The Church God Wants us to Be
April 21, 2024 / Tim McCoy, Lead PastorA Chapter a Day
- Sunday, April 21, Acts 21
- Monday, April 22, Acts 22
- Tuesday, April 23, Acts 23
- Wednesday, April 24, Acts 24
- Thursday, April 25, Acts 25
- Friday, April 26, Acts 26
- Saturday, April 27, Acts 27
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What do you know about our church?
1. Ingleside was begun in . . .
a. 1931 b. 1951 c. 1971 d. 1991
2. How many charter members did Ingleside have at its founding?
a. 33 b. 53 c. 123 d. 203
3. True or False Ingleside has had five Lead Pastors so far.
4. Typical Sunday morning worship attendance now (including the livestream) is about . . .
a. 1,800 b. 2,000 c. 2,200 d. 2,400
5. Ingleside is a church.
Bonus: True or False Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the glory of God.
Acts 9:31 (ESV)
So the church [ekklesia] throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Five characteristics:
(1) Peace – free from outside interference
(2) Strength – built up, fortified, developed
(3) – “walking in the fear of the Lord”
(4) Encouragement – the special ministry of the Holy Spirit, the paraclete
(5) – multiplying, increasing numerically
Acts 14:21-23 (ESV)
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (ESV)
In a healthy church, there is:
(1) Spiritual strength
(2) – “continue”
(3) Doctrinal fidelity – committed to the boundaries of “the faith”
(4) Preparation and toughness to be faithful through “tribulations”
(5) Strong, exemplary
(6) Dependence on the Lord – “prayer and fasting”
Acts 16:5 (ESV)
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
- God intends for our church to be both and .