the church expands

         The growth of the church is one of the most remarkable stories in history.  Jesus had been crucified, which would normally have ended any continuation of his ministry.  However the disciples experienced the presence of the resurrected Jesus and his command to preach the Good News to all of the earth.
          On Pentecost, a Jewish holy day, the Spirit of God descended upon the disciples and they embarked on the mission of telling the world about Jesus.  The Book of Acts tells a portion of this story.  I say a portion because there were many churches about which we read, that we have no idea who started them.  It is as if one person believed in Jesus, told another and soon there was a church.

       The greatest evangelist in the history of the church however was the Apostle Paul.   Beginning his career as a persecutor of the church he ended up not only planting multiple churches but his letters form the bulk of our New Testament.  His letters were never pure theology but were instead theology wrapped in pastoral concerns for the needs of the newly birthed churches.
          While some of the letters attributed to Paul, have been questioned as being authentic, they are still part of our canon, and thus carry great weight in terms of their direction for the life and work of our faith communities.  I believe the best approach to Paul's letters are to read them all the way through at a sitting and then reflecting on them, for this is how they were meant to be read.