14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. Acts 5:14-16

As I’ve mentioned earlier, there was a extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit on the early Believers. With that move came great responsibility. God was healing people and delivering them from evil spirits. God was changing many lives. The word got out quickly about what was happening. Peter and John and the rest of the Disciples were embarrassing the leaders as we will see shortly.

Here’s something to remember about this kind of move of God. It will draw a lot of unwanted attention from leaders. That’s why underground house churches have to be careful. If they grow too quickly, local leadership will investigate and shut down the house church quickly. Sometimes they’ll throw church leaders in jail…or worse.

How would sudden church growth affect your community, especially if it were only one church? It’s difficult for us to imagine this scenario because It doesn’t happen that often. Certainly God is saving people and He still heals people, but not with the numbers we see in this passage.

Here’s an opened ended question that only you can answer, but how do you suppose your church could get to that kind of phenomenal growth again? Can it? What would it take?