A Church with a Responsive Spirit

The church at Antioch was not so busy being preoccupied with its own interests that it could not respond to God. In three passages of Acts (11:21; 11:24; 11:26) we see that a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. We also see that there was implied discipleship taking place (11:26). Finally, there is the story of how the church, led by a prophet from Jerusalem named Agabus, responded ta a famine in Judea by collected gifts to send back (11:27-30).

A healthy church today will model a responsive spirit to the call of God - not only to the church itself, but to the concerns of others. What makes this even more remarkable is that the peoples they helped were some of the same ones they run away from to escape persecution.

So, the final two characteristics we can learn from the church at Antioch:

Passion for People Maturing Believers

How does your church measure against the model of the church at Antioch?