The Central Moment

If you were trying to explain the gospel to people who were religious but not followers of Jesus, what would you say? This glimpse into early first century preaching gives us the answer.

It was a church of “firsts.” So much of the pattern of the church that you might attend today traces back to this ground-breaking church. It is a church that still sets the bar for what our churches can be spiritually, racially, and missionally.

Have you ever been hungry for God but felt like an outsider to the church? There is hope -- the hope of a relational encounter, a truth encounter and a power encounter that will embrace and include you.

Denial, delusion, defiance -- they represent the barriers to change in our lives. But one of the greatest conversions in church history demonstrates that those barriers melt away when they come face to face with Jesus.

Could Jesus step into our reversals and use them for his glory? Could people who are running for their lives actually extend Christ’s Kingdom? It happened early in the history of the church and it has not stopped!

Around the world today people are laying their lives down for the cause of Christ. The very first martyr in Christian history was Stephen. His story inspires us to pray again today for the persecuted church.

One of the keys to effective leadership is the ability to sort through priorities, discerning what to say ‘yes’ to and what to say ‘no’ to. Around the potentially reactive issue of discrimination, the leadership of the early church chose priorities wisely and strategically.

Come join a great prayer meeting going on in Acts 4! Corporate prayer in Jesus’ name on the part of people who are united in faith is potent and consequential. See for yourself.

Christ’s miraculous intervention in our lives has two purposes -- compassion for us and glory for him. Signs and wonders represent God’s intervention in our lives and reinforce gospel proclamation in the marketplace.

If we were to take away church growth seminars, church buildings, and liturgical traditions, what would we have? The Bible gives us a snapshot of the very first church before any of those trappings -- and it is incredibly compelling!