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Leadership: Acts 6:1-7

Leadership is our first point of discussion for the passionate core-transformation team.  For a church to be healthy, it must have a healthy, vital, effective core of leaders.  Without effective leaders the vital functions of the church will never be accomplished.

Let's point out a few general truths about leadership and the church before we get into what Acts teaches us specifically.  So here are a few things to note about leadership:

1. Everyone desires to lead in some form or another.  This is shown by how irritated or even angry we get when things don't go our way or someone doesn't behave in a way that suits us at church.  We reveal that impulse to lead when we tell ourselves (or whisper to our best bud), "They should do things this way", or "I wouldn't do it that way, this is how it should be done".   This behavior reveals that somewhere inside of us is the desire to influence something or someone in a way that we believe is right or better.  Any time we express our desire to or attempt to influence we are trying to lead.


2. The problem isn't as much about the lack of leaders as much as it is the lack of the knowledge of how to lead effectively.  An organization may have many leaders but if those leaders don't know how to lead effectively then even though the organization has many leaders it still lacks leadership.  Leadership is an activity, or a function, not just a person or group of persons.  


3. Many churches are filled with more "leaders" than they realize. The problem is, without an understanding of effective leadership, that church may be busy, but not effective.  Busy but not healthy, busy but not growing, busy but not unified, busy but not about the work that Christ has really called it to do.  It's important for leaders to learn from Revelation chapters 1-3 in regard to this. We'll check those passages out later!


Basic Leadership requirements: Acts chapter 6:1-7


Acts chapter six is typically the church's precedent and pattern for a church deacon ministry. However, there is much more here to learn about leadership that we must take seriously. This passage reveals leadership principles in two ways.  First we find the explicit, basic qualities expected of servant-leaders prescribed to the early church by the Apostles.  Those expectations of servant-leaders still hold true today.  Leader (ministers) must:
  1. Be wise
  2. Have a good reputation
  3. Be Spirit-filled
Notice also that after they were chosen by the congregation, these leaders were then appointed by the Apostles, after prayer and the laying on of hands, to be in charge of a particular ministry, need, or task.

Now we need to look closer at the passage to discern what other leadership principles are revealed through the church's handling of this issue.  Here are a few things to note:

  1. There are two types of leaders revealed in the passage
    1. Apostolic leadership - appointed by God for the church forever
    2. Congregational leadership - chosen by the congregation, appointed by apostolic leaders for contextual, ever changing needs
  2. The priority of unity
    1. The apostles proposed a solution
    2. The congregation agreed to follow this way of thinking
    3. Each did their part
    4. The church flourished
  3. The priority role of the apostolic ministry/leadership
    1. Preaching and teaching of the word
    2. Prayer
  4. The priority role of the congregational ministry/leadership
    1. Meeting the needs of the congregation
    2. Allow the apostolic ministry to prioritize the word and prayer

The Main point

It was vitally important to the Apostles that prayer and the preaching and teaching of the word was to remain the highest priority of the church.  The reality is that this passage is less about widows being fed and more about how this need could have been a distraction to the apostles, potentially distracting them from their reason for being.  This would have lasting impact on the church. Their goal was to establish a means by which the apostles could remain free to pray, preach, and teach.  

Because they succeeded in keeping this priority, "The word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem." Notice it doesn't say, "And so the need of the widows was handled."  This tells us the real issue in the passage wasn't the feeding of the widows but the threat a lack of good leadership could cause to the apostolic priority of preaching, teaching, and prayer.

The word of God increased because the apostles were able to maintain the priority of prayer and the preaching and teaching of God's word.  The result of this was the numerical and spiritual growth of the church.

This points to the vital need for good, qualified, reputable, and faithful congregational lay-leadership.  Without it, as in the beginning of the story, the needs of the people won't be met.  This type of situation can grow to become a distraction from prayer and the preaching of the word for those who are called to that task, ultimately negatively impacting the health and welfare of the church.

There's a lot more that can be said but I'll save it for an upcoming sermon! Leaders read this!!!









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