Taking the Lead

On Father's Day this year I will be preaching from Acts 6. The church was growing and on the move. And then a crisis developed. There is something sure about crisis. They occur. if you think you will be problem free then you are mistaken. This crisis occurred in an area that was unexpected. Another crisis had been averted and that was the cause. For years the Temple met the needs of Jewish widows who had no other resource for care, the Quppah.

The Quppah was a provision of money enough to purchase 14 meals. Kind of like an early "meals on wheels". As these widows came accept Jesus as Lord there were those who stated if you are going to trust in Jesus then your support will be lost. So the church stepped and cared for these women. It has been suggested that a good deed will lead to crisis, and that is what happened.

There were two groups of Christians: those who came out of Judaism and those that were Greek. And the Greek Christians felt that there widows were being under-cared for. Hence, the problem. It was not that the care of the Jewish widows was problematic but the Greek widows were unintentionally left out.

So what was there to do? The options are always: do nothing, feel overwhelmed, or do something. The Apostles showed Spirit-filled wisdom that day. They called together the disciples, all of them. And they had them choose seven men who deal with the problem. They acted. They led.

What about you?

Will you be frozen in place or, will you lead?

Pastor Al