Acts 16 First Missionary Journey: Cyprus and Galatia 13:1-52

SBC Family,

We start the first missionary journey tonight with Barnabas, Paul, and Mark. This is the background for the letter to the Galatians. We want to keep Acts 13 and 14 in mind when we study Galatians, so I will point out a few connections between Acts and Galatians tonight. This is the best way to do it so we see the whole picture of what was going on in Galatia and the problems they were having with Judaizers when Paul wrote to them. I will also point out a few other important verses/concepts as we work our way through Acts 13.

The main thing to see is the growth of the church in three ways; numerically, spiritually, and geographically. Often I see Bible churches focusing only on spiritual growth. That is important, but both the Gospels and Acts portray growth in all three ways. I think if the Bible church movement wants to grow it's going to have to start thinking about ways to grow all three ways. Numerically is where we need to focus because geographically is covered by missions, which is a strong emphasis in Bible churches. I don't mean employing church growth gimmicks, but teaching style and accessibility and making room for new people to plug in and be a part are critical.

I had a phone call with a Bible church pastor this week in TX. He has 40-45 members and usually 25 attend on Sunday and 10 on Wednesday. He said, they are all old and there are only three kids in the church, two of whom are his. This is all too common. I asked, "Do the older people want to see young people?" "Of course," he said. Well, then you're going to have to learn to teach the Bible in a way that is more accessible to the common believer or unbeliever that walks in off the street, especially on Sunday at 10:45.

This is where we are and, while we never will sacrifice content, we do want to look again at the content of Scripture and see how it was taught by Moses, Joshua, Jesus, Peter, Stephen, Paul, et. al. I think there are lessons there that can reach more people. I hope to see you tonight.

See the attached handout...

Grace to you,
Jeremy

Attachment:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UxwT-n2RJqeO6PIWBGRBM5TRtTRX4vl-/view?usp=share_link