... Find your key people, develop them, and use them. Of them it was said – Acts 8:4. The real question is whether the Church in the book of Acts is a model for the modern church to follow. Growing churches project an aggressive image. The following outline is intended to be used while studying the book. 6 Bible Verses about Growth Of The Church ... Acts 16:5. Acts are obedience of the disciples to Great Commission of Jesus. Within a very short time, the number of men alone was about 5,000 (Acts 4:4). (2.) In the end, church growth is about recognizing and capturing your unique opportunities. Question 1 2 out of 2 points The book of Acts traces the growth of the church in _____ concentric circles. Acts is the story of God’s grace flooding out to the world. In Acts 8 we read about Philip, one of the seven leaders called to assist the Twelve (see Acts 6:5 ), who taught and baptized many Samaritans and a man from Ethiopia (see Acts 8:5–7, 12, 26–40 ). The spiritual factos of the rapid growth od the church in the book of Acts were the five pusposes of the church from Acts 2: worship, teaching, discipleship, ministry, evangelism and mission. Growth is … Church Maintaining Faith Growth Church, Increasing Council of Jerusalem Additions Serving The Church. Rick Warren Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church, one of America's largest and most influential churches.He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life.His book, The Purpose Driven Church, was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century.Pastor Rick started The PEACE Plan to show the local church how God … Professor of New Testament Studies Acadia Divinity College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. It is the historical link that joins the life of Christ with the growth of the Christian church. The Acts of the Apostles, often referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament. DIVINE EMPOWERMENT OF THE EARLY CHURCH MOVEMENT AND RAPID GROWTH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE EXEGETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF ACTS XAVIER BECERRA Using an aspect of exegetical socio-rhetorical criticism, this paper identifies four principles of empowerment found within the Book of Acts in chapters 1, 2, 4, 6 and 15 that are very different The pastor establishes the image of the church. Mission of the church is spread the gospel to the whole nations and makes disciples. This article presents the concept of 'church growth' alongside evangelism mainly in the book of Acts. 6 The Holy Spirit makes a point to tell us that at Pentecost about 3000 were added to the church and that the Lord added to the church daily. To my knowledge, however, no church growth book with a complete focus on Acts has been written. American King James Version × — Paul and Barnabas taught in the synagogue in Iconium. Churches were planted in all the great cities of Asia Minor and Macedonia. 1. 3. Frank Stagg has described the Book of Acts as “the story of an unhindered gospel.”1 He takes his cue from the unusual adverb ἀκωλύτως (“unhindered,” Acts 28:31) with which the book ends. 3. Nothing is more prominent in Acts than the spread of the gospel. To be able to do these things God sent his Holy Spirit to empower the believers in mission. The book of Acts serves as a handbook for conversion. Jesus promises a geographic expansion at the outset (Acts 1:8), and Acts follows the news of his death and resurrection as it spreads from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the faraway capital of Rome. C. Persecution arose at Jerusalem, and the disciples had to leave for safety. 2. This article presents the concept of ‘church growth’ alongside evangelism mainly in the book of Acts. Life Development Groups. Growth of the Early Church. 6. In the same way, Luke seems to emphasize that this expansion was a work of the Spirit rather than giving us a definitive, normative description of … The church begins as a people limited to the Jews and concludes with it emcompassing every race in the ancient world. In the Book of Acts, we discover the exciting story of the church's birth. T he Book of Acts in the Bible, written around 62-63 A.D., may be best described as a history of the founding and growth of the early church. We can get to the essentials with four sets of four. Each of these stories is about churches that saw a problem or opportunity and came up with a … The title of the book of Acts comes from the Greek word praxis, a word often used in early Christian literature to describe the great deeds of the apostles or other significant believers. Acts chapter six is a great chapter because it shows that the church was growing and that the troubles caused by the growth were easily solved by the church. A. Making These Church Growth Strategies Your Own. growth is not negotiable. Allison A. Trites. As the gospel was scattered abroad where these disciples went, the church flourished. Blauw's thesis is that "a centripetal missionary consciousness becomes in Acts a centrifugal missionary activity..." (1974, 34). Then “many... believed, and the number of the men was about 5000” (Acts 4:4).Later, “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5:14). So if church growth is a given, let’s explore HOW. Specific Cases Of Strengthening faith and strength Growing Going To Church Strength And Faith Faith, Growth In Many In The Church. Be that as it may, the church was off to