“They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praying God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” — Acts 2:46-47
This formula for living (as Luke writes in Acts) is not any different than how we should live our lives today. Go to church on the weekend, share communion together, hang out after church, be in Small Groups, be generous to the community around us and to those within our church body. God will use these times to give us opportunities where we can share our stories and the love of Jesus. He will then save those around us!
I want to encourage you, Church, that there are new people walking through the doors of our church every weekend. We need to follow this example in Acts. First, they connected with others in church services and then they shared meals together. For us today, we need to look at our church services as place of learning, yes. But we also need to be looking for new people, for the saved and un-saved; we need to include them and try to get them plugged in.
We live in a completely distracted world and it’s detrimental to how we interact with people. It’s easy to think, “I’m sure they’ll go to the Connections Booth.” or “One of the pastors will talk to that new person.” This isn’t always the case. We need to focus on seeing the new person, interact with them, invite them to Small Group, invite them over for dinner, lunch, or coffee. They need to feel included and in fellowship at The Rock! God will use these opportunities to change lives.
This weekend, I challenge you to do the “three before me” plan. Meet three new people before focusing on yourself. They may be brand new, they may have been coming to The Rock for a while. You won’t know until you talk to them! Invite them over for lunch or dinner…maybe a hangout time? Anything to build fellowship in the church. The more we do this, the more we will see people (especially the new person) get plugged in.
Let’s pray for more changed lives!
Posted in A Word from the Pastor