The early church, although consistently attacked and censored, was never silenced or overcome. In fact, the first-century church, due to the Holy Spirit’s power, expanded into a worldwide movement that accomplished God’s work, allowing the gospel to be preached unhindered – even to this day. In the book of Acts, Luke’s narration shows an irresistible gospel, a triumphant church, and an untamable God.
In the new series Ready, Steady, Grow: A Study in Church Growth from the Book of Acts, Pastor Philip De Courcy teaches through critical passages in the book of Acts, highlighting the features that contributed to the early Church’s unstoppable growth, and how that growth expanded the gospel’s reach. Ready, Steady, Grow also focuses on why these characteristics are still relevant to the growth of today’s church, and the gospel’s spread here in the 21st century. The features focused on by Pastor Philip in Ready, Steady, Grow include the Church’s unstoppable nature (28:30–31), the filling of the Holy Spirit (2:1–13), courage (4:1–22), evangelism (8:26–40), prayer (4:23–31), love (4:32–37), unity (6:1–7), leadership (20:17–38), integrity (5:1–11), and preaching (2:14–40).
Ready, Steady, Grow uses the book of Acts, focusing on the early church’s example, to provide a template for today’s church, particularly highlighting the critical elements of the early church’s growth and effectiveness. These features are still relevant now and must be prioritized by today’s church. Pastor Philip’s teaching in Ready, Steady, Grow emphasizes that today’s church doesn’t need to reinvent the model to lead to growth and effectiveness. Instead, the church should strive to follow the template provided by the Holy Spirit that caused the early church to expand and spread the gospel, regardless of the obstacles it faced.
