ACTS 6:1-3  During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers - "Hellinist" - toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, "It wouldn't be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we'll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we'll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God's word.  (The Message)

Image by Gert Altmann @ pixabay

I love the book of Acts, I find the establishment of the early church exciting as thousands come to believe in Jesus. But because it was a real event, it was not without its tense moments. There were inevitable conflicts like we see today, favouritism comes to the fore and tensions rise. 

As I read through this it is clear that the Greek believers were being discriminated against. It is not clear if this was intentional or not but either way, it was happening. It makes me wonder who the equivalent to the Hellinistic believers are in our modern day. Who feels on the outer these days? It can be demoralising to feel like you are not as welcome as others, but it can happen. This feeling could be as a result of how long someone has been at the church, if they have kids or not and what they're like, how much money they make, their appearance... there are so many shallow reason that result in people feeling like they are on the outer. 

I have been in a church that no matter how hard I tried I never felt like I belonged. I don't know if those at the church meant for it to happen but it did. But the other week someone in my current church made the following  comment - I know the people in your bible study are tight - and this made me cringe a little. Yes we are tight, and I love that I can share life with these people, but I hope it doesn't make others feel like they are on the outer. It is something I would hate. We need to be on the lookout to make sure that everyone feels included and that we go out of our way to include people. Recently I organised a trivia night for our church camp and I needed two people to help with marking and adding up scores on the night. The first person I asked was someone who always says yes and is involved in everything, she is a faithful servant. When I asked her she responded by saying sure no worries. I also felt led to ask someone I wasn't initially thinking of as the 2nd person. This was in response to the comment about our group being tight. This is someone who had occasionally come to our bible study group but doesn't really come anymore. I don't know how they feel or why they stopped coming but I just felt led to ask her. She also said yes but it was a very different yes. It was an I would love to help in any way and even roped her husband in saying he can help if needed. It was like she was glad someone had included her to help. It made me feel a bit guilty. See I am one of those people that will put my hand up and get involved and if I have an idea I will let people know. But not everyone is like me, there are some people, and my husband is one, who would love to get involved but is not comfortable putting himself out there and so doesn't always get involved, when he has so much to give. I think we need to look out for those who may not feel included, even if we are not doing anything to contribute to that in our mind, let's be active includers. 

The other thing that stood out to me in this passage was the disciples knowing their role. The church was growing as they were preaching. Yes there were issues, but the disciples needed to be preaching, so they had the church appoint 7 others to deal with the issues that were inevitably arising. This was a good thing. But I do wonder if this chain of command was followed. You see, even though we have people in positions sometimes people just want to have their concern heard by the lead person, the minister. They often take their concern out of all proportion. I used to be a head teacher at a school and one of my pet peeves were the people who did not follow the structure and on the first email to the teacher would cc me in, or even worse the principal. This was without even hearing what the teacher had to say. I am not saying there is never a time to bring those above in, but it is often less that we think. People are put into positions as they are trusted in those positions. If there is a concern about say the music, speak to the music director, and know they may not agree with you and that might have to be it. If there is a concern with the morning tea roster, it is not the role of the minister, leave them to preaching and praying, like it is modelled in today's passage. I know I have been guilty of talking to ministers, when I should not have, it is hard when they are your friends too, but they need to be given the time to lead without being bogged down by something the 7 (or whatever number it is in your church) can deal with. Don't we want to see more people come to know Jesus, don't we want to allow our ministers the time to do the more vital task for them?