Acts 6:1-7: On Leadership

In Acts 6:1-7, there is a tension between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews: “Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food” (6:1b). The early church grew rapidly in numbers. At the same time, problems came along with it. As I am preparing a sermon (in Chinese) based on this text, I notice a few things about leadership.

The first thing is that “the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers” (6:2a). The apostles took the initiative to address the issue. They rightly discerned the reality, helped the congregation to see the reality, and addressed the reality alongside the congregation. How often leaders (=pastors) ignore or rationalize what is in front of them and live in illusion. One of the main motives behind such ignorance or rationalization is to avoid problems so that they can practice their faith which is context-free. In other words, in order to make sense out of their religiosity, they twist the fact that is in front of them. Their faith is like a bird with no feet. Religion becomes a hand-made utopia. It is ahistorical. Under this type of context-free leadership, the church as a whole misses a lot of chances to experience God and grow toward maturity in Christ in the midst of finding solutions to resolve problems, for God only meets us in reality. The God of Israel is the God of history in the person of Jesus Christ. There is a historical Jesus; however, there is no ahistorical God.

The Twelve called for a meeting and allowed the congregation to see their current state clearly: “Look! This is what is going on. Yes, we do grow in numbers. But we got issue here.” As leaders, we are one step ahead of others. We should see the problem first. Even though we may not see the problem first, we have to be the first ones to take the initiative to address it. If we are not the first ones to bring up the problem, at least we don’t dismiss it when people point out what is obvious. Leaders who don’t see any problems are useless. Leaders who don’t have the guts to face problems are cowardice. When “leaders” are always one step behind others, they are nothing but followers. Or they belong to the crowd, which is made up by nameless individuals.

Secondly, the Twelve prioritized their ministry—the ministry of the Word and prayer. “We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food problem” (6:2b; see also 6:4). Christian leaders must guard their time so that they can handle this sole ministry well. I call this sole ministry because it is extremely important for the well being of the church. If leaders spend too much time on other ministries and ignore this prayer-word ministry, the congregation suffers from the distraction of the leaders. Generally, many leaders are like tourists without a map. They don’t know where they are going and what they are doing. They just follow other tourists. Pastoral ministry is all about the ministry of the Word and prayer. It is the heart of it. Eugene Peterson says that pastoral busyness is laziness. Many busy pastors are lazy because they don’t make efforts to prioritize their ministerial responsibilities. They are busy running errands; however, they miss the most essential ministry: the ministry of the Word and prayer. They look busy, but they are lazy.

Thirdly, because the Twelve kept the main thing as the main thing—the ministry of the Word and prayer, they delegated others to take care of other things, in this case, a food program. Delegation is important in leadership. No one can do it all and do it well. “Select seven men…and give them this responsibility” (6:3). The response is that “everyone liked this idea” (6:5a). The early church was fond of the suggestion and willing to take up the responsibility to face the challenge. Good leadership has to do with delegation. But biblical delegation has to do with godly discernment. Leaders must appoint those who “are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (6:3). Therefore, godly discernment comes from knowledge of others in the congregation. In other words, leaders must know the people so that they can delegate ministerial tasks to them.

The result of good leadership is vividly shown in 6:7—“So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.”