Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been looking together at this second chapter of Acts for six weeks now. We have seen some fascinating stuff together. This morning, we begin a two-week look at Luke's summary statement at the end of the chapter. As is our habit, we will take the larger chunk first, looking at this mega-summary of the early church (seven verses long) before we look next Sunday at the most basic summary, v. 42 with its four habits that marked the early church and should continue to mark our church today. What we see in the mega-summary is that church growth is driven by the power of God and the practices of the church. Growth starts with word, sacrament, and membership; growth grows with eleven different elements that Luke specifies. That totals fourteen elements (surprise, surprise): The church grows numerically and spiritually when it practices the fourteen elements of growth in which the early church engaged.
