The church has endured persecutions, problems, and crises throughout history and something has always happened when the church goes through these periods—it grows. The church doesn’t just survive, it thrives during hard times. In our new sermon series, Scattered and Thriving, we will look at the first century church and how during great persecution, not only did it survive, it thrived and grew stronger. Our first sermon is “Scattered and Strong,” and we will examine what the early church did when they couldn’t meet in a large group because of persecution and how God used persecution for the church to become focused on what God wanted them to be.