A Healthy Church Grows with Athol Barnes 08.03..25

I’ve had two trees in our backyard since we moved into our house eleven years ago, both of which grew  rapidly and quickly exceeded my ability to manage their growth.

As I was thinking about this problem, I realized that this is a common problem in churches that are experiencing growth. When the growth exceeds the capacity to manage the growth, the result is a poorly maintained organization that leaves people frustrated on the outside and burnt out on the inside.

Growth can be challenging, so how does a healthy church grow?

The early church is a model of church health and, as we have seen in Acts 2:42, there were 4 distinctive indicators of a healthy church: they were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, to a healthy community, to breaking bread together and to prayer. These are four devotions of a healthy church that lead to dramatic results as we read in Acts 2:43:47.

An awe-filled church  (vs. 43)

The apostles had walked with Jesus; they had seen his many powerful miracles, and they began to do the same things. Signs and wonders are for the express purpose of bringing glory to God. Today, all over the world, amazing miracles are happening, and their primary purpose is to declare the glory of God and the Gospel message. We see this throughout the book of Acts; signs and wonders lead to people being saved. Awe came upon everyone as they recognized a greater power at work; they couldn’t ignore that God was working in power and it caused a reverent fear (see Hebrews 2:3-4).

A unified church (vs. 44)

The church was in its infancy. There were no arguments over doctrine or opinions about buildings and programs. They were unified in their devotion to the gospel. A church that is devoted to the things of God will be a unified church.When we lack unity, we have likely lost our purpose and our focus. The early church had an intense feeling of responsibility towards one another which was an answer to Jesus’s prayer (see John 17:21-22). Many were drawn to the Savior as a result.

A generous church (vs. 45)

This verse is not promoting a form of socialism, rather this was voluntarily caring for each other as they shared their wealth to help those in need.

The rapid growth of the early church resulted in many physical needs. During Pentecost, there were Jews from every nation of the world.  Many of them stayed in Jerusalem after being converted. They would have quickly run out of money and food, and they needed places to stay. There was an outpouring of generosity as the unity of the church led to caring for these needs.

Generosity must be an essential mark of the church (see 1 John 3:16-18).

William Barclay wrote, “a real Christian cannot bear to have too much while others have too little.”

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