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Getting the church
organised
I have been thinking about structure and organisation for a while now.
It is something that I believe God has placed on my heart.
Now don’t get scared because I know some people don’t like the thought
of being organised and structure. They run away from it. At the same
time others love the thought of structure and see it as boundaries and
guidelines. It gives them a sense of comfort and freedom.
For me I am somewhere between the two. I like to be organised and
prepared and have structure in place, but I also like to the freedom to
chop and change something if God is prompting me.
Today I want to look at one section from the Bible where they realised
they need to get organised and set some things in place, but the goal of
this was not control or binding people up, it was to release people.
Introduction to Acts
The Book of Acts is a book of action with a capital A. Many things are
happening. It is alive and positive. It sounds like a great time to be
alive. Acts is also a book of beginnings. It records the beginning of
the early church. Things were going along smoothly. People were getting
saved and brought into the fold.
Things are going along perfectly. It sounds like a great church to be a
part of. Then we come to Acts chapter six and we see some things are
going awry. People are starting to complain and some are feeling
neglected. The Apostles notice a problem. It was brought to their
attention and it needed to be sorted out.
Let’s have a look at Acts chapter six.
Reading Acts 6:1-7
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of
discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the
Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being
discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.
Ac 6:2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said,
“We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running
a food program. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well
respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this
responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and
teaching the word.”
Ac 6:5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen
(a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor,
Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the
Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed
for them as they laid their hands on them.
Ac 6:7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers
greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were
converted, too.
As I read through this passage I found there were three points that
jumped out at me.
1. The Apostles were limited in what they could do
We find that with the rapid change and growth in the church, the
Apostles were no longer able to take care of the day to day running of
the church. They needed to drop some of the things and focus on teaching
and prayer.
How did they find out about this problem? Well people started to
complain that they were missing out and the widows of the certain groups
were not getting what they deserved. People felt like they were being
neglected.
The Apostles - even with their great gifts and anointing - were not able
to do everything. They needed help from others to get the job done. They
realized they needed people around them who could help and take some of
the responsibility lighten their load so they could focus on doing the
things God had called them to do.
2. They wanted the right people for the job
The second thing I noticed in this passage was that the Apostles saw
there was a need and they needed help. However they didn’t just want
just anyone in the role. The wanted a certain type of person.
On the surface we might be tempted to think that anyone could hand out
food. It’s a no brainer as a good friend of mine would say! You don’t
have to be deeply spiritual or overly gifted to do
this type of thing. But I think the Apostles
realized that even though it was a simple task, they needed the right
people.
We see that the Apostles asked the people to choose seven from amongst
them who they felt were made of the right stuff. They wanted people who
were well respected, the right character, full of the Holy Spirit and
God’s wisdom. The Apostles realized the need to have people who were
solid of character and whom could show discernment when needed.
I think they wanted to structure in place so they could trust that
things would be taken care of and problems could be sorted without them
needing to be involved. Again I believe this was so they could devote
themselves to the teaching of the Word and prayer.
So that leaves one question. What was the result of the new structure in
the early church?
3. The new structure led to more people being saved
We see the answer in verse seven, “So God’s message continued to spread.
The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the
Jewish priests were converted, too.”
The result of the new structure and having the right people in place was
a much healthier church. The people were unified again, the complaints
stopped, the message continued to spread greatly and even some of the
Priests were converted. Bottom line is that people were saved and
growing in Christ.
How does this apply to us?
This is what I believe will happen in our church. We are putting some
structure in place and we are setting the right people in place. We are
doing this not to inhibit or constrain us, but to give us freedom to
move forward in God.
Personally I believe having the right people, doing the right jobs, will
lead to a healthier church and it will allow us to reach our community.
And for me I think that is what it is all about!
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