10. Help a New Household Become an Acts 2 Church
Extraordinary DNA That Multiplies – Series
Scripture: Acts 2:37-47; Matthew 7:24-27
What your group has experienced with Jesus can begin around another family’s table.
Think about the journey your fellowship has taken during its first two years. You gathered ordinary people. You discussed stories about the life of Christ. You learned to love Jesus, obey His words, and share what you discovered. You learned to care for one another as a spiritual family. You studied Acts 2 and committed to functioning like a church. Then you embraced a shared goal: each adult family unit, including single adults, would help establish at least one new church every year thereafter.
In Lesson 9, we explored finding a person of peace who welcomes you and invites family and friends to discover Jesus. Now help that household walk the same path your group has walked.
Begin with stories about Jesus
Receive their hospitality. Sit with them. Listen to their concerns. Help them begin discussing stories about the life of Christ. Let them discover Jesus welcoming outsiders, forgiving sinners, healing hurting people, and teaching His followers. Lead them toward His death and resurrection and His invitation to follow Him. Give them time to ask questions and discover answers in Scripture. Help them fall in love with Jesus as they come to know Him, and learn to follow Him by practicing what He teaches.
After each story, ask: What do we discover about Jesus? What does this show us about ourselves? What will we put into practice? Who else needs to hear this story?
When they discover Jesus serving His disciples, help them identify someone to serve. When they hear Him teach forgiveness, help them respond in their own relationships. When they see someone telling others what Jesus has done, help them practice sharing too.
Repeat the simple 3/3rds pattern
Use the same gathering pattern your original group learned.
Look back: Share thanksgiving and needs. Care for one another and pray. Discuss how each person practiced and shared the previous story.
Look up: Read the next Bible story, retell it, and discover what it teaches.
Look forward: Each person chooses a specific response. Practice what you will do or share, then pray for one another.
Imagine returning the following week and hearing: “I asked my brother to forgive me.” “We took food to our neighbor.” “I told my friend the story, and she wants to join us.” The stories are becoming part of their lives.
Learn the tools along the way
As the stories call for them, introduce the disciple-making tools your group has practiced. Jesus’ teaching on prayer helps them learn to pray individually and together, listening to God and responding. His encounters with people help them identify whom to pray for and share with. They can begin their own List of 100. Stories of people telling what Jesus has done help them practice their testimony. Learning to hear and obey God’s Word prepares them to use SOAPS during the week.
Discover it in Scripture. Practice it together. Use it in daily life. Share it with someone else.
As they understand the gospel, invite them to place their faith in Jesus, repent, be baptized, and follow Him.
Discover Acts 2, and make a commitment
As believers emerge and the fellowship develops, guide them through Acts 2:37-47 as a 3/3rds Discovery Bible Study, just as your original group did. Let them discover how those first believers lived. Ask: “What would it look like for us to live this way together?”
Help them understand the church functions they are committing to practice:
Baptism: Those who receive the gospel are baptized and learn to follow Jesus.
God’s Word: Devote yourselves to Scripture, putting what you discover into practice.
Fellowship: Share life, meals, encouragement, and responsibility.
The Lord’s Supper: Remember Jesus’ sacrifice together through the bread and the cup.
Prayer: Pray together, bringing needs to God and seeking His guidance.
Praise and worship: Honor God with thanksgiving, song, and obedient lives.
Giving and care: Share generously and respond to people’s practical needs.
Making disciples: Share Jesus and help others learn to follow Him.
Then help them express their commitment: “With Jesus as our Lord, we commit to live together as a church, obeying His Word, caring for one another, and helping others follow Him.”
That commitment takes shape in everyday actions: a meal shared, a need met, a prayer offered, a Scripture obeyed, and the gospel carried to another person.
The same journey can begin again
Your group’s first two years have given you something to pass on. Now another household is discovering Jesus. They are learning to obey Him, love one another, and function as a church. You continue participating in your original fellowship while helping this new household take its next steps.
Picture sitting at their table as someone says, “We want our friends to know Jesus too.” The DNA you have lived together is taking root in another home.
Your challenge
Are you helping this household learn to follow Jesus and carry responsibility together?
Your assignment
Help the household take its next step in the same process your group experienced. Begin the stories about Jesus. Help them practice what they discover. As believers emerge and the fellowship develops, study Acts 2 together and help them commit to functioning as a church.
What God has grown around your table can take root around theirs. Help them begin.
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Watch: 10. Help a New Household Become an Acts 2 Church
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