The home in which I live is a small home.  We constantly deal with the clutter issue.  With limited space we have things that stay and things that go.  I cling to things that have no value to anyone else.  I have letters from old friends and from my wife.  I have trinkets from trips, books I will never read but might need.  Some find it easy, but I find it hard to decide what to keep and what to throw away.  Do you know what the key is that makes it so difficult?  I might want or need it in the future.

                    I have no trouble burning the newspapers or trashing empty cereal boxes.  Why?  Because I know I don’t need them and don’t want them.  But other things are move difficult.

                    We face this same problem in the church.

                    We live in a changing world.  The church has the job of proclaiming an eternal message to this changing world.  Our methods and programs might change, but our message can never change.  Christ saved Peter, James and John by faith.  Christ saves you and I by faith today as well.  Love your neighbor does not have a timeline.

                    How do we know when a method or program is no longer needed?  How do we know when we should change?  How do we determine as a church what we should be doing with our time and resources and what we should discard?

                    Acts 6 gives us the picture from the other end.  Here we find the church starting a ministry.  I would suggest to you that one answer to the questions, what do we keep and when do we stop a ministry, would be, “We keep it as long as it has a purpose and we stop it or modify it when it no longer fulfills its intended purpose.”

                    Acts 6 is before Acts 4 and Acts 5.  In Acts 4 the church showed the depth of their love by being of one heart, one mind and one purse.  People were selling property and bringing the money to the apostles to give to other Christians who were in need.  What deep love!

                    Acts 5 tells us the story of Annaias and Sapphria who lied to God and the apostles about the percentage that they gave from a land transaction.  The money wasn’t important, but confronting the lie was very important.  God wants the church to be a holy church, not necessarily rich in material things, but rich in it’s love for God.  If we are rich in our love for God, we will contribute to the things that God supports.  But if we are rich in material things, we can ignore God altogether.

                    The giving of the people created a problem.  So much money was coming in and people had so many needs that the apostles were swamped in meeting the needs of the people.  It appears that they were juggling teaching, prayer and overseeing the distribution of the food to the needy.  Someone had to go to the market to buy the food, bring it back, give it to the people who needed it and oversee all that was going it.  It was a major task.

                    Not only that, the apostles were not doing a good job managing all of this and they knew it.

                    “1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

                    Here is the problem.  The numbers of disciples were increasing.  The church was growing.  They didn’t have a building, the apostles didn’t have an office, no staff, no secretaries to help them. 

                    The complaints were running along some natural divisions.  In this case it was the Grecian Jews against the Hebraic Jews.  The close one got to Jerusalem, the closer the ties of language (Hebrew), culture and religion.  The Hebraic Jews were mostly from Palestine and lived near Jerusalem and were conversant in Hebrew.  The Grecian Jews were Greek speaking and came from the rest of the Roman Empire.  For some reason, not specifically stated, the Grecian widows were not receiving help with food.  We have to understand that those who sold the property were from Jerusalem and so were Hebraic Jews.  Was there an unwritten rule that their friends and family would be helped first?

                    What we see here is the first crack in the church life.  People were not being treated fairly and it was creating a division.

                    If it wasn’t between these two groups it could have been something else.  Men vs. women.  Pharisee converts vs. other kinds of converts.  Rich vs. poor.   Slave vs. free.  The church has always struggled on how to build family ties with people from different backgrounds.

                    So what would you do in this situation?  Fire the apostles?  They were not getting the job done very well at all.  What would you do if you were an apostle?  Quit?  I mean it would be tough to minister to a church with this kind of division.  Try harder?  Would you put in more hours, more time, more energy to get the job done?

                    2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

                    What the apostles or “The Twelve” did was to set priorities.  They defined their ministry profile.  They asked themselves,  “What is our responsibility and what is most important?”

                    So many of us fall at this point.  We don’t have priorities.  Or if we do, they are not in line with the Bible.  Many of our problems come because we do not have our priorities straight.

                    Do yo know what the Bible says our priorities are?  Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  Everything else is second. 

                    3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

                    The apostles not only set priorities, but they suggested a solution.  This is always helpful.  The apostles could have said, “It’s our job to preach, it’s your job to take care of this mess.”  But they didn’t.  Love is kind.  It seeks to help.  And the apostles suggest a solution.

                    Notice I said that they “suggested” a solution.  This was a huge problem.  The apostles did what leaders do, suggest solutions.  They didn’t dictate the solution, they didn’t cram it down the throats of the people.  But it is obvious that this solution came as a suggestion.  Why do I say that?

5 This proposal pleased the whole group.

                    The KJV uses the word “saying.”  It was not a command.  Phillips translations uses the word “suggestion.” 

