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8 Acts of a Healthy, Growing Church

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[caption id="attachment_21853" align="alignright" width="340"] photo credit: marfis75[/caption] B. H. Carroll, a famous Bible scholar, in his commentary, estimates that there were probably a hundred thousand members in the Jerusalem church after 25 years. Peter Wagner and many have agreed. G. Campbell Morgan estimates a minimum of 60,000. In any Bible dictionary it will tell you that in New Testament times that the city of Jerusalem was approximately 200,000 people. What we have here is a church with 100,000 members in a city of 200,000 people. Half the city had come to Christ. No wonder they said, “you’ve filled Jerusalem.” When you look at the book of Acts, you find at least 8 characteristics of the early church that positioned them for this kind of blessing from God. If we echo the actions of the early church, we can expect God’s blessing on our church as much as those ancient leaders saw a blessing on the church in Jerusalem.

1. We must minister in the Holy Spirit's power.

Acts 1:4 says, “Don’t leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift My Father promised which you’ve heard Me speak about. John baptized with water but in a few days you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit…” If you're a Christian, you already have the Holy Spirit living inside you, but we must rely on His power on a moment by moment basis. The power of God is given for witnessing, for ministry, for mission. To minister in the Holy Spirit's power means to have Spirit-filled, Spirit-controlled members. One of the characteristics of people who try to minister in a church without God’s Spirit is simple – tiredness, fatigue. You end up running on your own steam rather than running on the power of God’s Spirit. So the starting point is to minister with the Holy Spirit’s power. He said, “Don’t leave Jerusalem. Wait until you’ve got My power.”

2. We must maintain a warm fellowship.

Next, according to Acts 2:42-44, “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wondrous and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All believers were together and had everything in common.” This is a perfect example of fellowship. They loved each other. When God has a bunch of baby Christians, He looks for the warmest incubator He can find. The church that has warmth and fellowship and harmony, God blesses that church with new believers because He wants them to be in an environment where they can grow. Ten times in the first five chapters of Acts it says, “they were unified”. He uses phrases like, “they were of one accord… one heart… one purpose… one spirit… all united in thought.” God can overlook a lack of facilities, a lack of programs, and a lack of leadership. But one thing He will not overlook is disharmony in the church. Harmony, unity, must be maintained at all costs because the church is a fellowship. We need to build fellowship into each other. Notice the results of fellowship: v. 47 “The Lord added to their number daily.” The result of people being close to each other and celebrating warmth and harmony was that other people wanted to get involved.

3. We must multiply small groups.

There are four advantages to meeting in small groups house to house:

It is infinitely expandable.
It is unlimited geographically.
It is good stewardship.
It promotes relationships.

There’s benefit, wisdom, in God’s way of multiplying small groups. As a result the Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved.

4. We must magnify our vision of God.

In Acts 4:24, the apostles were essentially praying, “God, there are rulers and there are leaders and there are people against You but You’re in control. You’re the sovereign Lord. You made everything in heaven and on earth.” We are children of the king. We’re on the winning side. We’ve read the last chapter. We know how it’s going to end. Jesus Christ has broken our chains and Jesus says in the Bible, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” We’re attacking hell with squirt guns! And we’re trying to snatch people right out of the jaws of hell. There are a lot of churches that want to play it safe. They get as far away from unbelievers as they can so they don’t get tainted. I want to get so close to hell that I can smell it! That’s where you set up your rescue station. Don’t be afraid to rock the boat if Jesus Christ is the captain of the boat. We need to magnify our vision of God.

5. We must maximize the power of prayer.

Forty-eight times in the book of Acts it says, “they prayed.” We will have the power the early church experienced when we pray like the early church prayed. Spiritual warfare requires the use of spiritual weapons. Notice Acts 4:31, “After they prayed the place they were meeting was shaken.” When was the last time you were in a prayer meeting like that? “They were all filled with God’s Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly.” We must maximize the power of prayer if we’re going to be like the church of Jerusalem.

