God speaks to Peter through a dream to prepare him to put aside his old cultural biases so his mind won't be too blown when he hears that God also sent a message to a Roman centurion — a leader of oppressive army occupying Peter's country.

Have you ever been written off as a lost cause? Paul had, but Jesus called him and he became instrumental in the early spread of Christ's Church. Which leads us to ask... who have you written off that you should still be pursuing?

Guest speaker Keith Kautz shares a few important (and a little convicting) questions that he takes from the story of Jesus confronting Saul/Paul and calling him to a new ministry for Him, rather than against Him.

We apologize for publishing the past two episodes so late. We're working to have our episodes come out more reliably, so they can be a better asset for Grow Group leaders and our congregation. This week we talk about how things that make us uncomfortable are often God's way of pushing us to the next stage in our growth.

Sometimes discomfort is the thing that stimulates the biggest growth, and so it was with the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and the Church's growth into the world we see in Acts.

In part 4 of our Tetelestai series, Pastor Jon talks about "stepping into a moment." On the podcast we talk about what that moment looks like, the nature of being a Witness for Christ, and how exactly we might show that little bit of courage in our lives.

Stephen was the first martyr of the church after Jesus' accension. He had an opportunity to back down, or step into a moment and be courageous. When his life was threatened, he began to preach. What would our world look like if every Christian had even a little more of such courage?

Galen ended this week's sermon with the idea that "Living things grow, and growing things change." We'll talk about how this affected the early church, modern church, and the call to action on Acts 6 for each of us.

Living things grow. Growing things change. Galen visits the growing structure of the early church and what we can learn from it in the modern one.

Today we start a little "in the weeds" stepping further into the oikonomia idea Galen presented and how it fits into the theological model called Dispensationalism.

BUT THEN we get back to more applicable questions of how well we follow the examples of the first Christians in the days after the Pentacost.