                    What would have happened if the people didn’t agree with some aspect?  It looks like there would have been further dialogue.  The issue was not the people, it was the distribution of food.  We do not wreastle against flesh and blood Paul says.  We are in a spiritual battle.

                    A situation that could have deteriorated because of the emotions involved ended up bringing the church together.

They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

                    The church acted and chose seven men.  These seven men were full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom.  Most commentators believe that these were the first deacons, though that title is not specifically given to them in this passage, a view to which I agree.

                    These seven men may all have been Grecian Jews.  Their names indicates Greek names rather than Hebrew names.  It was mostly Hebreic Jews that sold the land, brought the money to the apostles, but it was the Grecian Jewish Christians who dispersed it to needy people.

                    Notice the result.

7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:1-7, NIV.

                    Do you think that an opportunity to derail the church was avoided again?  This could have had a huge effect on the life of the church.  But God led the apostles and people together to find an effective solution to this problem.  And with the solution, the church continues to grow even more!

                    What I want us to note here, to bring us back to my main point, is that this ministry started to meet a need.  The deacons were formed to distribute monies given to the church to help people in need.

                    How long should something like this last?  I would say that this kind of ministry lasts as long as there is a legitimate need for it.

                    As we look through the New Testament we find some churches with deacons and some without.  In Titus 1:5 Paul instructs Titus in this manner:

                    “5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” Titus 1:5, NIV.  In 1 Timothy, Paul speaks of both Elders and Deacons.

                    What I gather from studying this is this fact:  Every church needs someone to teach and preach the word of God, to pray, to administer the church.  But not every church may have the need to distribute money to the needy in their fellowship or community.

                    Why not?  You might ask. 

                    First, the church may be too small.  Titus was a church planter.  The church would not be at the place where the distribution to the needy would take much time or effort.

                    Second, the church and community may be affluent.  If we talk about local needs, it might be that there would not be enough local needs in a rich community to need people dedicated to that task.  They certainly needed it in Jerusalem, but not yet in Crete

                    So we constantly need to ask ourselves as a church, “Is what we are doing meeting a need?  Is it effective?  Is it accomplishing the purpose for which it is intended?”

                    If the answer is no, then we have two choices.  Modify what we are doing or stop doing it all together. 

                    Sometimes we continue with what we do because it is our tradition.  We are so used to doing it that change seems irreligious.  Tradition is not bad if it meets a need.  But sometimes the only need tradition meets is our need to continue our tradition.

                    A visitor to a church noticed people bowing when they came to the corner of the sanctuary and turned down the aisle.  The person asked someone, “Why do people bow to the wall before they turn?”  The church member said, “I don’t know, but let me find someone who might know.”  He soon returned with an 85 year old man.  The man said, “I am not sure myself why we bow, but I remember my grandfather mentioning something about a chandelier hanging there that people had to duck under to go around the corner.”

                    Did you know that Sunday School was started to teach miner children in England how to read?  The text they used was the Bible.  When Sunday School came to the United States, many churches refused to let it meet inside the building.  Now Sunday School is in most churches in America.  But if Sunday School does not meet a need, then we have to consider the option of modifying how we do Sunday School or finding another way to teach our people about God.

                    Did you know that one reason for the Evening Service in the church was for evangelism?  Often the morning service would be for Christians and the Evening service for non-Christians.  However, Christians stopped inviting non-Christians so the service become one for Christians.  Is the evening service biblically mandated?  No.  Does it meet a need?  That is a question we should always ask.  If the answer is yes, keep going.  If the answer is no, modify it or find another way to get the message out.

                    It was traditional for many churches to hold their services in the Morning at 11:00 AM.  This was to give farmers time to milk the cows.  We found that the earlier we made our services, the more people came.  So we changed the time because the need for 11AM services disappeared with the loss of farms.  We now have an 11 AM service as a second service.

                    Why do we do what we do?  Is it the most effective way?  If we were to humble ourselves before God and pray, “God, is what we are doing what you want us to do?  Is what we are doing allowing us to be what you want us to be?  Is what we are doing fulfilling your plan and your purpose?” ,  I believe God would reach out and bless us greatly.

                    He would enable us to hang on to the traditions that are honorable and worthwhile, modify the practices that need tweaking, and eliminate those things that hinder his work from going on.

                    But for God to speak, we all have to be listening.  And if we are, then what is said will please God, please the people, and the church has a greater chance to be the church God wants it to be in this world.

                    Wouldn’t you love to be on God’s cutting edge?  Wouldn’t you want to be part of something that can only be explained by God’s presence and power?  Then open yourself up to God, to his Spirit, to his work.