6 June 2021 - 11am Service
After the Fire Series: Spreading the Fire
Leading on from our Holy Spirit series, over the month of June we are going to be exploring what the Church looks like after Pentecost and how we can hold onto the power of the Spirit in our everyday lives.
We’ll be looking to the Bible to see what the early Church was like after this transformed experience of the gift of the Spirit. What should we look like today if the Spirit is at work in our midst as a Church?
Remember, later today at the 11am and 7pm services we’ll hear Rob Scott-Cook and Rachel Riddall share about the same topic. Go check it out!
DISCUSSION NOTES
INTRODUCTION
In the 1920’s a quietly influential book was published called ‘The Spontaneous expansion of the Church’ by Roland Allen, an Anglican minister and former missionary in China. He celebrated the natural evangelism of often uneducated new believers as opposed to the formal professionalism of missionaries and bishops. Church growth happens when ordinary Church members have had real encounters with Jesus and have confidence to share what they have found with their communities.
In the book of Acts, (Read 11:19-22) we hear of the spontaneous establishing of a Church in Antioch. We don’t know anything about the women and men who shared the good news, but we do know it spilled out to the gentiles as well as Jews. The world changing dynamic of the gospel being shared and a church founded with non-Jews was initiated not by the apostles but an anonymous group of people who had WITNESSED and been changed by the events of Pentecost!
What was the global impact of events that started in Jerusalem (Acts 2) at Pentecost? Do you think the people in Acts 11:20 were the same as those in Acts 2? How were they equipped to be evangelists?
What is your definition of the word witness? What is the link between what you experience and what you say?
What could you be a witness about as far as your faith is concerned? How does the Holy Spirit help you?
Witness intimidation is a real phenomenon. How does witness intimidation affect you?
Sometimes people say ‘everyone is a witness, but some are bad witnesses’. What do they mean?
It is sometimes said witness can be divided between those who ‘go and tell’ and those who say ‘come and see’. Which are you? Where do you feel confident to invite people to come and see?
Usually churches grow because their members have confidence to invite people to their services. As we come out of pandemic what would Church look like for you to want to invite your friends to it?