We continue our in-depth look into Acts 6:1-7 in order to learn more about how the local church is to operate as a body. This is important for leaders to reflect upon, as well as every member of a local church. There is an incredible text here to help give us valuable principles on how to work together.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
(Acts 6:1-7)
People were complaining. News came to the apostles. Folks ain’t happy, and here’s why, certain widows were being neglected in the daily care offered by the congregation. So, how did the apostles respond?
Well, first of all, let’s look at how they could have responded:
- Ignore the complaints. Try to pretend there wasn’t really a problem.
- Blame-shift this problem on to someone else.
- Get defensive. Take to heart that this was an attack on their leadership.
- Say this wasn’t their issue to fix.
- Think of the Greek widows as less worthy of attention, since the Jewish widows were more like family to them.
- Act really concerned, shed a few tears, and commit to doing something about it, but then never following through.
Maybe you all can think of many other ways the apostles could have responded. But, what do we see in the text? They knew it was a problem, and they took serious measures to make sure this problem was solved.
This is what we need from our leaders in the church. When problems and complaints come to our ears, we need to consider them. It is not time to get defensive, or to try to put our heads in the sand. Call it for what it is, it’s a problem and we need to go about doing what we can as a group to fix it.
These 12 apostles give us a golden example of how to respond as a leader when problems arise in a church.
Here are the other articles in the series: