Sermon Video: The Church at Antioch - Acts 11:19-30

Why do some churches grow, and other churches shrink?  What does the same church grow at one point in its history, and then falter in another?  The Bible never tells us directly what we should do to help our churches be healthy and growing beyond the general prescription that we have from Paul that the church needs all the members of its body to contribute.  One thing we can do, however, is look at the examples from Acts of growing churches and successful missionary efforts and attempt to draw out from those passages principles that will stand the test of time.
The church at Antioch wasn't founded on purpose through the missionary efforts of the church at Jerusalem.  It was simply the result of committed followers of Jesus Christ taking their own initiative to share the Gospel beyond their comfort zone of their fellow Jews to the Greeks of the large city of Antioch.  The tremendous success that they met with prompted the church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas to them to investigate.  When Barnabas arrived, he saw clearly that God's grace was among these people (would that any visitor could say that about every church!), and rather than worry about the impromptu nature of this church, Barnabas felt was glad for them.  As he always did, Barnabas encouraged them through his own example and through words, but he soon realized that this church would need a capable teacher if it was to mature. 
It was at this point that Barnabas saw an opportunity to bring Saul back from Tarsus and get him involved once more after nearly ten years of "exile" following the near-riot that his last appearance in Jerusalem caused.  Paul and Barnabas then spent a full year in Antioch teaching and training these new Christians.  The end result was a church that was eager to give back to fellow Christians in need (in other words, a mature church), which they then did in the form of famine relief to Jerusalem.
What was the process of growth for the church in Antioch?  Witnessing, Encouragement, Teaching, Giving.  Is that a prescription for any church?  There will never be a one size fits all formula for a local church, this living, breathing, full of redeemed sinners, organization is far too complicated for that; but it certainly would be a good place to start.

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Sermon Video