Recently I've seen a lot of posts by many of my "Christian" friends regarding the Second Amendment. I've "liked" some of these posts and even reposted some of my own on Facebook. As I was perusing Facebook last night, and reading more of these posts about the Second Amendment, a thought came to me, "How would the first century church deal with this?"
Remember, the first century church was under the rule of their Roman occupiers. At any time a Roman could command you to walk with them for a mile, or give them their cloak. When the first Century church began to be persecuted, Acts chapter 11 tells us that they were scattered, and the preached the word as they went. See verses 19 -21. Because they did that, the church grew. These first century Christians were so involved in the spreading the Gospel they didn't have time to worry about the government "infringing on their rights."
And I think that's the problem with the church today. We aren't busy enough spreading the Gospel. We aren't focused enough on what the first century church was focused on. We allow ourselves to get distracted by so many other things here in the 22nd century that we have lost focus on what we are supposed to be doing, what the first century church did every day of their lives, spreading the Gospel.
May God bless you as you refocus on God's will, on spreading the Gospel daily - Robert
Showing posts with label church growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church growth. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, November 19, 2012
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
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
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