Wesley’s Church Growth

Acts 2 v 41 : Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
 
The verse immediately follows Peter's sermon at Pentecost. As I write we celebrated Pentecost a week ago.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit became available to all and the growth of the early church began.
 
A week prior to the celebration of Pentecost was Aldersgate Sunday.  Aldersgate Sunday commemorates the "Strange warming of the heart" experienced by John Wesley during a religious meeting.  In his journal he wrote:
 
" I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death".
 
Though he was an Anglican priest at the time, this experience has been described by others as his Evangelical Conversion.  His brother, Charles, had a similar experience around the same time.  The hymn "O for a thousand tongues to sing" was written by Charles in commemoration of his renewal of faith.  There is surely little doubt that the Wesleys’ experience was the Holy Spirit moving.  It led to a worldwide movement (the Methodist Church) and some of the great hymns we still use for worship. 
 
Forward to 2020 and we are in a pandemic.  Yet it seems that during the pandemic there are more people wanting to find out more about God and engage with religious activities.  A recent press article contained a number of examples, one being the Alpha course run by Holy Trinity Brompton which has twice as many participants online as it did in person.
 
So, going back to the verse, can we help people to accept the message?  In Wesley's hymn one of the verses asks God to help us do that:
 
"My Gracious Master and My God
Assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the world abroad
The honours of thy name"
 
I've observed 3 main ways that Christians seem to want to help: monetary giving; giving of time and energy; and prayer.  In this case we can probably also add "invite".  Many of us probably instinctively do one of them or feel more comfortable with one or two of them than the others.  Here are some thoughts:
 
Time and Energy: there are various ways the church and local organisations are helping during Covid.
 
Maybe you are a natural "inviter".  Perhaps you could invite a friend, family member or neighbour to join one of the Online Sunday Services.
 
Prayer: pray that the Holy Spirit will move and bring more people to God; and pray for those giving money, time and energy and for those inviting.
 
The book of Acts is the inspirational story of the early church.  I pray it will inspire all of us who want more people to come to God.