6. We must model Christlike generosity.

The New Testament church in Jerusalem was a giving church. Acts 4:32-37 says, “ All the believers were one in heart and one in mind [there’s unity again]. No one claimed any of that which was his possessions as his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and grace was with them all. There were no needy persons among them.” Notice there were three results of their generosity. - v. 32 says there was unity in the church. - v. 33 says it was a powerful testimony to the community. - v. 44 says there were no needy people.

7. We must mobilize every member for ministry.

Acts 6 describes a problem that arose in the early church between the Greek-speakers and the Aramaic-speakers. One felt that the other was receiving special treatment and needs were going unmet. So, they chose seven guys to oversee this area of ministry to people. They presented these men to the Apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. Then the Bible says, "So the word of God spread and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly.” When every member is a minister, discovers their God-given SHAPE, and serves someone else, the church moves from just a leader "adding" more people to the church "multiplying."

8. We must move out with God’s mission.

Acts 8 records God's reminder to the apostles of the Great Commission, “Go! Go into all the world and make disciples!” They initially started sharing the faith and the church at Jerusalem started getting bigger and bigger. But God never said, I want just the church in Jerusalem to be big. He said, I want you to go not to just Jerusalem but Samaria and to Judea and to the uttermost parts of the world. But they didn’t do it. They didn’t spread the gospel. So God applied pressure by allowing persecution to get them to spread. The Bible says, “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church of Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered through Judea and Samaria.” Notice that: the pastors stayed home but all the people were scattered into Judea and Samaria. Why? Because that’s where He wanted them to go. They scattered everywhere and shared the good news. Jesus never said, “I came that you might have meetings.” He said, “I’ve come that you might have life.” Where is life lived? In the marketplace and in the family. We will be the New Testament church when we magnify the vision of God, pray like they prayed, when we are filled with the Spirit and when we are generous with each other. I am a believer and I know I’m going to heaven. Nothing can take that away from me. But between now and when I go to heaven, I want to take as many people with me as possible. I hope you’ll commit to that same thing.

Recent Articles

Stop Trying to Impress from the Pulpit

Pastor, every time you step up to preach, you make a quiet decision: Will you work to impress people, or to influence them?You can impress people from a distance. But you can only influence people up close. And when people get close, they see the warts. That scares a lot of pastors, but it shouldn't. That's where ministry actually happens.One of the problems in ministry is that we take ourselves way too seriously and don't take God seriously enough. We get impressed with ourselves instead of being impressed with God. That's backwards. You don't stand up to preach so people walk away impressed with you. You preach so they walk away in awe of God.Humor and humility belong together.Humor and humility go together. When you can laugh at yourself, you remind people you're human, and the distance between the pulpit and the pew gets smaller. People quit wondering whether you're performing and start actually listening.During my years pastoring Saddleback, other pastors and I had fun with each other in front of the congregation. We teased each other. We laughed. We never acted like ministry meant pretending to be holier than the people in the seats.Pastors who can't laugh at themselves will have a hard time building a warm church. And people who are stiff in the hallway are usually stiff in the pulpit too. Tightness follows them right up to preach. If everything about you tells people to stay impressed, they'll keep their distance. But if you come across like a real person, they'll lean in.Be approachable and real.If you want to create a climate where people want to join, your church has to be authentic. An authentic church always starts with authentic leaders. You personally have to be approachable and real, because whatever you are, your people will become.There's no one right personality for building a healthy church; God uses every kind. But all the effective leaders I know are working to make the most of what God gave them.A lot of pastors, just by their demeanor, guarantee visitors won't come back. I've said for years that some churches would grow if the pastor would simply start smiling. Sometimes I get the feeling that pastors love crowds but hate people. If you want to know the temperature of your church, put the thermometer in your own mouth. Your people take their cues from you. A cold leader makes a cold church. And people feel that same warmth, or that same chill, the second you open your mouth to preach.Talk like a normal person.Another way to stop focusing on impressing people is to quit using inflated language. A lot of church follow-up messages to visitors read like this: "We would like to extend a cordial invitation for you to be with us on the next Lord's Day." Instead, just say, "It was good to have you. I hope you'll come back." Write it the way you talk.The same thing happens in the pulpit. Some pastors preach in a voice they'd never use in a living room or a hospital room, and the sermon comes out formal and stiff. It sounds religious. It doesn't help anybody. Jesus spoke so ordinary people could understand him. He told stories. He used pictures from everyday life. He didn't bury the truth under a pile of religious words. You're not up there to sound impressive; you're up there to be understood.Preach for life change, not approval.Getting close to people isn't just about being warm. You get close so your preaching can actually change how they live, and that only happens when you stop preaching to be admired. The goal of preaching is not to impress other pastors, or professors, or critics. The goal of preaching is life change. God's aim is to make people like Christ, so that has to be your aim too. If your preaching isn't producing Christlike convictions, character, and conduct, it's missing the point, no matter how polished it sounds.A sermon can be accurate and still leave people exactly where they were. It can be full of information and never once call anyone to obey. The problem in most churches isn't that people know too little; it’s that they already know far more than they're doing. Jesus said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17 NIV). The blessing shows up when they do it, not just when they hear it.Some pastors are scared to be practical because they think it sounds simplistic. They won't even say "how to" in a sermon for fear another pastor will look down on them. So settle it now: Are you preaching to see changed lives, or to please the professors you had in seminary and the pastors down the street?Influence happens up close.Challenge your people to obey. But do it as a fellow sinner saved by grace, not as a bully or a know-it-all. Preach with confidence in God's Word and honesty about yourself, and people will trust the message and the person delivering it.Before you preach this weekend, ask who you're really trying to reach. You can impress people from a distance. You can only influence them up close, close enough to see you're real and close enough that your preaching actually moves them to obey God. So quit preaching for image. Get near the people God has put in front of you, tell them the truth in plain words, and preach for the kind of changed lives that impressing people will never produce.

