Early Church Leaders Essay

During my time working on this project, I decided to investigate four early Church leaders that I had only a baseline understanding about. All of these leaders fit the definition of apostle well, even though only one of them was an actual apostle. Namely, I studied Veronica, Luke, Andrew, and Stephen. Through this project, I discovered similarities between these figures and myself; each of the four all attained values that I strive for. While Veronica was never mentioned in the Scriptures, her legacy thrives today as a symbol of helping those who need it most. Surely, one would need to be brave in order to walk through a murderous crowd to temporarily relieve a criminal about to be executed. She is an inspiration to me in the way that her story teaches that through even the littlest of things, one can cause change. Clearly, this is signified by Jesus’ facial imprint on her cloth. Veronica’s story will be remembered as a

Luke traveled extensively with Paul’s group. He could have stayed in one place and taught Jesus’ mission there, but instead he helped spread Christianity to other places. He helped Catholicism be catholic, or universal. Additionally, Luke strived for historical accuracy. His written works have been archeologically verified. These reasons help establish Luke as a person that I want to become. I knew the least about Andrew, the third disciple I studied. I knew that he was a fisherman and a brother of Peter. Yet, what I took away most from him came from what I had already known about Andrew—he left everything behind to follow Jesus. He left everything that was familiar to him in order to join Jesus’ company. This signifies that God should be the most important thing in our lives. Andrew’s devotion show particularly well during his crucifixion, where he preached the entire time that he was dying. This ties in with my final disciple I