The Book of Acts records that after the stoning of Stephen, who was one of the early Christians, a great persecution arose against the young Christian church in Jerusalem, and most believers scattered throughout the region, fleeing for their lives (see Acts 8:1).

Regardless of this crisis, Acts continues with accounts of these followers of Christ Jesus sharing their new faith, making new disciples, and sowing the seeds of new churches wherever they went. What in many ways must have felt like a daunting situation—fleeing the familiar and heading into the unknown—was, in fact, a step in an extraordinary expansion of the church that gave Christianity a foothold across the entire Roman Empire.

What can we learn today from these early Christians? Can modern-day challenges to Christian Science branch churches become catalysts for expansion?

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