Your Panic Button for Temptation

"Run from all these evil things."  1 Timothy 6:11 (NLT)Pastor, do you have an escape plan for the moment you're tempted? Do you have anything in place to keep you away from your biggest temptations before they ever reach you? If you don't have those things, you need them now.You carry more than most people ever see. And that weight is part of what makes certain temptations so appealing: the shortcut, the secret, the compromise you're sure no one would catch.First, when you find yourself tempted, you need a panic button. An emergency plan. The Bible is clear about what that plan is: You run.Paul tells Timothy, a young pastor, "Run from all these evil things" (1 Timothy 6:11 NLT).Move quickly out of any situation that tempts you. Never argue with a temptation. You'll always lose. Emotions take over, and emotions aren't always logical.It doesn't matter what the temptation is. It could be the pull to cut a corner with money or shade the numbers you report. It could be a sexual temptation. Whatever it is, your response should be the same: Get out.But better than running from temptation is preventing it in the first place. Another way to say it is this: If you don't want to get stung, stay away from the bees.Don't wait until you're alone, exhausted, and discouraged to decide you'll stay faithful. You have to make that decision ahead of time, and then keep yourself out of the situation, because when you're empty, the pull is stronger than your willpower.The same principle runs all through ministry.If you know you get short with your family on Sunday nights when you're spent, build a strategy for it now. Guard a slower evening. Protect some quiet before the hardest stretch of your week.Don't wait until a questionable decision is sitting in front of you to decide your ministry will be above reproach. Build accountability into how you lead, with people who can ask you anything, so you're not standing in that moment by yourself.Take time today to put a few of those preventative strategies in place. And when they don't hold, keep your emergency plan ready: Don't resist temptation; run from it. That's the simplest and surest way out.

