What does first-century Christianity have to teach the church about belonging today? In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, Dr. Kristofer Phan Coffman, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, joins hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to explore the early church as a community of genuinely unlike people navigating real social upheaval. From the chaos of the Roman Empire to Paul’s fledgling congregations scattered across the Mediterranean, Kristofer helps us see that the early church was not a settled institution with established patterns. It was a community figuring out, often under pressure, what it meant to belong to one another across real difference.
That history has direct implications for church leaders today. Kristofer challenges the assimilation patterns that quietly shape much of North American Christianity and invites leaders to ask hard questions about who feels at home in their communities and why. Drawing on Paul’s letters and the witness of Acts, he points toward self-awareness and deep listening as the foundational practices for forming Christian community in a fragmented cultural moment.
