"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
In reading this, I believe that we see the very essence of what Christian community is all about. Christ followers were meeting together all the time, not just on Sunday. It was their life. They enjoyed being together and were excited about what God was doing in their community. They shared the same vision, goals and even their possessions. They shared meals together and worshiped God together; and because of what they were doing, "the Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved." And this is a very significant point that we can't overlook.
I firmly believe that this is a cause and effect situation. People were joining their community and coming to Christ, not because of their words, but because of who they were. The early church was a contagious community that others wanted to be a part of. They had to find out what was going on in Jerusalem with this group of strange people that followed "that guy" the Romans crucified. They may not have understood who Jesus was, but they knew they wanted to be part of what was going on.
And you know what? I don't think their main goal was converting thousands of people. I believe that this early group of Christ followers were just living a life worshiping God and people saw that it was real. Can you imagine what would happen if our communities were living this way? Can you imagine what our churches would look like? Our Life Groups?
Think about this verse this week and ask yourself how your new Life Group can be "different". What would make your group meeting this week a group that would cause people to want to know what you're doing? Granted, the main goal is not to add people to these groups over this 1st 8 weeks, but if it was, what would attract others to come and visit and want to be part of it? It's my prayer this week that each of your groups will be the same blessing to you as the communities were to each other in Acts 2.
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