LEADERS AT WORK
ACTS 6:1-8
The Model
Church, Lesson 12
A problem
rose in the early church that required good leadership on the part of the
disciples and it required the appointment of good lay leadership. To you, what are the qualities of a good lay leader?
Things were going well.
What
can you count on when things are going well? Why? 1
Peter 5:8
When Satan starts to work, strong
leadership is necessary.
In this chapter we see the "LEADERS AT
WORK".
DIFFICULTY IN THE FELLOWSHIP - VS. 1
When Satan can not work from the outside
looking in, he will try to work from the inside looking out! He will do whatever he can to bring about
chaos. He will do anything he can to
limit the work of the Spirit of God.
Please remember that this was still an
all-Jewish church. However there were
two different groups represented among these Christians.
One of the groups is called "The
Hebrews."
The Hebrews were Palestinian Jews, part of
the groups that came back to resettle the land after the exile. These were people like Ezra and Nehemiah.
The other group what is referred here to as
"the Grecians". They are also
known as Hellenists, or Hellenistic Jews.
This group would have been made up of people who grew up outside of the
native
The Hellenists had a Greek culture
background, and this made them different from their brothers, the native
Palestinians.
Satan will find an issue and try to divide
people.
In this case, the issue was the neglect of
the Grecian widows who were being taken care of by the church. Evidently, they were not being as well
treated as the Hebrew widows.
The result was murmuring, or complaining.
Are
there ever legitimate complaints in the church? Why?
How
should complaints be handled?
DISTRACTION FROM THE WORK VS. 2
The problem is brought to the attention of
the right people, the leaders.
Very often people talk about church
problems to everyone except the people who can do anything about it. In this case, the Apostles were made aware of
the problem, and began to deal with it.
This is exactly what we should do as a church "family".
How
would this problem distract the Apostles?
How
can pastors be distracted from the ministry of the Word?
Why
is this a difficulty?
What
does the ministry of the Word involve?
Preaching and teaching in Church services.
Personal evangelism.
Visitation in people's homes, and
hospitals.
Teaching in nursing homes.
Listening and counseling.
How can the church and its leaders help a
pastor to stay focused?
Pitch in.
Quietly tell him when they think he's
not! It is not always the congregation's
fault.
DECISION OF THE APOSTLES Vs. 3
Notice that the solution to the problem is
delegation. And remember the church could have had as many as 20,000 members at
this point.
The less the pastor needs to concentrate
on, the more he can give to the ministry of the Word of God.
There are jobs that require Spiritual
leadership. Surprisingly enough, feeding people was one of them in the early
church. Why were Spiritual people needed in this situation?
Here are the requirements (Discuss)
1. GOOD REPUTATION
2. FULL OF HOLY GHOST
3. FULL OF WISDOM
DETERMINATION FOR MINISTRY VS. 4
Whatever God has given you to do, there
needs to be priorities.
It is possible to get too many things going
at once.
When we have too many things going, we
can't do any of them very well.
For the pastor, it's the ministry of the
Word and Prayer.
For you, emphasize the ministries that you
know God has called you to.
Ezra 7:10
DEPLOYMENT OF DEACONS VSS. 5-6
Looking at the names, it's a good
possibility that all of these men were from the Hellenistic camp.
The Apostles ordained them, or set them
apart for a specific task.
DESCRIPTION OF GROWTH VSS. 7-8