As a ministry leader, Acts 6 messes me up. In Acts 6, the Greek speaking believers felt they were being discriminated against in the distrubution of food by the Hebrew believers. The Apostles said it wouldnt be right if they left the prayer and preaching the Word to serve tables. (Lots of lessons there but I’ll skip those in this post)
The solution? The Apostles told all the other disciples to pick 7 men full of good reputation, full of the Spirt and wisdom (Acts 6:3) to buss tables. Did you get that?!?! The criteria to BUSS TABLES: 1. Good Reputation 2. Full of the Spirit 3. Full of wisdom
Let’s be honest, we don’t have this kind of criteria in our churches to serve tables. Most churches BARELY have this much criteria to be ministry leaders and directors. I know youth pastors, small group leaders, worship leaders, children’s ministry directors, media directors and more that don’t meet these three benchmarks. Be honest, how many people in your church serve tables at the church pot luck or at the soup kitchen that don’t even believe in God let alone are FULL of the Spirit?
This brings me to the question: have we set the bar too low? To we allow too much to slide by under the guise of grace? To we allow lesser quality people to lead because they have a gift? Do we too often quickly fill a need with able bodies that have unable hearts? There are pastors of churches that would NOT be serving tables at the church pot luck in Acts 6. Think of the pastors with bad reputations that continue to lead churches or start new ones after they were kicked out of their last church for banging his assistant.
My question is this: have we lowered the bar in the name of “grace?”
What do you think?
Czar Thoughts 
Gabe Said:
on April 19, 2010 at 10:03 am
We’ve lowered the bar in the name of pragmatic provision of need, rather than grace, I think. We need willing people and, therefore, we dole out duty as though it is just a part of every church ‘attendee’s role.
There is a church in my town I am intimately familiar with that doesn’t even have membership. No membership, just attendance. But they stress serving. That serving is how you grow closer to God. Can you guess where that leads?
czarthoughts Said:
on April 19, 2010 at 10:23 am
I’ll take self righteousness and legalism for $1000 Alex. Service ONE PART of getting to know Him better. But if you ignore the major parts then service leads to works based salvation.
Besides, w/o membership how do you do church discipline?
Gabe Said:
on April 19, 2010 at 10:27 am
Church discipline. That’s funny. Without membership you can’t do discipline, you can’t do discipleship and you can’t do anything aside from create a social club. Doesn’t matter how spiritual you make it, it’s just a group of like-minded individuals.
I taught my group of men last Wednesday on the end of Eph 3 and where it says, ‘rooted and grounded in love’. And I had to show them that service FOR Christ’s love is legalism and service FROM Christ’s love is our calling. It is a subtle difference, but a big one.