Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
Alan Crider argues that the early church “didn’t have any missionary strategy,” yet by AD 100 had congregations “in every part of the empire”; what does that claim suggest about what God may have been using to grow the church that modern Christians often ignore or undervalue?
Another way to ask: If the early church had no mission plan but still spread everywhere by AD 100, what might God have used to grow the church that Christians today often overlook or downplay?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, the church’s growth seems to have come mainly through ordinary believers’ obedient lives—patient, non-coercive, visibly transformed—rather than through planned techniques or campaigns.
- The host teases Crider’s “case that the early church didn’t have any missionary strategy,” yet “by the end of the century, followers of the way were in every place.”
- Crider is quoted: growth happened because “believers obeyed their Lord, taking with them the good news wherever they went.”
- The same quote stresses they went “never using violence or force to bring people into the church.”
- Kevin emphasizes a “surprising lack” of “instructions on how to convert pagans,” “strategy,” and “hardly even mentions of evangelism,” but a “grave concern” for “transformation” and “integrity.”
- Cyprian’s line captures the emphasis: “We do not speak great things, but we live them.”