Networks of Belonging — How Relationships Carried the Gospel

Part 3, Pentecost Reflections from my reading of Rodney Stark's "The Rise of Christianity"

If you’re catching up, here’s Part 2 of the series, and you can find a full list here.

"Conversion is not about embracing an ideology; it is about aligning one's life with that of one's friends and family." — Rodney Stark

While Part 2 reframed Christianity’s rise as gradual and relational, Part 3 focuses on the social structures—households, patronage networks, and gatherings—that allowed early Christianity to spread. Rodney Stark insists that Christian conversion was not primarily the result of theological arguments or miraculous events. Instead, it happened through the most divinely created human of things—relationships.

Drawing on research into patterns of religious affiliation, Stark argues that “conversion…occurs when…people have or develop stronger attachments to members of the group than they have to nonmembers.” In other words, when people develop stronger emotional ties within the church than they do outside of it, they will be more open to the doctrinal and theological beliefs …