l.Textual Evidence and Definition:
The textual evidence supports the notion of this thesis that Luke not only documented the expansion of Christianity, but even more specifically the growth of local churches. Here are the following texts that will authenticate my view:
*The original nucleus was 120 (Acts 1:15)
*Three thousand people were converted on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41)
*People were being added to the church daily (Acts 2:47)
*5000 men, beside woman and children are added to the church (Acts 4:4)
*Multitudes were being saved (Act 5:14)
*Addition changed to multiplication in the growth of the disciples (Acts 6:1)
*The disciples kept increasing and priests were also converted (Acts 6:7)
*Samaritans start coming to Christ (Acts 8: 12)
*AnEthiopian is baptized (Acts 8:38)
*Entire towns start coming to Christ (Acts 9:35)
*Comelius an his family are baptized (Acts 10:48)
*Many Gentiles become Christians (Acts 11 :21)
*A Roman consul believed (Acts 13: 12)
*Large numbers of Jews and Greeks accepted the faith (Acts 14:1)
*Churches increasedinnumber daily (Acts 16:5)
*Prominent women followed Christ (Acts 17: 12)
*A ruler of the synagogue became a Christian with his family (Acts 18:8)(Wagner, 1994:
26,27).
*Many thousands of Jews have turned to faith in Christ (Acts 21 :20).
I would like to draw a number of conclusions from the above texts. Firstly, Luke is clearly interested in monitoring the progress of the church using numbers. On the Day of Pentecost three thousand people are converted. These people came from probably sixteen different language areas as Luke informs us that the gospel was preached that day to sixteen different people groups. Luke outlines these people groups in Acts 2:9-11. In naming them he begins with Palestine as the center and them moves east, then passes north, west and south in that order. The reference to "every nation under heaven (see Acts 2:5)" therefore seems justified (Nichol, 139). Many of them were pilgrims that had come for the Feast of Harvest in Jerusalem and would have returned to their homes after Pentecost. I would conclude then that the number three thousand is not for Jerusalem residents exclusively.
The reason we don't hear of any evangelism going on in other areas is because Luke is only interested in the movement of the gospel along the lines of Acts 1:8 (Fee andStuart, 100). Luke next mentions the number five thousand in Acts 4: 4. He opens the chapter discussing the arrest of the apostles and continues with the trial before the Sanhedrin the following morning. There is seemingly no literary reason to mention the number of men.
This points to Luke's concern in documenting the numerical growth of the church andas a means of encouraging his readers with the continued progress of the gospel despite persecution.
A third consideration that follows on from what I have stated is that Luke is possibly portraying both the qualitative and quantitative growth of the church. He records the qualitative growth in passages that depict the spiritual growth of the church (see Acts 4:31) and the quantitative growth in passages that show the numerical growth of the church (see Acts 4:4).
The definition I would then render, which harmonizes with my conclusions from Acts is the following: "Church Growth is the effective evangelization of lost men and woman, effectively incorporating them into the body of Christ and enabling them to become mature, reproducing Christians."
Four kinds of growth are evidenced in Acts.
Transfer Growth occurred when people moved from Judaism to Christianity (see Acts 6:7).
Conversion Growthtook place when Gentiles were converted to Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Savior (see Acts 8:38; 10:47,48).
Internal growth is the spiritual growth of the members that took place in Acts (see Acts 2:42-47; 9:31;11 :26).
Extension growthis the numerical growth that Luke mentioned as the gospel moved from its Jerusalem boundaries and new churches were planted and established (see Acts 9:31).
A third consideration that follows on from what I have stated is that Luke is possibly portraying both the qualitative and quantitative growth of the church. He records the qualitative growth in passages that depict the spiritual growth of the church (see Acts 4:31) and the quantitative growth in passages that show the numerical growth of the church (see Acts 4:4).
The definition I would then render, which harmonizes with my conclusions from Acts is the following: "Church Growth is the effective evangelization of lost men and woman, effectively incorporating them into the body of Christ and enabling them to become mature, reproducing Christians."
Four kinds of growth are evidenced in Acts.
Transfer Growth occurred when people moved from Judaism to Christianity (see Acts 6:7).
Conversion Growth took place when Gentiles were converted to Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Savior (see Acts 8:38; 10:47,48).
Internal growth is the spiritual growth of the members that took place in Acts (see Acts 2:42-47; 9:31; 11 :26).
Extension growth is the numerical growth that Luke mentioned as the gospel moved from its Jerusalem boundaries and new churches were planted and established (see Acts 9:31).
What were the causes of Church Growth? How did the effective evangelization of lost people take place? How were they incorporated into the body of Christ - the church, and eventually discipled into mature, healthy Christians? In attempting to answer these questions I will now outline, from a missiological perspective, key principles that emerge from the text of Acts.