Bostons Book Of Acts The Story Of The Quiet Revival Houston

New England’s Book of Acts: The Story of Boston’s Quiet Revival

Examples of Quiet Revival Streams of Growth

Haitians

1 st Haitian Baptist Church

Haitians

Koreans

Korean Church of Boston

Haitians

Koreans

Chinese

Boston Chinese Evangelical Church

Haitians

Koreans

Chinese

Indonesians

Boston City Blessing Church

Does Boston have multi-ethnic churches?

Yes!

(Less than 50% of any one ethnic group)

Some Multi-ethnic Churches

Examples of diversity

1. Hyde Park Presbyterian Church

2. South End Neighborhood Church

3. St. Mary’s Antiochian Orthodox Church

4. Central Assembly of God, East Boston

Church Observations:

Nearly 1/5 of church buildings host services in more than one language , and 56% of new churches have at least one non-English service weekly.

English Spanish Portuguese English Spanish Amharic (Ethiopian)

What church building houses the most congregations?

Ruggles Baptist Church (8)

Anointed Word

Assembly of God Madureia

Boston Korean Covenant

Congregacion Beth Shalom

Igreja Batista Central

The Gate

The Crossing

International Community Church (7)

Immanuel Deaf Church

Boston Church for Mission

Overseas Burmese Christian Fellowship

Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church

Missionary Assembly of God

CB Shalom Baptist Church

Five Acts Parallels: 1 st Century & 21 st Century

God used(s) CITIES!

God used(s) DIASPORA PEOPLE

God used(s) RELATIONAL CULTURE

God used(s) SPIRIT-EMPOWERED PEOPLE

God used(s) a CHURCH COUNCIL

Five Acts Parallels

Cities

Diaspora People

Relational Culture

Spirit-Empowered People

A Church Council

Bridges from the City, to the Region and the World — The 1:8s of the NT

ACTS 1:8. “To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost ends of the earth.”

ROMANS 1:8. “Your faith is being reported all over the world.”

I THESSALONIANS 1:8. “Not only in Macedonia and Achaia…(but) everywhere.”

Jerusalem Rome England India

Boston

Five Acts Parallels

Cities

Diaspora People

Relational Culture

A Church Council

God Uses Diaspora Movements:

Acts 8:1, 4

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria . . . Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

God Uses Diaspora Movements:

Acts 17:26-27

From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any of us.

Judea(5) Numbers indicate sequence listed in Acts 2:9 -11 Diaspora Visitors to Jerusalem at Pentecost Arabia(15) Crete(14) Rome(13) Cyrene(12) Egypt(11) Pamphylia(10) Phrygia(9) Asia(8) Pontus(7) Cappa-Docia(6) Meso-potamia(4) Elam(3) Media(2) Parthian Empire(1)

108 Nationalities Represented in Boston and Cambridge Churches

African

Albanian

Angolan

Antiguan

Argentinean

Australian

Bahamian

Barbadian

Belizean

Brazilian

British

Bulgarian

Burmese

Byelorussian

Cambodian

Cameroonian

Canadian

Cape Verdean

Caribbean/West Indian

Central American

Chilean

Chinese

Colombian

Congolese

Costa Rican

Croatian

Cuban

Curacoan

Czech

Dominican

East Indian

Ecuadorian

Egyptian

Eritrean

Ethiopian

Fijian

Filipino

French

German

Ghanaian

Greek

Grenadian

Guatemalan

Guyanese

Haitian

Honduran

Hong Kong

Hungarian

Indian

Indonesian

Irish

Italian

Ivoirien

Jamaican

Japanese

Kenyan

Korean

Laotian

Latvian

Lebanese

108 Nationalities Represented in Boston and Cambridge Churches

Liberian

Lithuanian

Malaysian

Mexican

Montserratian

Native American

Nicaraguan

Nigerian

Norwegian

Palestinian

Panamanian

Peruvian

Polish

Portuguese

Puerto Rican

Romanian

Russian

Salvadorian

Samoan

Serbian

Sierra Leonean

Singaporean

Slavonic

South African

Spanish (Spain)

Sri Lankan

St. Barts

St. Croix

St. Kittsian

St. Lucian

St. Vincent

Swedish

Syrian

Taiwanese

Tanzanian

Togolese

Tortola, BVI

Trinidadian

Ugandan

Ukrainian

Venezuelan

Vietnamese

Virgin Islands

West African

Yugoslavian

Zimbabwean

Boston & Cambridge worship services are held in 31 languages

Albanian

Amharic

Arabic

Armenian

ASL (Sign)

Burmese

Cantonese

Creole

French

German

Greek

Igbo

Indonesian

Italian

Khmer

Korean

Latin

Latvian

Lithuanian

Malayalam

Mandarin

Polish

Portuguese Creole

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Syriac

Tigrinya

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Yoruba

Boston both receives and sends Christians to do ministry in a global exchange Christians joined together around the world

Five Acts Parallels

Cities

Diaspora People

Relational Culture

A Church Council

Grassroots Leaders emerge from Primary Cultures

Characteristics :

Oral

Extended family

Needs relationally met

Learn by modeling

Spiritual approach to life

Characteristics :

Written

Nuclear family

Needs economically met

Learn by formal education

Scientific approach to life

Secondary Culture: The aspect of culture that has been developing in the world broadly over the past 300 years Primary Culture: The dominant aspect of culture for most of human history

Five Acts Parallels