The Possibilities of Problems

If I had to make my living with my hands my family would starve to death. If you were to ask my wife how she’s managed to live with her mechanically challenged husband she would reply: “Very, very carefully!”

But I have learned to live with shriveled expectations of my handyman-ness. Because I don’t believe I can fix anything that’s been broken, I usually don’t even try. When I do try, I tend to give up whenever I hit a snag, which is usually within minutes after picking up one of “my wife’s” tools.

It’s not that I don’t want to change. During a recent move, I decided I was going to buy my first power tool. I bought a Makita power drill. No Black & Decker business--I was going right to the top. We were moving into a brand new home and I just knew I would get plenty of use out of it.

When the time came to christen the new drill I was prepared (meaning I had a loss of limb rider added to my health insurance coverage). Because the house was new there were no nail holes or screw holes in the entire house. I decided it would be better to start slow, in a place I couldn’t do a lot of damage. The decision was made to hang an ironing board holder in the laundry room.

I called the entire family in for the grand audition of the new drill. I opened the instruction book for the ironing board hanger. The first page said: “Siga las instrucciones.” I said: “This doesn’t make any sense to me.” Christi said: “Turn it over and read it in English.” The instructions said all the tools I would need was a drill and Philips screwdriver. They supplied the screws, screw anchors, and little metal hooks. After that the directions got a little fuzzy.

It said to screw two holes into the dry wall and then tap in the screw anchors so the ironing board wouldn’t pull out of the wall. What they neglected to tell me was the screw holes had to be smaller than the anchors.

I measured the distance between the holes and used “my wife’s” level to make sure the holes were straight. I marked the spots with a pencil, winked at my kids, and pulled the drill out of its case. I put it in drive and drilled the first pencil mark into the dry wall, put it in reverse and slowly backed it out. So far, so good. I did the same thing with the other mark. Precision drilling. I slid the drill into my tool belt and stepped back to admire my work.

Then I placed the first screw anchor in the hole and lightly tapped it in place until it was perfectly flush with the wall. That’s when it all started to unravel. Suddenly the anchor disappeared. Vanished in thin air! And then I could hear the terrible “chicking” sound as the screw anchor made it’s way down the space between the dry wall and the stud, to the dark 2 x 4 grave below.

In the first few moments, nobody said a word. I mean, not a sound! Then suddenly the entire family burst into laughter. I turned around, set the drill on the washing machine, and haven’t touched it since. I figured I live with enough failure in the pastorate--I don’t need more at home!

Unlike me, the Early Church seemed to have no failures. There were no botched projects. They had the Midas touch. Everything they touched turned to gold. These early disciples were an amazing group of people. Luke tells us: “All the believers were one in heart and mind” (4:32). There was amazing agreement between them. Not only that, we’re told: “There were no needy persons among them,” because needs were being met through the sacrificial generosity of the believers (v. 34).

They were bold in witness, effective in evangelism, faithful in prayer, courageous in persecution, loving to all. They were successful in every way. And as a result we’re told that: “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (2:47).
But success never means the end of problems--it just means a new set of problems. More people aren’t less mess--more people just make the mess messier. And in the midst of their success a situation developed that threatened to fracture the unity of the church.

THE PROBLEM

What was the problem? The problem was they had outgrown their system of administration. And that problem manifested itself in two ways.

The first part of the problem was a dispute between two ethnic groups in the Church. It was a conflict between the Hellenists and the Hebrews. The Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews from the Diaspora who were now living in Jerusalem. The Hebraic Jews were those who had lived in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas all along and who spoke Aramaic.

Many Hellenist Jews returned to Jerusalem in their later years to die and be buried near Mount Zion. Since they weren’t native to Jerusalem, when they died, their widows had no regular means of sustenance. There was no social security system. With no family to support them the widows had nowhere to turn for survival.

