Growing pains- they can be a good thing. There’s a saying that goes, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Growing pains can also be bad- after all, they’re a pain. It hurts. As a child growing to maturity, there are a number of times you go through growing pains. Sometimes, those are physical pains. I had a friend named Mark who had a genetic condition that his bones didn’t grow as fast as the rest of him and whenever he’d hit a growth spurt, he was in a great deal of pain, at times missing school as a result. Sometimes, the growing pains are emotional, like watching helplessly as your parents make decisions that are going to impact you for the rest of your life.
The universal church has also experienced growing pains over the centuries since Christ’s ascension. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many denominations. Initially, it was the Catholic/Orthodox split in part over who was the head of the church. Then came the splits involving Lutheran and other Protestant groups. Our own brotherhood of churches began as a restoration to Scriptural authority in the early 1800s.
Individual churches also go through growing pains. Why? Because the church is made up of individual human beings, each with their own ideas of how to go about doing things. It’s not that the ideas are necessarily right or wrong or even one being better than another. They’re just different.
Sometimes these differences are over very important matters that must be addressed, things like Salvation and the Role of the Holy Spirit. Too often though, the disagreements seem to concern more trivial matters such as whether people should sit in pews or chairs, where the flag should be displayed, what color the shingles need to be on the roof. I’ve even heard of one church that put red shingles on one side and green shingles on the other because they couldn’t agree. People chose their seats based on which color shingle under which they’d be sitting. This is nothing new. The Bible includes an incident between Paul and Barnabas in which they couldn’t agree about including Mark in their travels and ended up parting ways. Too often, these disagreements are allowed to go too far, resulting in division and splits.
How do we make it through the growing pains without causing division and bringing about a church split? This week’s passage gives a great example. Read Acts 6:1-7.
I have some good news and I have some bad news- which would you like to hear first? The good news is that growth means there are new people at church. The bad news is that growth means there are new people at church. Yes, it’s really both, it all depends on your perspective. When we view this as good news, we recognize that as we follow God’s lead, He is the one who provides the growth. This means that we gain new friends, better yet- brothers and sisters in Christ. This means there are more people to grow deeper through faith. This means there are more people to grow closer through fellowship. This means there are more people to grow stronger through service.
When we choose to view this as bad news, it’s often because we don’t like change, people rarely do. We get comfortable with how things are. Humans tend to be creatures of habit. This happens in churches of all sizes and often results in our younger people being unwilling to invite friends to join them in worship. We forget our purpose- to seek and save the lost and develop a country club atmosphere, saving the benefits for those who already belong. You see, as God provides growth, some of the people He brings will be different from us. This difference may be as superficial as skin color, cultural upbringing, or previous religious experience. The scariest differences that may come are the people who bring different ideas or opinions. As we grow, we will be stretched, we will be challenged, we will be forced to leave our comfort zone.
Such is the good news/bad news problem of the early church in Acts. God was adding to their number daily, but the people weren’t all the same. Some had a Hebrew background while others came from a Greek background. This difference shaped how the different groups went about their day and resulted in the Greek widows being overlooked. Now, I don’t think this was an intentional oversight, but it is a good reminder to us to be looking out for new people. What are the things we take for granted on Sunday morning that we might need to explain so visitors will understand what is going on?
This was a problem that was becoming a distraction from the ministry of the apostles. You see, ministry is meant to be holistic- meeting both spiritual and physical needs, but we as individuals are not each gifted to do all things. This is why Paul writes that there are different parts of the body, each with its own function. The Apostles needed to focus on spreading the word of God, others were needed to care for the widows’ needs.
So how did they solve the problem? They selected ministry leaders to focus on the distribution of food, allowing the Apostles to focus on the ministry of prayer and the word of God. It’s in following this example that I appreciate the efforts of our custodians, people who come in every week to prepare the building for our services so that I can focus on preparing the message for Sunday morning. Notice these traits of the men who were selected to serve as what we now refer to as the first deacons.
They were selected by the church as a whole, not just the apostles. This gave ownership to the people as they were responsible for picking the right men for the job. It also helps people to be more willing to follow leaders whom they have selected. Our church goes through a similar process. Each year, we take nominations for people to serve as elders, deacons, and directors on our church board. When I was selected to be minister here, the elders asked me to come and present a trial sermon, then the entire church was able to vote whether or not they thought I was the right person to serve at this time.
The second thing we see about these men is that they were to be full of the Spirit and wisdom (my mother always used to say that I’m full of bologna myself). How do we know someone is full of the Spirit? Based on what Peter proclaimed in Acts 2, they must be a believer in Jesus Christ as the son of God, Lord and Savior of all. They must proclaim their faith through immersion in order to receive the promised Holy Spirit. As their faith has matured, they display the fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5.
How do we know someone is full of wisdom? We must understand that this is a gift of the Spirit. Too often the role of gifts of the Spirit is mixed up with the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is singular, all those traits should be present. Gifts are plural, everyone has at least one, but I’ve never met anyone who has them all. Each person will be gifted differently as the Spirit sees fit. These gifts are listed in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, I encourage you to study these gifts and explore which the Spirit has given you. This idea of wisdom carries the connotation of a practical wisdom, also known as common sense or street smarts. The person who has wisdom knows exactly what will be needed for the situation.
The third trait of these men, based on the list of names, is that each of them was likely Greek. It wasn’t necessarily a qualification for the job, but an interesting observation considering the situation. Because it had been the Greek widows who were neglected, having Greeks take care of the ministry lent a sense of trust to those who had struggled with the issue. They knew the problem was being handled with their best interest at heart and knowing what it had been like for the Greeks, they would ensure the same injustice would not happen for the Hebrews.
The result of creating this new ministry role? The text tells us that the word of God spread and the number of disciples increased. Even Jewish priests began to follow Christ.
So, how does this apply to us as a church? I believe that God desires that we grow. If we focus on growing together- deeper through faith, closer through fellowship, stronger through service- God will bring the numeric growth. Here is what I need from you as a church:
Prayer. Be praying for upcoming decisions that need to be made by our leaders. Be praying for people to be drawn to Christ as Lord and Savior. