Lets talk about church growth!

     During our Bible class yesterday morning, the teacher was focusing on Saul's conversion in Acts 9:1-31. Saul's conversion account ends in verse 19, so why did he include the next 12 verses? That is where most of us would stop in teaching about conversion, right? Saul was baptized in verse 18, and the conclusion of his baptismal event was him eating and regaining strength in verse 19.

    That is one of the problems facing the church today. We think that when someone is baptized, we have done our duty. We have converted them. Let us look at what follows in this account. Saul spends several days with the disciples, and immediately begins preaching about Jesus. That kind of enthusiasm in our new converts is often squashed, because we think they "don't know enough" to do evangelistic work, or some other equally lame excuse. We need to encourage our new converts. They have access to a whole new pool of lost souls we might never have come in contact with before. We should be right there with them, helping them, building them up, etc.

     While what I just mentioned above is very important, that is not my primary focus today. I want to look at verse 31 of this chapter where it talks about the church growing.

     We read, "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase."

       My question is: are these the requirements for a congregation to grow, in addition to evangelistic effort? Do we need to have peace both within our congregation, and within the congregations we interact with? Do we need to have a congregation that is being built up, meaning encouraged from within? Do we need to be going on (or conducting ourselves daily) in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit?

     The short answer is, I don't know. I do find it important to point out that Jehovah God through the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write these words, associating all these items with church growth. Are these direct commands that we have to follow? I don't see that they are, but my question would be, what harm would there be in ensuring that our congregation and the congregations around us are all at peace with each other? Or that we are encouraging the congregation from within, or conducting ourselves in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit? What would it hurt? Would our congregations not be stronger for it? Would our congregations not be somewhere that we, and those we are evangelizing to, would want to be?

    So my challenge to you today, and everyday from here on out, is this. In addition to being evangelistic, try to be at peace within the congregation you are in, encourage those you worship and fellowship with, and conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit!


God Bless You as you strive to serve Him!


Robert