Acts 2 In 2023

As I was doing my daily Bible reading the other day something stuck out to me…

Right at the end of acts chapter 2, a passage we‘re all familiar with, there is a line, “and the Lord added to their fellowship daily those who were being saved.”

It’s interesting that there's a distinction between salvation and being added to the fellowship.

And I think this indicates, something I’m sure we agree on, that the early church practiced both Gathering and Going.

In other words, they gathered for worship and for fellowship with believers. But they also went out into the world to preach the gospel and reach the lost in response to the great commission. And brought the lost into the family of God!

And this is exactly how it should be for us in 2023, over 2000 years down the road...

We are Gathering people and Going people.

That is the one-two punch where the true power of the church is lived out!

If we only gather, we lose our missional edge. If we only go we lose our fellowship.

So a healthy local church does both. That’s why at Joy Church our strategy comes right from the book of Acts. I call it the R.A.D. plan which stands for relational, attractional, discipleship.

We create a relational culture and use attractional strategies like Facebook ads, big days, and inviting people to church and to respond to Christ.

But the overall mission is to make disciples in response to the commission of Christ.

If you’d like a helpful refresher in your mission and vision as a church then check out my new resource that shares many of the tactics we use to leverage this Biblical strategy: 20 Ways To Grow Your Church.

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Gathering and going,

Pastor Jake