What's the Point of Church? (Part 1): Formation

TO START: Over the next five weeks in our What's the Point of Church? series, we're exploring this question: What is the purpose of God's family in the life of a believer? Jesus promised that He would build His church, and the book of Acts gives us a picture of five things the Spirit of Jesus builds his church for the sake of revealing & releasing the Kingdom of God. 

In this first week, we looked at the very first thing we see the early church doing: devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. We believe the Bible is trustworthy in preserving the teachings of Jesus which were handed down through His apostles. As the family of God, we devote ourselves to learning what is true, what is good, and what can be experienced with God and in his world.

TO READ: Acts 2:38-47

TO DISCUSS:

(1.) What's the last thing you really "nerded out" about? Something you had a genuine desire to research, learn more about, and dive deeper into?

(2.) What have you seen God form or change in you, or someone around you, through being engaged in a local church? 

(3.) The early church in Acts is described as a community of baptized believers who gathered to devote themselves to the teachings of Jesus through the apostles. When, if ever, in your life would you describe yourself as having a season of devotion to learning more about God? What did that look like?

(4.) When it comes to learning about God through Scripture and being formed by what you learn, where have you grown stronger, and where do you still have room to grow?

TO PRAY:

To close this week, consider this question together as you pause before God in prayer together, “What is your next step toward prioritizing a devotion to learning, knowing, and being formed into the likeness of Jesus through His church?”...Give a minute or so to reflect silently in prayer as a group and then invite folks to share with the group, then pray for one another to find the courage, desire and clarity to take that next step.