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  3 of 3 Practical Applications for Today's Churches T herefore, what can we learn from the early church model? What changes can we bring in our churches for the spiritual welfare of people? What makes it possible for the church to grow not only in numbers but also in faith? Here are my practical suggestions: 1) I believe, it is good for churches to gather as small communities. There are many advantages in doing so. Here are some of them: gathering in inexpensive places (large house or a medium-sized hall) paying more personal attention to all creating more room for one-another intimacy motivating body ministry or one-another ministry holding believers accountable having fellowship meals doing both evangelism and good follow-up making discipleship possible and effective expending money wisely preventing leaders from burn-out building churches as a family community rather than like a formal company with CEO and officials Can you see micro-churches are mo...

    2 of 3 Early Church Model C onsidering the ineffective issues and practical problems we observe in the mega church setting, if I am asked which is an effective model, I would simply point out to the early church. No doubt the early church grew in numbers, perhaps much more growth than what we witness today, if not in steady numbers (for we have more population than the first century), at least in rapid growth. But there are two things to consider: First, the growth of the early church in numbers should not be understood in light of our modern day mega church growth. When church growth is mentioned, it is in relation to the overall growth of the church in a city or town or region. For example, when in Acts 9:31 it is mentioned that the church grew in numbers, it grew in Judea, Galilee and Samaria.   This church growth is not about an individual church growing in a particular locality, eventually becoming a great crowd or a mega church. Indeed, th...

     1 of 3 N ot long back I had a shocking experience. I was speaking to a woman who was sharing with me about attending a mega church in my city. She is attending this church for many years and finds it exciting to be a part of its service. And then she shared with me that there is also a bible study being conducted every week in her house by another group. Do you know who they are? Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I was shocked to hear this. I asked her whether she knows who Jehovah’s Witnesses are. She has no idea about them. This woman is attending an evangelical mega church since many years, yet she didn’t know that JW is a cult in which many sincere people are entangled by its false teachings. The members of JW have penetrated her house to digress this family from some of the cardinal truths of the Holy Bible. When I explained to her who JW's are, she was taken aback. Now this woman is passionate for God and sincerely loves to follow Christ. But s...

What do you think is the pastor's greatest temptation? I am not going to talk on the common battles that are well known to many – gold [money], glory [pride] and girl [lust]. I would like to share with you about something crucial which many pastors do not even think about it as a temptation. One of the reasons, I believe, why the church today is not maturing is due to the pastor's focus on this while neglecting the essential. I think, almost every pastor, who is honest with himself, agrees that his focus is primarily on this and that this is indeed his greatest temptation. I have seldom come across a pastor who is free from this enticement. What could this be? Sunday Service In my years of Christian life and ministry, I have observed that the pastor's greatest temptation is Sunday service . His focus is primarily on getting people together, possibly in large numbers, on Sunday. His main passion is to fill the place with people and feel good to see every member on the chair...

We are aware of the exhortation from God’s word to us—to live holy, to pursue righteousness, to shun evil and to do good. But many of us suppose this process of sanctification is something that happens in isolation. This is something individualistic. This is my pursuit, my responsibility, my concern, my commitment, my act of discipline. Yes, we know it is the Holy Spirit who is the source of sanctification. But we assume He does His sanctifying work just personally in us—the Spirit of God sanctifies and I have to yield to His sanctifying work through submission and discipline. Now, there is no doubt of untruth in this assertion, but is this completely true? Sanctification in Community It is written, "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness " (Heb. 3:12-13). Again it says,...

(Continuation of Part 5) Now, what should our response be when the church leaders do not use the money appropriately? What decision can we make regarding our giving when they neglect poor and the needy, missions and other genuine needs, and lavishly spend money on things that are not truly necessary? There are numerous people who suppose that their responsibility is just to give the money and what happens to that money is not their concern. In my conversation with a young man, the issue was raised about how wisely the finance of the church ought to be spent. This young person said, “I give money to the church and if it is not used properly, it is God who is going to judge them. I can't do anything about it.” I then asked him, “If your sister is sexually abused in the church by a church leader, would you say the same thing?” He blurted, “No!” He was a bright guy—he got the message. Judging One of the major reasons for the abuse of God’s money in the church is because of lack ...

(Continuation of Part 4) I think it is important for us to have a clear understanding of - “Who are the poor?” and “Who are the needy ones?” Describing this would help us to have a better understanding of this message. Poor Randy Alcorn is one of the prolific evangelical authors of our day. His ministry, Eternal Perspective Ministries , is dedicated to teaching and helping the poor in the world. His generosity is such that he gives away 100 percent of the royalties of his books to support missions, poor and other ministries. Now Randy cites the statistics that if you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a house that keeps the weather out, and own a reasonably reliable means of transportation, you are among the top 15% of the world's wealthy. If you have any money saved, a hobby that requires some equipment or supplies (fishing, hunting, skiing, astronomy, coin collecting, painting), a variety of clothes in your closet, two cars (in any condition), and live in ...

(Continuation of Part 3) We have been exploring the Scriptures about how the church’s finance was and should be used. We looked into the word of God and learned the importance given to the aspect of giving and sharing with the poor and needy, and also supporting the laborious Christian workers. There are few more things that are on my heart to share with you in order to give better clarity to the message. Priority There are so many poor and needy people existing in the world. Can we help all of them? Practically speaking, we are aware it is beyond our ability to help every needy person. Nevertheless, there is one thing we can do—we can prioritize . The Holy Bible does give an answer about who are mostly entitled to receive our help. I shared in the first part of these series of messages—the explicit and general Scriptures, individual and corporate examples—about the importance of giving to the needy people. If we carefully notice all these Scriptures, we witness that people with...

(Continuation of Part 2) We have learned till now how the poor and needy were on the priority list of the early church’s financial budget. The book of Acts reveals how some believers gave up even their property to help the needy (Acts 4:32ff). But is there place in the church’s finance to support Christian servant leaders? Of course, there is! Although the money in the early church was used primarily to help the poor and needy, giving priority to those within the family of God, there are few exhortations which speak about assisting Christian leaders too. Those who give themselves to the extensive ministry of the Word and labor in expanding His Kingdom are worthy of generous support. Let us look at the following Scriptures: • 1 Corinthians 9:14 - In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. (Said within the context of the rights of an apostle) • Gal. 6:6 - Anyone who receives instruction in the word must shar...