A Growing Church With Growing Pains (Part 1) Series

A GROWING CHURCH WITH GROWING PAINS

(Part 1)

Acts 6:1-7

There are times when young children complain of pain in their extremities; a common response from parents is, “ah, it is just growing pains”. However, according to the Mayo Clinic and other medical researchers there is no evidence that growth hurts. Experts surmise that these pains may be linked to a lower pain threshold, or in some cases they may be related to certain psychological issues.

I will leave the legitimacy of physical growing pains to the medical experts, but I can say without any doubt that a growing church will experience growing pains. A great example of this reality is found in the first century Church. In Acts 2:47 Luke declares that “the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved.” As a result of this rapid and continual growth, there were certain problems within the church that had to be addressed.

The first few verses of Chapter six tell us how the leaders of the Church handled this situation. Let’s examine this passage and consider “A Growing Church With Growing Pains”.

Throughout the years I have been involved in several churches that experienced certain “growing pains”. One church experienced rapid growth and the biggest problem was that there were not enough parking spaces. Another church saw great growth but it stalled (and eventually declined) because the building was not large enough to accommodate the number of people who were attending.

The first church that I was blessed to pastor experienced its own share of growing pains. In 2009 the number of people attending our services surged from less than fifty to around one hundred and fifty. We had plenty of parking spaces and the size of our building was more than sufficient; however, we did not have the people or the processes in place to handle such rapid growth.

This is similar to the problems faced by those in the early church. There was no shortage of people in the church, but there was a segment of the church body that was being neglected. Verse one says, “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.”

In the first century, daily disbursements were made to the poor widows within the Church. In Jewish culture, women did not receive an inheritance; therefore they depended on their husband other relatives for support. There were many widows among the community of believers and the Church was faithful to care for them.

There was a great spirit of love, compassion and benevolence among those in the early Church. The Saints sold their own possessions and gave money to the Apostles who would then provide food and other daily necessities for those who were in need. It is estimated that at this point in time there were over twenty thousand men, women, and children who were part of Christ’s Church.

By the time of Christ, many of the Jews were living outside of Israel. Throughout Israel’s history, the Jewish people were conquered and sent into exile on several different occasions. There were also many Jews who left Israel for political or economic reasons. When given the opportunity, many of them returned to Israel. However, many others remained in the surrounding Gentile countries, perhaps because the living conditions in those regions were more comfortable and enticing.

Verse one introduces us to two different groups of Jews; the “Hebrews” and the “Hellenists”. “Hebrews” were native Jews who lived in Jerusalem and Judea. They attended local Synagogues that primarily spoke in Aramaic and they used the Hebrew Old Testament. “Hellenists” (or Grecians) refer to Jews who lived outside of Israel; they were raised in Hellenistic culture and they used the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament).

The Hellenists began to complain because their widows were not being provided for in the same way as the Hebrew widows. As we have already mentioned, the Hellenists primarily spoke Greek, while the Hebrews spoke Aramaic. It is possible that this language barrier may have contributed to the neglect of the Hellenists. Regardless of the motivation, it is apparent that there was a growing tension within the body of Believers. When tension and discord in the Church goes unaddressed it can become a major issue that can lead to dissention and destruction.

Satan failed in his attempt to destroy Christ; however, after the Resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Satan did not give up his mission of destruction; rather, he turned his attention to Christ’s Church. He prompted the religious leaders to come against the Apostles and to do all that was within their power to silence the followers of the Lord. They tried to stifle the Apostles, silence the message of the Gospel, and suppress the growth of the Church. Each time the opposite happened; as they persecuted Christ’s followers: they were emboldened, the Gospel spread, and the Church continued to grow.