don’t understand that or get it wrong and what the impact on the community is when we comprehend the significance of Jesus having a body.

Having looked at the beginning, Jesse and Andrew now ask if you can find guidelines for community in Revelation. Does the plan, or design God has for things will end, provide insight about what our communities should look like?

Guests Dave Reimer, Dr. Kara Mandryk, Dr. Beth Stovell and Shane Claiborne approach the question from a range of viewpoints about what Revelation means for us now or even if it speaks to the question of community at all.

The term “community” is never used in Genesis 1-3. In fact the passage is focused on God, a single couple and the world around them. How do we find the basis of community in that story and why is it so important to our understanding of ourselves in community?

Going “back” even further, what does the nature of the Trinity tell us about human community? And how exactly does the Trinity exist and function as three-in-one?

This episode tackles some tough and foundational concepts but guests Dr. Meghan Larissa Good, Dr. Patrick Franklin, Dr. Betty Pries and Dr. Beth Stovell make a convincing case for the importance of both concepts and how they apply to community.

In the second part of the question of why it is important to talk about community, hosts Jesse Penner and Andrew Dyck focus more tightly on anabaptist communities specifically. Community is universal to the church—things that the church the world over is grappling with. However, it has been particularly important to anabaptists historically.

How did Anabaptist define and practice community? How does living out what we believe, benefit our wider community? What are the pitfalls of the anabaptist way of doing community? In what way does a healthy expression of an anabaptist community bring people to Jesus in our current culture?

Those are some of the questions our guests Layton Friesen, Steve Bell, Meghan Larissa Good and Stuart Murray address and Andrew and Jesse follow by asking just how we do get out of our armchairs and live out what we’ve learned.

Season two is coming! Stay tuned for the first episode to drop January 2024.

Bonus! Poets, War and the Human Inside the Enemy: On this episode of The Armchair Anabaptist we hear from guests Melissa Florer Bixler, Dr. Carol Penner, Dr. Betty Pries, Dr. Thomas Yoder Neufeld and Brian Zahnd.

Find more information, including links to resources and a full transcript, at www.theodidaktos.ca/the-armchair-anabaptist/poets-war-and-the-human-inside-the-enemy.