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| “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” |
| —Acts 2:42 |
This is the fifth post in which I have focused on Dr. Luke’s description of the genuineness of the early church found in Acts 2:42:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
So, how do people, in starting a new church, or renewing an existing church, begin to move toward the kind of genuineness that Dr. Luke reports?
Let me suggest they start with a frequent schedule of serious and protracted times of intense prayer imploring God for the specific leading of the Holy Spirit, combined with solid, effective Bible teaching. Once a pattern of these two elements becomes well-established, then these sincere folks can begin to season their gatherings with times of fellowship and the celebration of Holy Communion. Each element must have a deliberate vitality that comes from the earnestness and commitment of the people to the task of allowing the Holy Spirit to construct a genuine church in their midst.
“That’s it?” you may respond. “That’s all we need to do?”
Yes, like so many facets of living a life devoted to following Jesus, the steps to obedience in forming a genuine church really are stated quite simply. It’s the doing of them that becomes difficult.
Take prayer, as an example. So many people look upon prayer as a means to ask God for something they believe they need. But, prayer is so much more than presenting mere petitions to God. Yes, those petitions are important—important to the one making the petition and very much important to God. Yet, real devotion to prayer has an intensity and commitment that far exceeds simply asking God for one’s latest request.
Part of becoming a genuine church requires intense study and equally intense effort. To possess the mind of Christ for one’s church requires fervently seeking what Christ would have this particular group of those in His body actively do to enfold His presence into their every thought, word, and deed.
Continuing to use prayer as an example, consider how your church would answer these questions:
- Does your church set aside very specific times for your congregation to gather solely and specifically for the purpose of prayer?
- During those corporate gatherings for prayer, do you begin by spending time glorifying God simply for who He is—not for what He has done for your church or you individually, but simply because He is God?
- During those corporate gatherings for prayer, do you spend time confessing the corporate sins that your body, as a whole, may have committed, followed by a time set aside for individuals to privately confess their personal sins?
- During those corporate gatherings for prayer, do you spend time asking God to illuminate the study of and preaching of His written Word?
- During those corporate gatherings for prayer, do you then spend time presenting the heartfelt needs of the nation, state, county or parish, city or town, along with the humbly spoken needs of your church—including your mission efforts and other areas of outreach, the needs of your denomination, the concerns of the greater Body of Christ—and the needs of the members of the congregation? It is important to not neglect any of these areas of need in your petitions, but you should particularly emphasize the needs your church has to further its mission on behalf of the Kingdom of God in the place where your church is located.
- During those corporate gatherings for prayer, do you close your time by pronouncing a benediction over those present, as well as all the individuals in your congregation?
Next, using this same pattern for prayer, your church must encourage all those in the congregation to set aside time each day to pray for these very same concerns. This will reinforce your devotion to corporate prayer by developing an equal devotion for personal prayer.
In the matter of devotion toward the breaking of bread, the primary aspects for the genuine church is to have congregation members who are consistently faithful in their attendance at the Worship Services of the church. A truly devoted follower of Christ has a compelling longing in his or her heart to meet faithfully and without fail with the other believers in the church. Even though we live in a society that presents many tempting reasons to spend time somewhere else other than in church each week, we must purposely create a pattern of faithful attendance that prompts us to forego activities that would interfere with our attending the Worship Services at our church.
By developing a pattern of always being present in Worship Services, we automatically become devoted to the Apostles teaching through the times of Bible Study in corporate Christian Education, and also through the times when our pastor or priest forthtells the written Word of God. Such times of corporate devotion will naturally lead us to have a thirst for our own private study of God’s written Word. Over time, we will begin to understand that the faithfulness in our attendance at the Worship Services, and at the times of coporate Bible Study, creates within us the kind of impetus that drives our devotion in all of the four characteristic that defines a genuine church.
These suggestions represent only a beginning. But, I urge those who want to proceed, to start immediately. The world has not yet seen the benefits that the presence of thousands of genuine churches would have on our own lives and on the lives of millions of those who do not yet know our Savior.
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