Jewish society had a built in system to help those widows. They were cared for by daily subsidies from the synagogues. But when the Grecian widows became Christians the synagogues began to cut off their assistance leaving them without any support.
Apparently the Christians had already set up a similar structure for caring for those widows, but it didn’t seem to be working. The Grecian Jews in the Church were complaining the Hebraic widows were getting preferential treatment over the Hellenist widows.

Because it was the Hellenist believers who were doing the complaining you get the feeling it might be more than a simple oversight. Many of the Hebraic Jews believed the Greeks were second-class citizens. They spoke a different language and had different color skin.

The Hebraic Jews were insiders--the Hellenist Jews were outsiders. The Hebraic Jews were old-timers--the Hellenist Jews were newcomers. As much as we hate to admit it you can count on the fact diversity and change in the Church will always bring opportunities for prejudice, discrimination, and injustice.

But that was only half of the problem. The other issue was up to that point the Apostles were the ones doing the work of the Church. They were not only responsible for leading, preaching, and teaching--they were also running the soup kitchen and food pantry

Now, on the one hand it was important to have the work of the church embody the mission of the church. The problem was the Church was growing and the calling of the twelve apostles didn’t match up with all the needs of the Church. And the result was the “grumbling and complaining” of those who felt ignored.

When I was in San Diego a few weeks ago I spent some time with the pastor of a large growing church in El Cajon. The church is nearly 70 years old, but in the last ten years has grown from about 700 to over 4,000 in morning worship. They’ve made the transition from being an old traditional church into a vibrant missional church. They have four Sunday services and one Saturday night service to accommodate the crowds.
About a year ago though they found themselves bumping an attendance ceiling they couldn’t break through. After ten years of exponential growth they realized they weren’t moving anymore. They felt like they were stuck. And so they decided to conduct a self-study by bringing in a well-respected church growth expert to help analyze their situation.

After several weeks of observing their church in action, the expert finally came back and said: “I think I know the problem. You have twelve pastors and over 4,000 members. You are effectively staffed for decline. And until you either hire more pastors or begin a massive training and equipping strategy for your people, not only will you not continue to grow--you will begin to decline.”

That was the problem with the Early Church. They were “staffed for decline.” Not only that, they were “organized for decline.” There was no way they could continue to effectively minister to a growing congregation with twelve leaders. They had to distribute spiritual authority and ministry leadership to other people!

It was the same situation for Moses and the nation of Israel. Moses was trying to minister to the people by himself. He would meet with the people from sun up to sun down to settle their disputes. When his father-in-law Jethro arrived on the scene, and saw the burden Moses was carrying he said: “What in the world are you doing here? You can’t do this by yourself! You’re not only going to wear yourself out--you’re going to wear the people out. They’ve been standing in line all day just for five minutes of your time. It’s not wrong for you to represent the people before God, but you need some help!”

So this is what he recommended: “Find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as judges over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. These men can serve the people, resolving all the ordinary cases. Anything that is too important or too complicated can be brought to you. But they can take care of the smaller matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the task easier for you. If you follow this advice, and if God directs you to do so, then you will be able to endure the pressures, and all these people will go home in peace” (Exodus 18:21-23).
It was good advice. That’s exactly what the apostles decided to do. They said: It’s not right that we should give up preaching and teaching to be running the food pantry. God has called us to preach and pray--not dip and scoop.

This sounds like they were disparaging the value of waiting on tables, but they weren’t. They considered it to be an important enough issue to stop and deal decisively with it. It was essential for Church vitality, unity, and health. Trying to do the entire ministry had ended up being a distraction to their primary calling of the Word of God and prayer. They were so busy doing the good work of serving the body they were neglecting the critical work of building up the body.

The word of God and prayer are so central to the growth of the Church, Luke will say again and again: “The Word of God spread! The Word of God multiplied! The Word of God grew!”

The word and prayer are so central to the health of a growing Church Satan will actually use a congregation’s expectations and traditions (often innocent in themselves) to distract pastors from what is required for effective proclamation of the word.

