In today’s lesson, we're finishing up our study of Acts chapter 2. We’ll look to the early church’s example to answer the question: How do you grow a church?
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Today we're finishing up our study of Acts chapter 2. Can you believe it took us 5 weeks to get through this chapter? This won't happen for every chapter throughout our study. In fact next week we're going to cover all of chapter 3 in 1 week. but today we finished the chapter with a glimpse into what the early church was like. In particular, we get to see the secret sauce for church growth. We're going to answer this question: How do you grow a church?
Church growth statistics:
- As of 2020, there were approximately 2.3 billion Christians worldwide, making up about 31% of the global population.
- Pentecostalism and Charismatic movements are among the fastest-growing Christian denominations globally.
- Africa and Asia are experiencing significant growth. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to have the largest number of Christians by 2060.
- In the United States, weekly church attendance dropped from about 39% in 2013 to around 29% in recent years.
- Headed in Europe’s direction?
- In the Netherlands, regular church attendance fell from approximately 50% in the 1950s to below 10% by the early 2000s.
- United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark: regular church attendance at or below 5%.
- Note: “church attendance” doesn’t capture the whole picture, but it gives us an idea. Truth is, many attendees aren’t even Christians! (stats don’t include house churches or nature Christians)
Share about our history/vision at Alpine Church for growth
- Include some videos and photos?
Today we're going to try to learn from the early church to see what they did to grow…. I see 7 marks of healthy church growth; if you’re a pastor, leader, attender, consider how you do in each of these areas.
Seven Marks of Healthy Church Growth:
Baptisms
- Acts 2:41 (NLT) 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
- (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The population of Jerusalem at the time is estimated to have been between 180,000 and 200,000. Even 3,000 converts in the temple precincts would have been 'a distinct minority of the crowd.'
- Principle: Healthy church growth is conversion growth, not transfer growth.
- Jesus: “Go make disciples…” meant something different than what it means in most churches today. (Pursuit)
Biblical Teaching
- (NLT) 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching,
- (Expositor's Bible Commentary: Abridged Edition (2 Volumes)) "The apostles' teaching " refers to a body of material considered authoritative because it was the message about Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed by accredited apostles. It undoubtedly included a compilation of the words of Jesus...
