DNA Guide for Acts

This guide is designed to help DNA groups engage the book of Acts and be transformed by the word of God as we care for each other and encourage each other towards love and obedience.

Pre-Work

Read the passage from the previous Sunday and study it on your own using this template or the four questions explained here.

When You’re Together

  • Connect and hear how each of you is coming into this time together (20 minutes)

  • Read the passage (3 minutes)

  • Share your reflections from the read going through the questions (20 minutes)

  • Share what part of the gospel is hard for you to personally believe or trust in? (30 minutes)

  • What is one way you could believe and trust in the reality of the Scriptures as you walk through your life? (10 minutes)

Reading Plan for Acts

As we walk through the book of Acts, we want to encourage each person in our church to read through this book thoughtfully and prayerfully with our minds open to being transformed and our hearts available to be moved.

We’ve broken the book of Acts into 48 sections. Some of us will sit down and read this book in one sitting, others will methodically read a section each day for 48 days. Others, will be more free-spirited; missing a few days, reading several in a row, and then coming back again and again. This isn’t a chore to do for God, but an invitation to a feast on the living Word and the story of the Church participating in the Mission of God.

Also, reading the Bible isn’t always easy—often it’s hard! We have a guide with a template and tips to help you study, reflect, and grow through your times of reading the Scripture. We also think the Book of Acts lends itself well to the Ignatian prayer practice which invites you to place yourself within the narratives as an observer.

Reading Plan

Reading 1 | Acts 1

Reading 2 | Acts 2:1-21

Reading 3 | Acts 2:22-41

Reading 4 | Acts 2:42-47

Reading 5 | Acts 3

Reading 6 | Acts 4:1-31

Reading 7 | Acts 4:32-5:11

Reading 8 | Acts 5:12-42

Reading 9 | Acts 6

Reading 10 | Acts 7

Reading 11 | Acts 8:1-8

Reading 12 | Acts 8:9-25

Reading 13 | Acts 8:26-40

Reading 14 | Acts 9:1-18

Reading 15 | Acts 9:19-31

Reading 16 | Acts 9:32-43

Reading 17 | Acts 10

Reading 18 | Acts 11:1-18

Reading 19 | Acts 11:19-30

Reading 20 | Acts 12

Reading 21 | Acts 13:1-12

Reading 22 | Acts 13:13-41

Reading 23 | Acts 13:42-52

Reading 24 | Acts 14

Reading 25 | Acts 15:1-21

Reading 26 | Acts 15:22-41

Reading 27 | Acts 16:1-15

Reading 28 | Acts 16:16-40

Reading 29 | Acts 17:1-15

Reading 30 | Acts 17:16-34

Reading 31 | Acts 18

Reading 32 | Acts 19:1-22

Reading 33 | Acts 19:23-41

Reading 34 | Acts 20:1-12

Reading 35 | Acts 20:13-38

Reading 36 | Acts 21:1-26

Reading 37 | Acts 21:27-40

Reading 38 | Acts 22:1-29

Reading 39 | Acts 22:30-23:11

Reading 40 | Acts 23:12-35

Reading 41 | Acts 24

Reading 42 | Acts 25:1-22

Reading 43 | Acts 25:23-26:32

Reading 44 | Acts 27:1-26

Reading 45 | Acts 27:27-44

Reading 46 | Acts 28:1-10

Reading 47 | Acts 28:11-22

Reading 48 | Acts 28:23-30

Ignatian Praying of the Scriptures

“I think much of our hunger for spectacle and hype comes from a lack of imagination. To find ourselves captivated by the Christian life and captivated by the Scriptures requires an active mind and an engaged imagination. It’s the imagination that brings this world to life.” 

- Mike Cosper in Recapturing the Wonder

Ignatius of Loyola taught his followers to read the Gospels with an active imagination. Hear the story of Jesus healing a paralytic or talking with the woman at the well, and imagine yourself in the story, encountering Jesus, hearing his healing words as if he were saying them to you. Hear it as if you were the paralytic or as if you were a bystander. Feel the heat of the sun, the weariness of a journey on a long road, the shame of sin and exposure, the judgement and condemnation from religious professionals, and imagine Jesus. What might he sound like? Does he touch you as he passes? Does he look you in the eyes? What do you hear? What do you feel?

How to practice

  • Create time and space to be alone

  • Set a timer (start with 3-5 minutes)

  • Start by calming down your body and mind

  • Pray a short breath prayer a few times

  • Take a short passage (a story from the Gospels, for example)

  • Read it a couple of times (silently or out loud)

  • Allow your mind to wander into that world: think of the smells, the sights, the tastes, the touches.

  • When the timer goes off, take another moment to pray and reflect

    • What struck you?

    • What part of the story might be worth coming back later in the day?

  • Repeat this practice. It gets richer.

Live Resurrection Power: Day 5

If Jesus did, indeed, rise from the dead, we have nothing to fear and everything we need. All that we strive for is fulfilled in Jesus. All that we seek to avoid has been resolved by him. For example, if Jesus rose from the dead, we no longer need strive for acceptance because we are now accepted by him. If Jesus rose from the dead, we don’t need to fear death, because it has been defeated.

Live Resurrection Power: Day 4

As you can imagine, moving from doubt and into belief promises to radically reorient your life, your goals, and your dreams. Today we’ll explore even further how the story of Easter changes your life.

There is no better place to look for these answers than Jesus himself. Our understanding of the resurrected life begins with him and his words. Jesus claims that his resurrection establishes a new authority, new identity, and new mission.

Live Resurrection Power: Day 3

Faith in a resurrected Christ gives us hope that Jesus’ resurrection was just the first of many future resurrections yet to come. To experience this resurrection, we must abandon faith in ourselves and put our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection.When we give up on faith in self, and put faith in the risen Christ, we experience a death and resurrection of our own, a spiritual resurrection that will one day culminate in a bodily resurrection.

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