Introduction
What is the work of the church, boil it down, what is church about. What would the church do if we raked away all the superficial and supporting stuff. What if we were underground? With no building, no superstructure, no ability to operate within the culture, hated, ignored, despised. What would we do?
Lest we come to the conclusion that I am simply designing something that reflects my ideas, What did the first century church find themselves doing? Read it for yourselves in early chapters of Acts. I may choose slightly different words, synonyms, to help make it memorable for us, but this is what church is about.
As soon as church comes into existence, Acts 2, teaching (nurturing), fellowship (sharing), worship. They were sharing, vv. 44-45. They were meeting for sharing, possible worship, and evangelism (v. 46). These thoughts continue in v. 47. People were continually being added. That sounds like evangelism. They are definitely preaching the gospel, 2:22-26; 3:12ff, more next week in part two.
Our point is--The church can get sidetracked easily. We can get to where we are about everything but what God has called us to be about.

In this series, we are suggesting that the church is a place of nurturing, evangelizing, worshiping, sharing or serving.

Today in sermon #1--The Work of the church has to do with Nurturing, 2 Tim. 3:16-17.
The church will not be actively involved in nuturing if not have Bible at center of our life. If not find the Word of God essential. If not seeking faith in Jesus. Four things you can expect from the church. To edify, build up, how?

1. Teaching/learning (Greek = didaskalian)