They continued daily

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” - Acts 2v46-47

I just googled the words “church growth” and came up with “about 9,270,000 hits. I quickly looked through and on page 50 of Google’s search the hits were still relevant to the topic of helping churches grow. There were books, CDs, DVDs, seminars, conferences, software, and on and on. What of my favourite was a parody titled, “Popular Pastor Cloned In Church Growth Experiment.”

I guess we all want to see our churches grow. Think of the first church after Pentecost. There could not google to see how to see how to grow their church. How did the grow their church? How did they see the Lord add to the church? Well, let’s just go to the source and find out. (I didn’t even need Google to find this one).

• They were steadfast in doctrine
• They were steadfast in fellowship
• They were steadfast in observing the Lord’s Table
• They were steadfast in prayer
• The feared the Lord
• They watched God do mighty works and wonders
• They were together
• They shared everything
• They met each other’s needs
• They continued in worship together
• They continued in eating meals in each other’s homes
• They were joyful
• They has a simple and singular purpose
• They praised God
• They had favour with all

As a result they saw the Lord add to the church daily. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Maybe I should do a seminar called “Roger’s Sure Fire Fifteen Step Programme For Church Growth in the 21^st Century.”

Or maybe we can just follow the pattern God laid down through the first church?