11 - Seeds of Faith: How the Early Church Began to Grow

The most surprising thing about the early Church isn’t the miracles—it’s the ordinary courage that made miracles believable. We open the doors on a new studio and a bigger soundboard, then go smaller: how a handful of “stunned disciples” became a people who stunned society through prayer, tight-knit community, the Eucharist, and Scripture. No silver or gold, just the charity of presence and the strength to keep showing up.

We walk through life after Pentecost, when the faith was illegal and fear was normal, and explore why pressure didn’t crush the movement. Think drought crops: early scarcity makes deeper roots and a bigger harvest. The same pattern holds for spiritual growth. From synagogue readings to gathering for the Eucharist, the first Christians formed a rhythm—Word and Sacrament—that turned Sundays into a living center for the whole week. Their public witness, unlikely joy, and daily acts of mercy created curiosity: what gives these people strength?

Along the way, we connect ancient practices to modern challenges: privatized religion, AI convenience, and the vanishing habit of neighborliness. We revisit the insula—homes clustered for mutual support—and imagine parish life that doesn’t end at the dismissal: meals shared, names learned, risks taken, courage practiced. If you’ve wondered how to move beyond an hour on Sunday, this conversation offers concrete ways to rebuild an embodied community that grows people—then grows numbers.

Subscribe for more conversations on early Church growth, resilient faith, and practical parish renewal. If this resonated, share it with a friend and leave a review—what pillar do you want to build this week?

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
You're listening to the Catholic Acting Podcast.
We discussed the acts that Jesusperformed that stunned his
disciples.
Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_02 (00:12):
I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father
Poojil, and we're both stunned.
Why don't we get started?
We'll jump right in with today'stopic is growth in the early
church.
Now, as you can see, we're in acompletely new studio, even
newer from the Halloween episodethat we did.

SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Absolutely.
It's great to be here.
And I think it's because we'resuch an award-winning podcast
now that our budget's beenincreased and we're in this new
beautiful space.
I didn't know we were starting.

SPEAKER_02 (00:43):
Well, that's staying in.
Um, I mean, we're we're here,we're starting.
This is this is it.

SPEAKER_00 (00:49):
Especially I it's like watching the gallery up
here.
We've never had so many fanspresent.

SPEAKER_02 (00:54):
Oh wow, everybody's uh thank you, thank you up there
in the studio.
They can hear it, but I'm doingapplause right now on the
soundboard.
We got a bigger budget, folks.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05):
It's great to be here and be back to continue our
Stun Disciples podcast as wetake a look at the early church
and its growth.

SPEAKER_02 (01:13):
My friend who listens to the show, an avid
listener, uh, he calls us thestunning disciples.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Oh, that's absolutely true.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20):
I thought you were gonna say a listener that's your
your mother or the friend.
Shout out to Jordan's mom.
But yeah, so last season we leftoff with the story of Pentecost
and how there were 3,000baptized in one day.
So where are we now?
What you know, how how do wecontinue to grow in the early
church?

SPEAKER_01 (01:40):
The church really had to figure out how it was
going to live out the life pastthe time of Jesus ascending into
heaven, the sending forth of thespirit in Pentecost.
And a lot of that reallyformulated itself around being
close together, right?
Especially in a foreign place.
If we ever traveled before, likewhen you go somewhere and you
actually hear somebody speakyour language or have similar
culture to you or from a similarplace, you kind of come together

(02:03):
with those people and itprovides you a lot of solace in
the midst of maybe a foreignfeeling and so forth.
So what we see is that theyreally devote themselves to the
things that are handed on by theapostles or the authorities
after the time of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 (02:16):
And we have to remember that just because Jesus
has ascended into heaven doesn'tmean that he is not continually
being active among them.
And so that's when we ended withthe sending of the Spirit at
Pentecost.
We have to remember that theHoly Spirit, really that love
between the Father and the Son,is now guiding the church and
and strengthening the earlyChristians and the disciples to

(02:39):
carry on the mission that Christbegan in his earthly ministry.

SPEAKER_01 (02:43):
But just like any time that you would plant a
seed, which is really what Godis doing through the church and
bringing forth life, you have tocontinue to water, to even put
out things uh to keep the pestsaway and so on.
And that's really what prayer incommunity does for us.
One, our connection to God andthe rest of the body of Christ,
but accountability comes throughcommunity.
We know this well from going toseminary.

(03:04):
One of the biggest things thereis you're held accountable for
your actions together.
And often it feels more likepruning than growth, maybe.
Yeah, but it's not just thesegreat miracles because we could
like miracle hunt for like thenext big thing that gets us
there, right?
A lot of the Christian life andfor those early stunned
disciples was not just miracleshappening all the time.
There were miracles that helpedthem.