a roaring start. Early on in the expansion of the churches, it is clear in Acts that networks began to form: the Jerusalem Council, the letter to the churches from the Council, the gift collected for the Jerusalem churches from the Gentiles churches, the network of letters circulated, etc. The Book of Acts tells the story of the Early Christian church in the First Century AD, with particular focus on the ministry of the apostles Peter and Paul, who are the main figures of the middle and later chapters of the book. Church members are one of the key customer groups in a church. The Spread of the Gospel: The history of the labors of the apostles and of the foundation of the Christian Church. Acts 2:42-47 is the first of several assessments of the state of the church. By Acts 19 the center would be Ephesus, in modern day Turkey. Understanding their unique needs and ensuring their needs are met – within the scope of the vision – is critical to church growth. 1. The book of Acts is a story of mission, church planting and church growth and underlines that growth through the church is a significant part of the wider Kingdom growth. In the first few chapters of Acts we are told how the early church centered her ministries in the city of Jerusalem. For example, if the church has volunteer opportunities, make sure the application and communication process is a good experience. Church Growth in the Book of Acts . Whereas the Old Testament depicts evangelism as people coming to God, the Lucan perspective demonstrates that God’s servants will go to His people. Church Growth and Outreach in Acts The assurance that the church will grow and expand is clear in Acts: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). All Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. ... could be a major key to drawing non-Christians to your church. A. Selected Answer: three Question 2 2 out of 2 points The convert Saul would eventually exchange his Jewish name for the Greco-Roman name _____, as he expanded his ministry to the Gentiles. Acts 14:1 Acts 14:1 And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. ACTS TOTAL CHAPTERS: 28 ACTS TOTAL VERSES: 1,007 TOTAL WORDS: 24,250 DATE WRITTEN: 61 AD AUTHOR: Luke ACTS THEME: Growth Of The Church. Acts tells us how the Christian movement came into beginning. Whereas the Old Testament depicts evangelism as people coming to God, the Lucan perspective demonstrates that God's servants will go to His people. 2. The natural principles of church growth as well as the spiritual factors stem from God. The Book of Acts and the Epistles show how striking were the results. Provides a history of the early church. Acts 1:8 is the key verse of Acts and also a key verse of the mission of the early church. It is a thrilling exercise to trace the amazing growth of the primitive church as that expansion is revealed in the book of Acts. The testimony of Acts is not so much that persecution causes church growth but that church growth and the spread of the gospel tends to cause persecution, as religious and political leaders rise up and try to stop this movement that has "caused trouble all over the world and has now come here" (Acts … It charts Christianity's spread from the city of Jerusalem to the city of Rome, the capitol of the Roman Empire. Selected Answer: Three Question 2 2 out of 2 points The book of Acts is the second volume written by Luke. 3 G. W. Peters, A Theology of Church Growth … An Overview of the Book of Acts The life of the early church is recorded and preserved for us in the book of Acts and the epistles. Selected Answer: True Question 3 2 out of 2 points What member of the Jewish Sanhedrin was converted to Christ on the road to Damascus. The book of Acts tells us on that day the God of Heaven launched the Church of Christ. It's here we encounter the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, see the church become established, watch the disciples grow as leaders, meet the apostle Paul, and see the church spread outside of Jerusalem. Verse Concepts. 4 We should first note that our text 5 begins and ends with a statement about the unusual growth of the church. In his book Understanding Church Growth, he began by saying that church growth is faithfulness to God , no mere sociological process , and basically a theological stance . Acts has been called a transitional book because it serves as a bridge between the gospels and the epistles. The book has more to tell us about the rapid expansion of the church than about historical peculiarities of the early church. Up to this point, the book of Acts recounts the Church’s growth among Jews in Jerusalem and Judea. They had not ventured out as Jesus had commanded in Acts … The Unhindered Gospel. The prayer meeting in Acts 13 marks the turning point of Acts, as the central sending base for mission shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch. If we were to employ these same factors, we too, can have church growth. This was done by the church in the book of Acts. Our remarks for this article will come from Acts 4. For an example of one church growth writer's use of Acts, see C. P. Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1987) 47-49. BSac 145:578 (Apr 88) p. 162. It will help to keep the whole of the book before you as you work your way through each section. Here are three lessons we can learn about missions from this inspiring book: 1. 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