Devoted: Introduction

This year, the leaders at Ashville Road have summarized our goals for 2022 with the word “Devoted.” These goals are based on Acts 2:42-47, which begins,

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

In the verses that follow, we see the early Christians demonstrating their love for one another by sharing their possessions and fulfilling one another’s needs. They were together every day, eating in one another’s homes, praising God, and showing their neighbors what the love of God looks like.

We have tried to summarize the flurry of activity we see in their example in four words: teach, fellowship, worship, serve. It is our understanding that if we stay devoted to these four activities, we can cultivate the spirit of joy and reverence we see in the early church as it is recorded in the book of Acts.

All of the readings this quarter will be drawn from Acts, since that is where we have found our key verse.

Each lesson will cover devotion to one of the four areas listed above, but as you may have noticed, there are six discussion lessons, not four. We have broken the ideas of “teach” and “worship” into two parts to give us time to discuss them more fully.

We scratch our heads and wonder why we are not growing as the early Christians did, but they did not keep their practices secret. Their devotion has been recorded in the pages of the book of Acts. It’s up to us to read, learn from their example, and apply what we have learned.

Challenge yourself in 2022 to be devoted to teaching, fellowship, worship, and service, just as the early church was. Just think: How might God bless us this year if we continue steadfastly in the work he has given us to do?