Of all the earliest Christian communities, the church of James, the Jerusalem church, was the largest and most influential. In part this was due to geography. Jerusalem was the largest urban center, the undisputed center of life and faith for Jews, and the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and the gifting of the Holy Spirit.

The Jerusalem Church was largely composed of Jewish converts. This religious-ethnic background gave the faith community yet another advantage. Judaism had long established traditions of community organization and social networking structures. In Judaism there was not one “tithe,” there were a number of different tithes owed throughout the year — with the funds ear-marked for specific needs, including care for the poor. The personal history of enslavement under…