Living in the Freedom You Preach

Pastor, here in the United States this is the week we celebrate our freedom, and many of you will work a line about it into Sunday's sermon. If you minister in another country, stay with me. The freedom I most want for you was never about a flag anyway. So here is the harder question: Are you actually free?A lot of us preach freedom in Christ on Sunday and then live all week as if everything depends on us. We can't stop working. We feel guilty when we rest. We lie awake running tomorrow's list.We have a name for that today: workaholism. The Bible doesn't use the word, but it has plenty to say about it. And "dedicated" isn't it.“Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit" (Proverbs 23:4 NLT). God honors hard work, but he calls wearing yourself out foolishness. Ecclesiastes says it even more bluntly: "Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work" (Ecclesiastes 10:15 GNT).So why do we do it? Why do we run ourselves into the ground for a church that belongs to Jesus anyway? It usually comes down to what is driving us underneath.Notice what's really driving youFor most of us, the engine is insecurity. There is a voice that whispers, "You're a nobody. Prove yourself." So you keep working to prove your worth. And that voice is never satisfied. You finish something good, and the voice says, "That's fine, but it's not enough." So you work more.For others, it is worry. "I am worn out by my worries," the psalmist said (Psalm 55:2 GNT). You can't afford a day off, because the fear of dropping the ball keeps you going.And sometimes, if you’re honest, it’s comparison. You look at the church down the road or the pastor with the bigger platform, and you tell yourself you just need to do a little more.None of those chains come from God. They come from inside you. And Jesus wants to set you free from every one of them.Realize your worthThe first step toward freedom is settling the question your insecurity keeps asking."See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children—and so, in fact, we are" (1 John 3:1 GNT). God says you are precious in his sight (Isaiah 43:4).When that truth finally sinks past your head and into your heart, a load lifts off your back. You stop having to prove yourself. God already loves you. He already approves of you. You don't have to earn it in the pulpit on Sunday.So ask yourself the freedom question: What am I trying to prove, and to whom?Enjoy what God has already givenFreedom also means contentment."All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift" (Ecclesiastes 3:13 GNT). For most of us, the pull isn't money. It's more. A bigger crowd. A stronger program. More influence. We get so fixated on the church we wish we had that we miss the one God actually gave us.But the people in your pews this Sunday are a gift. This season of ministry, limits and all, is a gift. Contentment is learning to receive what God has given instead of resenting what he hasn't.So enjoy the people he has actually entrusted to you and the work he has actually called you to. Ask yourself: How much would finally be enough?Limit your labor on purposeHere is where freedom gets practical. Limiting your work is a decision, not a feeling."You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me" (Exodus 20:9-10 GNT). God built rest into the week. When you refuse to take it, you are not being more faithful. You are arguing with the way he made you.So put it on paper. Decide how many hours you’ll work, how many evenings you’ll be at home, which day you’ll take off. If you need to, ask someone to hold you to it.The freedom you preach is yours to liveThis week, while the fireworks go off and you remind your people that Christ has set their spirits free, hear it for yourself. You don't have to prove anything. You don't have to try to carry what only God really can carry.The church is his. Your worth is settled. So work hard this week. Then stop. Rest in the freedom you keep preaching to everyone else.

Refuse the Hook: When Critics Want a Fight

"If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do your best to live in peace with everyone." Romans 12:17-18 (NCV)Pastor, can God bring something good out of being criticized, attacked, or treated unfairly in ministry?He can. It's just hard to believe in the moment, when the email lands, when the comment thread turns ugly, when someone in your own church decides you're the problem.When someone wrongs you, the pull to defend yourself or set the record straight is strong. But God is just. It's his job to discipline, to restore, and to turn things around for good."If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do your best to live in peace with everyone. My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you, but wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: 'I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them,' says the Lord" (Romans 12:17-19 NCV).Notice the words "do your best." In other words, live in peace with everyone as much as possible. God says it that way because he knows ministry sometimes puts you near some people who are almost impossible to get along with. When you're attacked, God is asking you to walk away, not to retaliate. You might say, "But you don't know what they've done. They've hurt me. They've hurt my family. I want to get even."Here's why it’s so powerful to walk away. Critics want to hook you. They want your attention, your reaction, your time. They can't stand being ignored. It's the same online, where it feels almost impossible to leave an attack sitting in the comments without answering. But when you refuse to react, you take the control back. If they can't engage you, they can't control you.Anytime you say, "You make me so mad," you've handed someone else the controls to your own heart. You don't want to do that. Don't give anyone that kind of power over you.Romans 12 puts a choice in front of you: Will you take revenge yourself, or leave the situation in God’s hands?Refuse to retaliate. Walk away. Let it go. And let God do his work.

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