SHARING BURDENS - UPLIFTING - ENCOURAGING
Bridge42 understands Acts 2:42 to be a great description of the early Church:
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (ESV)
Our Life Groups use this Scripture as a template to structure our intentional Christian communities. When you join a Life Group, there will be biblical study (Apostle's Teaching), gathering in people's homes (fellowship), shared meals (breaking of bread), and collective prayer (the prayers).
You may ask, "why do we need to meet outside of Sunday morning Worship? Don't we achieve the same things on Sunday morning and Wednesday night?" Bridge42 finds the following verses to help inform us about why we have Life Groups:
““And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” ”
There are approximately 59 Scriptures in the New Testament alone that include the phrase, "one another" or "each other" in similar spirit to the above scripture. It is hard to help the weak during the teaching portion of Sunday morning. It is difficult to admonish the idle while praising God through song or bear one another's burdens.
To be fully obedient to these Scriptural commands, Bride42 uses Life Groups as a modern day expression of the "one-anotherings" practiced by the New Testament Church.