We’ve learned that believers need to connect with God and others and are to continue to grow spiritually. The third action word for the believers is ‘serve’. The first believers served others in many ways: opening their homes for church services, giving money to care for those who were in need, serving meals to others, and taking care of widows. In this message we’ll see that the New Testament teaches us that every believer is to serve and is to think of himself or herself as a servant. We’ll learn about the significance of serving and the many opportunities we have to serve within the church and outside the church.

The early church connected, grew, and served. They also reached. They were reaching people where they were and they were reaching by going out and planting new churches. We need to be reaching, too. In this message we’ll define reaching, explain why we should reach, what we are reaching people for, and what the message is that we are trying to reach others with. We’ll conclude with an opportunity to commit ourselves to reaching others for Jesus. 

The second action word of the church is Grow. We see the church growing in at least two ways in the early chapters of Acts, and we see believers growing in at least three ways. We’ll look at these and determine how the word grow should apply to us today, and how North Park Church works to help believers grow.

Four words describe the first church found in Acts 2:41-47. Believers connected, grew, served, and reached. These are action words for every Christian. In this message we look at the two dimensions in which believers are to connect, briefly discuss the importance of connecting, and then share ways that believers can connect through the church. We conclude by evaluating the quality of our connections and make plans to improve them. 

In this first message in the series “Be the Church” we discover four New Testament facts about what the church is.