100 Days to a Healthier ChurchSample

Adjust the Plan

Week 9

Day 57 (Saturday)

Today’s Big Idea: Something new is happening. This week, we’ll spend every day in a different portion of a single story—the extraordinary story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. This passage deserves so much time at this spot in the 100-Day process because it was a watershed moment for change in the early church. In this chapter, a new need arises, God proposes a change, and Peter adapts to meet those needs under God’s guidance. It’s hard to imagine a situation more suited to what we’re hoping to accomplish over the next 40+ days together.

Key Verse: At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly (Acts 10:1–2).

Thoughts to Consider: Cornelius was a gentile, but not just any gentile—he was a Roman. And Cornelius was a soldier, a centurion, the commander of an entire regiment. There was no one other than Caesar himself who the average Jew would have considered more ungodly or unclean. But Cornelius was a generous, prayerful, God-fearing man, and God wanted Cornelius and his household to know about Jesus. So God sent an angel to tell Cornelius to seek out a man named Peter.

If it feels like changes are coming too fast in your church, try to imagine how big the changes were that were about to hit Peter and the early church. Cornelius was coming! And God had sent him. In some ways, it would have been less confusing if Cornelius had sent his regiment to arrest Peter than sending servants with an invitation to dinner.

As you ponder this passage, ask yourself, what’s happening with the people like Cornelius who live near your church. There always are such people—good, generous, prayerful folks who don’t know where to go. If God isn’t guiding them to your church for their next steps of spiritual growth, why not? What can you and your church do to make yourselves available?