When I came to be the pastor of this church the first thing I said to you is everyone will have a list of expectations for what you want me to be as a pastor. It will be a reasonable list. But when you add hundreds of reasonable lists together it becomes an overwhelming list. I will never try and purposefully disappoint any of you, but when I inevitably do you’ll know I’m human. My focus will be preaching and teaching and prayer, because if I get those right and put them in their proper order God will bless His church.

The Jerusalem church faced the same problem.

THE SOLUTION

So what was the solution? They needed more ministry leaders in the community! The Apostles said: “Here’s what we suggest. Look around and pick out a good round number like seven men (you know how much we like this number) and let’s put them in charge of administration. But here’s the thing. If they’re going to lead a ministry they have to meet four qualifications.”

Ministry leaders should already be a vital part of the church. Verse 3 says: “Look around among yourselves”. The NIV says: “Choose from those who are around you” (3a). Do you know what that is saying? It’s saying when a gift of the Spirit is needed in a local church we don’t need to look any further than the local body. I am convinced whoever and whatever is needed for ministry is already among us--and if not they are on the way!

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 says: “Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.”

Those are questions of abilities. But spiritual leadership goes beyond special abilities. It deals with the character of a person--their inner life.

Ministry leaders need to be well respected. They need to have a solid reputation. The word in Greek is martyr, meaning witness. The word has two uses--it can mean a person of whom a good witness is given (integrity) or a person who is good in witnessing.

Certainly the apostles wanted ministry leaders of impeccable character, but the character should be a witness to Christ in them and actively involved in communicating his love to others.

Ministry leaders need to be full of the Holy Spirit. They need to have so fully given themselves to following Christ that God’s saving, sanctifying, and edifying grace is clearly and continuously evident in their lives.

You say: “Isn’t every Christian filled with the Holy Spirit? Isn’t every believer a Spirit-filled Christian?” Apparently not, or else the apostles wouldn’t have made it a criterion.
Romans 8:9 clearly teaches that: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” And so the Holy Spirit is resident in each and every believer when they’re born again to salvation. But the New Testament shows time and time again that to be FULL of the Spirit is something distinct and observable in some way. That’s why Paul said to the church in Ephesus: “Keep on being filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18.
Being filled with the Spirit was something that could be known and identified about certain people in the Jerusalem church. The Spirit of the living Christ had such control over certain people’s lives that it created a reputation.

Ministry leaders need to have great wisdom. The word sophia here means the ability to discern the right thing to do when choices need to be made. Not just some mental acuteness and understanding, but a common-sense attitude to life directed by the Spirit. It has to do with tact in dealing with people of different opinions. Being able to see another viewpoint other than our own. Having an open mind concerning matters of decision. Being down to earth, ready to serve in practical ways and meet human needs. That’s wisdom.

What were these qualifications all about? The apostles knew only when ministry leaders embody the values of the Spirit could they then begin to reflect those values to the Church.

The congregation liked the proposal. They chose seven Spirit-filled men and presented them to the apostles who laid their hands on them and prayed. What were they doing? In the Old Testament when hands were laid on someone it had the significance of “pouring your personality--or a quality you possessed relevant at the moment--into someone else.” What the apostles passed on to these seven through the laying on of hands was not the Spirit--they were already filled with the Spirit. They were giving them authority to work as the apostles’ representatives in a specific task. They were calling them to the work! They were commissioning them to the ministry. They were sharing the ministry load.

THE OUTCOME

The word of God just kept spreading, and multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. The Church had a problem. They were too successful! They had too many people who were too different. But then again kingdom communities never look all that much alike. They are always adapting--always changing--always meeting each other half way.
Do you know why? Because kingdom communities seek to embody the Spirit of the risen Christ in their midst. And when the risen Christ is around every conflict has a solution. There is a possibility in every problem. There is potential in every predicament