The Jerusalem Church: A Case Study
What if the first church understood something about being the church that we have forgotten?
The church in Jerusalem began with about 120 believers. Within only a few years, Acts describes a community numbering in the tens of thousands. Then intense persecution struck. Believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, while the apostles remained behind in Jerusalem.
Yet the church did not collapse.
It multiplied.
The Jerusalem Church: A Case Study goes back to Acts and asks three simple questions:
What did those first believers understand the church to be?
What did they understand their mission to be?
How did they actually carry it out?
Following the biblical record, this short case study examines the Jerusalem church as a functioning community-not simply as an inspiring story from the past. It explores the body of Christ, house churches, covenant relationships, disciple-making, equipping the saints, multiplication, decentralized ministry, and the remarkable spread of the gospel when ordinary believers were forced from Jerusalem.
Along the way, familiar passages take on new significance. What did Paul mean when he called believers members of one body? Why did the Jerusalem believers meet both publicly and from house to house? Who was actually expected to do the work of ministry? Why does Luke shift from believers being added to their number to disciples being multiplied? And how could the church continue expanding when its apostles stayed behind?
This is not a proposal for another church program or organizational model. It is an invitation to look again at the evidence.
God hasn't changed. The gospel hasn't changed. The Great Commission hasn't changed. The world still needs Jesus. So what has changed?
The Jerusalem Church is a short, Scripture-centered case study designed to be read individually or explored together as a Bible study.
Perhaps the first church has something to teach us about becoming the church again.
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