(03:24):
Just like there are yeah, justas there continues to be.
But what we hear from SaintPeter in the healing of that
lame man with his shadow passingover him is that he says,
Neither silver nor gold do Ihave, but what I have I give to
you, which is the spirit ofChrist in charity.
And so that's an important thingfor us to remember today, as
continuing as disciples ofChrist.
Sometimes we might not haveevery single thing that person

(03:46):
wants, but that doesn't mean westill don't give something to
them in the charity of ourcharacter.
For example, a lot of peoplestruggle with homeless people.
How do you interact with peopleasking you for certain things?
And maybe they'll misuse thisthing, whatever it might be.
But what we're always called todo is to give something.

SPEAKER_00 (04:03):
Even if it's a greeting, a smile.
What's your name?
And the early church reallyunderstood this because now they
find themselves without theirleader physically present,
right?
Christ has ascended into heaven.
They're still fearful, right?
Because they know that that whatthey're doing is illegal, but

(04:27):
they hold nothing back and theycontinue to go forward.
And so in upcoming episodes,when we start talking about the
martyrdom of the uh earlychurch, we'll see that uh what
they were doing, strengthened byChrist, really allowed that uh
ministry and mission of Christ,right, to go forth to all
nations and to baptize allpeople in the name of the

(04:47):
Trinity to take root.
And we'll see that as those 12apostles begin to disperse all
over the world, really, and andspread the mission of the
gospel.

SPEAKER_01 (04:57):
So, what are like the seeds that started that
growth?
To be honest, the seed is theseed of the gospel, which is an
inversion of the world, it'sseeing everything upside down.
But because it was from God, itcontinued even through
persecution, difficulty, thatthe seed became even greater.
And in farming, actually,there's a principle that you
want a drought crop.

(05:19):
So a better crop that bringsforth more yield comes from
whenever there's actually adrought early on in the life of
the plant, and it toughens upand strengthens, and then it
actually flourishes even moreand gives forth more fruit.
So, in that way, how do you knowthis?
Uh, you know, I just do farmingin my free time, Catholic
Farmville on Facebook, guys.

SPEAKER_00 (05:38):
Yeah, growing up in Western Pennsylvania, a lot of
farms around.

SPEAKER_02 (05:41):
So, what are the pillars of the Christian life in
the early church?

SPEAKER_01 (05:46):
You could really see them as being right, prayer
community, prayer, yeah,community, prayer, uh, uh
Eucharist, especially like onSunday, and uh the living out of
the scriptures and seeing thecontinuity of Jesus being the
Messiah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
So, how did these four pillars of the Christian
life inspire everyone?

SPEAKER_00 (06:06):
In one sense, I think that this the disciples
being stunned leads to thegeneral population being stunned
because you have this group thatmany rejected, they thought they
were crazy, they followed thisman who said he was God, he gets
crucified, he dies.
You have one group saying thatthe body was stolen, you have

(06:29):
another group saying that heresurrected from the dead and
that he appeared to people, andthen he ascends into heaven, and
now you have this group ofChristians who really are
outcasts, but they're living soradically, it their engagement
with society begins to stuneveryone because what is giving

(06:53):
these people the strength tocarry out this ministry, the
stunned disciples really beginto stun society, and that began
to make a fertile ground for thefaith really to take root.
And and we have to remember inthe early church too, in this
time, the early Christians werestill going to synagogue, right?

(07:14):
So they would go to Sabbath andthey would celebrate and listen
to the readings from scriptureand learn from the teachings of
the rabbi, but then what theywould do is gather separately as
Christians and celebrate theEucharist together.
So already in the early church,we begin to see how we have now
the liturgy of the word and theliturgy of the Eucharist.
So from the very early stages,the early church never got away

(07:37):
from the scripture, but ratherembraced the fulfillment of the
Old Testament and as they wereliving out the New Testament at
this time.

SPEAKER_02 (07:45):
So we know that the church needs to continue to
grow.
How are we going to implement,you know, these pillars into
today's church?

SPEAKER_00 (07:53):
From the very start, Christ gathered people together.
And so that's where we canreally live out our faith.
The church has never beenisolated.
There's always been a community.
And in that community, when youhave that community gathered
together, then you have allthose extra opportunities for
prayer, for Eucharist, for thecelebration of Mass.
I think here in the Diocese ofGreensburg, it's it's evident

(08:15):
that we continue to take ourlead on how the church grew from
the very beginning.
So we have many more eventsscheduled that aren't just
simply social events, butopportunities for community to
gather together, to praytogether, to share a meal
together for young people, forfamilies, for older people.

(08:37):
And really, when we do that, wesee growth in our communities,
in our parishes, in our schools.

SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
Yeah, people want something real.
So even uh Pope Leo the 14th,our new Pope, as he's been see
speaking so beautifully aboutthe worries of AI, artificial
intelligence, these continualremoving from real life into
artificial things that'll makebe even they could be more
comfortable for people and so onand so forth, but they don't

(09:05):
provide the same kind of senseof growth for people because we
react to one another incommunity, and that's how we
continue to respond and to growto each other.
It's interesting that in theearly church, where were they
based around?
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem's a city, it'stogether.
Cities are always the sign ofkind of cohesion when properly

(09:26):
ordered.
A good city when everybody'stogether and they work together
and so forth, it's a beautifulplace to live.
You know your neighbors, youserve them in charity, and so
growth comes forth from that.
We see that in heaven, it's aheavenly city.
It's not everybody out in theirown individual places.

SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
And all of that really comes from the top down.
If you look at any medieval townor European town, the first
thing you see on top of the hillis the church, and the community
is built around it because thatis the perfect mount of life in
baptism, first of all, for thosepeople gathered there, but it's
also the daily rhythm.
So you hear the church bells andknow when to pray.

(10:04):
And I think in today's world, sooften we are removed from that
reality that our ancestors hadthat we have to be very mindful
and take the opportunities andmake the opportunities to live
out that community life of thechurch.

SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
And the early church took appropriate risks.
People weren't concernednecessarily about like what
happens if I'm rejected becauseI speak the message of the
gospel and try to share thecharisma of what God has done
for me, what Jesus has madealive in me.
They they put it out there andsaw how the reaction was.
So often, I think, in our ownculture, especially now, we very

(10:41):
much privatize religion.
We pull it back kind of from apublic space.

SPEAKER_00 (10:45):
And we don't want to be rejected.

SPEAKER_01 (10:47):
Yeah.
And part of rejection is justgrowing.
Maybe, Jordan, whenever, youknow, dating and so forth, you
put something out there.
And it doesn't always berejection, but you know.
But then you grow from that, andthen you continue to have more
confidence in the message.
I don't have any rejection thesedays, though.

SPEAKER_00 (11:03):
Like I don't know, I don't know that's because
Jordan's going steady.
Yeah.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (11:07):
Well, I have a girlfriend.
So you could stop, you know,telling people to send you those
fan letters.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
So what you're saying is insteadof, you know, like you mentioned
earlier, everybody wants to beprivate, especially like, you
know, private with the religion.
But we need to, in reality, likethe early church, we need to go
out and spread that, you know,faith uh amongst the community,

(11:27):
amongst everybody to for thechurch to grow.

SPEAKER_01 (11:30):
And think about just the reality that people used to
just stop by your house.
Like that was a reality for myparents and my grandparents.
And now everybody's like, whenwe go back to our own houses,
there are castles.
Unless I give you a formalinvitation to come over, you
shouldn't knock on my door.

SPEAKER_00 (11:42):
How many times do you hear the doorbell go and you
hide, right?
Yeah, right.
And everyone has ring doorbells,so they know who's coming and
oh, we're not home.
Shut the lights out.
Shut the lights out, close theblinds.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (11:51):
This gives me an interesting point from the time
of Jesus called an insula.
Okay.
This is the way in which that alot of early Christians and
groups would build their houses.
This is what we see with theparalytic man that has to be
lowered in and to be healed.
The reason that they can't getinto the house is because these
insulas are all these houses uhgarnered together for safety,
together in a community.

(12:12):
And so that's why they have totake the thatched roof off and
lower him down to the through.
But it was a sign of theimportance of community in the
midst of a greater difficultworld.
And so it bonded them evercloser to one another.
But what we need to do today,especially as priests and what I
see within parish life, is thatpeople come to mass for one
hour.
They don't really talk to eachother, which is good.

(12:33):
The celebration of the Eucharistin terms of that worth paying
attention to that as a solemnthing.
But then we need a warmth on theback end of that for people to
stay and to be with one another,like potluck, something
afterwards.
It can't just be only one houron a Sunday to have a real
authentic community.
It needs to be lived out in afew hours of spending together
on a Sunday.
The early Christians didn't justgo to Mass and like, thank God

(12:56):
it's done.
Back to regular things.
Rather, they were there togetheras a community and spent that
day together in solemn worshipof God and warmth of community.
And that's what spread thechurch.
Thanks for listening to theCatholic Accent Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to
our show.

SPEAKER_00 (13:14):
I'm like, what I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 (13:16):
Mine's on I forgot my English.
You're gonna start speaking inLatin, like in tongues.

SPEAKER_00 (13:21):
Shamanama.

SPEAKER_01 (13:22):
What are you like struggling reading?