The Faithful Four

Whatever Happened to Following Acts?

Acts 2:41-47 from The Message
That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe – all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship at the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

Remember when we were at the beginning of Jacob’s Well and we searched Acts to see how the early believers ‘churched’? The kids memorized the four elements that the early believers committed themselves to. Remember what they were? Here is a refresher…

The Faithful Four
1) The Apostles Teaching
2) The Life Together
3) The Common Meal
4) The Prayers

For awhile, we were pretty good about following these elements, but somehow we haven’t been as diligent about following them. How many weeks go by and we tag on a quick prayer to the end of our gathering? How often do we get together and share a meal? How often do we just hang out and share life together? Are we reading our Bibles to see what the Apostles have to say?

I want to challenge all of us to get back to faithfully following these four elements in our church community of Jacob’s Well. The believers of the early church did all of these things daily. I know that our schedules make it difficult for us to do these daily, but I think it would be reasonable to expect that we could do these at least weekly.

Here is what I propose for The Faithful Four
1) The Apostles Teaching –
a. once a week discussion in the group regarding specific teachings (this can be a Bible Study, Scripture, Theology, Church Traditions etc)
b. daily individual Scripture study
2) The Life Together –
a. Once a week meet with the entire group
b. Twice a week get together with another member of Jacob’s Well outside of the gathering of the entire group
c. Email or phone another member of the group at least twice weekly to connect with each other
3) The Common Meal –
a. once a week a meal with the entire group
b. one other meal with someone in the group each week
4) The Prayers –
a. Pray every time you get together with other members of Jacob’s Well
b. spend time alone with God daily
c. Once a week a longer prayer session with at lease one other member of Jacob’s Well

Let’s start with these guidelines. We can always go beyond these suggestions and we will adjust them if we find out that they aren’t working out.

Peace,
Lisa