lly communal. It cannot be understood simply as one person's efforts to be saved, or as one individual's attempt to know God. It is embedded in the Christian church and the Christian tradition. According to Hill et al. (1997), there is a family spirit that is ideal, in which all Christians are bound together as brothers and sisters under the leadership of Christ.
Within that family, that community of believers, there are many different forms of gifts and roles. Some are called to prophesy. Some are called to care for the sick. Some are called to speak the word of God to the community. Some are also called to extend the word of God into the outside world. It is important to remember the context of the early Christian movement. This was a very small sect in a complex, sophisticated world centered on the Mediterranean civilizations of Greek and Rome. Those who originally went out from this small sect into the larger community were not met with immediate acceptance and appreciation; instead, they were often met with scorn, contempt, disapprobation, and
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