The earliest Christians thought of themselves in communal terms.
In his work of preaching, healing, exorcism, and prophetic.
When he summoned an inner circle of his followers and numbered them twelve, he signaled that his ministry had the character of a reform movement within Israel.
They likely learned to do so from Jesus himself.
They did not simply make individual commitments to Jesus as God\'s messiah; they constituted themselves as communities shaped by the in-breaking of God\'s realm.
The earliest Christians thought of themselves in communal terms