What If Revival Filled Our Region, Not Just One Building?
A call for revival that fills up many churches—not just one megachurch.
"So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied." (Acts 9:31)
One Church?
Notice that Acts 9:31 speaks of one church in all of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.
Not many church-es. But the church spans three regions.
This is one of only two places in Acts where church (ekklesia) appears in the singular while clearly referring to multiple local church gatherings.1
This teaches us an important truth: each local congregation, no matter how big or small, is not just a part of the church but a visible expression of the one, holy, universal church of God.
The heavenly and invisible Church becomes real to us through local, earthly, and visible gatherings of believers.
Not Multi-Site Churches, But Multiplying the Jerusalem Church
I think the best reason NOT to read Acts 9:31 as support for modern-day multi-site church structures is that it links back to Acts 8:1.2
Acts 8:1 says,
"There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria."
That scattering began with Saul's persecution when there was only a single church in Jerusalem. But in Acts 9:31, shortly after Saul's conversion, we see that the Jerusalem church now exists as a scattered church in various locations.
So Acts 9:31 functions like a literary bookend. It summarizes the spread of the gospel and how a single church that started in Jerusalem did not shrink under pressure but expanded: numerically, geographically, and spiritually.
How Big Are These Churches?
Even though we do not have precise numbers about the size of these churches, we do know this: Peter visits saints and disciples in towns like Lydda and Joppa, which both have populations of only a few thousand. Therefore, both towns are relatively small by today's standards, and Luke says that "many believed in the Lord" (Acts 9:42).
This means Acts 9:31 celebrates the growth and multiplication of smaller churches that are spread across a larger geographical region. The focus throughout Acts isn't about the success of one large gathering or even one really fruitful preacher.
As Jesus said, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matt. 18:20). Christ is present in the smallest towns or tiny gatherings of believers, whosoever calls upon His name as they faithfully preach and apply His word.
A Revival of Many Churches, Not One Megachurch?
So then, what if we prayed for a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit for the Church of God in an entire region instead of only praying for growth or revival to come to our individual church.
If Acts 9:31 inspired a fresh wave of prayer for a region like Chicago, then those prayers would NOT likely be about filling up one building, but they would be about the Holy Spirit spreading across this entire region, filling up neighborhoods with many faithful gospel-preaching churches.
The book of Acts celebrates the multiplication of several smaller churches that all started from one very large church in Jerusalem. Perhaps we too should pray for and celebrate the spread and growth of the gospel that is happening in other churches all around our city!
The other is Acts 20:28, where Paul speaks to the elders of the Ephesian church and calls them stewards of the church of God. One local gathering, yet part of the one universal church.
Also notice that Acts 9:31 includes Galilee, which appears nowhere else in Acts and the pairing of Judea and Samaria occurs only three times in all of Acts (Acts 1:8, 8:1, and 9:31).