Scripture Reference: Acts 6:1-8

Select

The kind of leaders that the church needs must be very carefully selected. The disciples instructed the early church to pick out from among themselves the leaders needed (Acts 6:3). Here we learn that the democratic ideal was practiced in the apostolic church. The apostles said to the members, “Pick out from among you . . . whom we will appoint.” The whole church was invited to participate in the selection of suitable men to serve as the first leaders. This was not the decision of Peter alone, nor even of the apostles only, but rather all of the members were privileged to share in this appointment.

This passage leads us to pause and remind ourselves how serious and how solemn a business it is to exercise any influence over or to cast a vote in favor of the appointment of anyone into any position of responsibility in the Lord’s work. The seriousness of the church’s business arises from the fact that it can be made or marred, advanced, or retarded by the quality of men and women who are placed into office.

We learn from this passage that people should be selected only after much prayer. In Acts 6:6 Luke reported, “These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”

The church today desperately needs people who will work for the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone has said that in the church there are two kinds of members; workers and shirkers. There are those who are willing to do anything, and there are those who are willing for the others to do everything. Also, there are three kinds of people; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who have no idea of what has happened.

It is the moral and spiritual responsibility of every member of the church to have a definite place where that individual seeks to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the congregation as a whole to prayerfully consider who will be elected to hold specific offices in the church.

Phillips Brooks was a great Puritan preacher. One day he said:

Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be strong men and women. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work will be no miracle; but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.

Would you be willing to say, “I am only one, but I am one. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do, and what I should do, with God’s help, I will do.”

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
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