What will it take to reach a region with Jesus? 

When we read Acts carefully, we discover cities were not reached merely through events or campaigns, but through multidimensional transformation.

The gospel took root in individuals, reshaped communities, and disrupted economic and political systems, writes Alex Harris
 

What will it take for churches, charities and businesses to collaborate together to reach a city with Jesus? How does a whole city—or even a region—come to know the transforming power of the gospel?

These are not new questions. It is perhaps what many of us desire and long for. They are questions the early church wrestled with, prayed into, and lived out.

The book of Acts does not simply provide us with an ancient record of what the church used to be; it offers us a living vision of what the church can be today. Acts invites us to lift our eyes beyond individual congregations and isolated initiatives and to imagine cities and regions shaped by the good news of Jesus Christ.
 

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How is a city reached?

When we read Acts carefully, we discover that cities were not reached merely through events or campaigns, but through transformation—deep, visible, and multidimensional transformation. The gospel took root in individuals, reshaped communities, and disrupted economic and political systems. In Acts, reaching a city or region always involved more than personal belief; it meant public impact.

Three interwoven dimensions of transformation emerge repeatedly.

 

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1. Personal transformation

Acts records at least 49 named individuals whose lives are personally transformed by encountering Jesus. Often their stories are told in detail—Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), Lydia by the riverbank (Acts 16), the Ethiopian official on the desert road (Acts 8). These stories remind us that regional transformation always begins with personal encounters with Christ.

Paul later reflects on this miracle of conversion when he writes:

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 4:6)

Cities are reached one heart at a time. Evangelism remains essential. Proclamation matters. Testimony matters. No model of regional mission can bypass the personal transformation that comes when individuals respond to Jesus in faith and repentance.

Yet Acts never allows us to stop there.
 

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2. Social transformation

As individuals are transformed, new social realities begin to emerge. In Jerusalem, the early believers respond to the Spirit’s work by reimagining how they live together:

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
(Acts 2:44–45)

By Acts 6, the church is organising itself intentionally to ensure justice and care for vulnerable widows, refusing to allow social inequality to persist within the body of Christ. This concern echoes the heart of God revealed throughout Scripture and articulated clearly by James:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
(James 1:27)

A city being reached for Jesus begins to look different socially. Generosity replaces hoarding. Justice challenges neglect. Compassion confronts exclusion. Churches move beyond charity to advocacy, and beyond good intentions to structural care.

Social transformation is not a distraction from the gospel; it is one of its fruits.

 

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3. Commercial transformation

The gospel also reshapes economic life. In Acts 19, the arrival of the gospel in Ephesus provokes a commercial crisis. As people turn away from idol worship, demand for silver shrines collapses, threatening an entire industry built on false worship.

“You see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia.”
(Acts 19:26)

When Jesus becomes Lord, business practices change, values shift, and profit is no longer the highest good. This kind of commercial transformation is unsettling, even resisted—but it is evidence that the gospel is taking root deeply enough to challenge economic systems.

 

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A living case study: Phillippi (Acts 16)

Acts 16 offers a powerful illustration of how these dimensions come together in the planting of the first European church. In one city, three very different people encounter Jesus:

• Lydia, a successful businesswoman dealing in purple cloth (Acts 16:14–15)
• A slave girl, exploited spiritually and commercially (Acts 16:16–18)
• A Roman jailer, a state employee embedded in the political system (Acts 16:27–34)

These individuals are not an exhaustive list, but they are intentionally representative. Together they reveal the breadth of the gospel’s reach.

• All three experience personal transformation—their hearts are opened to the Lord.
• Lydia’s generosity and hospitality reflect commercial transformation as her wealth is reoriented around God’s purposes.
• The slave girl’s deliverance exposes and breaks oppressive systems, pointing to social transformation.
• The jailer’s conversion shows the gospel reaching into governmental and institutional structures, reshaping how authority is exercised.

This is what it looks like when a city begins to be reached.

 

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From appreciation to collaboration

If cities are reached through personal, social, and commercial transformation, then no single group can carry the task alone. Gospel evangelists, social reformers, business leaders, charity workers, pastors and pioneers are not competitors—they are co-labourers in the mission of God.

Too often we settle for appreciation at a distance: churches applaud charities, charities tolerate businesses, businesses occasionally sponsor churches. Acts calls us beyond appreciation to collaboration.
 

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A vision worth recovering

Acts reminds us that reaching a city is not a metaphor—it is a measurable, visible reality. People are changed. Systems are challenged. Economies are disrupted. Communities are renewed.

The question is not whether it can happen, but how we might collaborate to see it happen?


 Image |  Christian Lue | Unsplash

 

Alex Harris is the Regional Minister for Pioneering and Church Planting in the Yorkshire Baptist Association and the Director of Baptist Church Planting at St Hild Centre for Church Planting.

He also co-facilitates the National Church Planting Network. 

For more information, contact him at alex.harris@sthild.org

 

 

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