Acts 2:42-47 is used a lot in describing a way of being church.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Life among the Believers 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[a] to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home[b] and ate their food with glad and generous[c] hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

But how do we do this, and what does isolation change? Verse 42 is the one everyone talks about, and the importance of prayer, teaching and fellowship. Verse 46 though also says they spent time at home, and in the temple together, and there is sharing of resources in verse 45.

I often wonder though, if a church were to do this what would it look like and how inclusive would it be? And, what are we learning from our current isolation?

In verse 42, the early church took apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayers as the thing most important, according to Luke.

Teaching, a church with teaching at it's heart? Good, sound teaching, that is relevant, challenges and teaches is not always easy to do but the commitment to do it is what is important . However, as disabled people how easy is it to access this? We may not be able to attend church, or sitting for a length of time is too painful. we may have hearing loss and not hear or sight loss and not see relevant powerplant. learning needs such as dyslexia can mean processing a lot of info is hard or reading text. Sensory disabilities can cause a problems and then some people will take what is said very literally and not understand illustrations.

Then there are those who cannot access church or not leave their home. How do they hear teaching ? Is it enough to only share an audio recording of 'sermon',that has problems in itself. Does any accompanying powerpoint mean any thing? What is the audio like can we hear it? Is there opportunity to follow up with questions?

How do we create opportunities for Bible groups, after all, teaching and learning happens not just in church, but in different study groups. Online church and study groups have existed, and been very important for a while, and mainly accessed by those who are unable to attend physical Church. But these have always been seen as seperate from the main church, not proper church. Now, during this time of Covid 19 and lockdown church moved online.

Suddenly, sermons, services, study groups all are available online, people have choice of what to access. But, how is this facilitated ? How is the teaching followed up? How do we know who is falling through the cracks? What about those who don't have computers or the know how?

This leads us into the next part of the framework of Acts Church - fellowship. How are we engaging in fellowship? Who is keeping in touch with everyone? (this should not just be clergy but the responsibility of everyone.) The chats after church, informal catch up's don't easily happen in breakout rooms, if you don't know people well, how do you keep in touch? These are challenges that also face those who have disabilities, those who don't access 'normal' church, and those who struggle with hidden disabilities too. After church coffee can be a nightmare for those with hearing loss or those who struggle with large groups

Breaking bread - well depending on your denomination and tradition this at the moment is varied. But, in the early Church was breaking bread, just eating a meal together, praying and remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross? And we can do that in our homes. let's encourage each other, for those that need that, give them prayers to say, let's rediscover the act of breaking bread together!

Prayer, in isolation it is what we can do, and some churches and communities are setting up Zoom prayer groups which is great, but how are prayer request communicated, how do we hear about people who need prayer? Those informal catch ups and opportunities to pray after the service have, it seems, disappeared. I've not heard any 'altar calls' or even what to do if you would like prayer during Online church.

How are we hearing what God is doing in our lives? How are we experiencing 'awe and wonder'? How are we able to spend time together, to share resources? This is happening but, the image of Acts church, meeting together, worshipping, praying, sharing fellowship when we are all isolated is hard to do. But we must try, we need to think wider than online services and ' Bible study' we need to do the discipling, the loving, the fellowship too.

And when we return to our buildings, we need to consider what we've done who we've impacted, reached and keep the wider online life, especially for those who have difficulties attending buildings - no more will a taped service be enough.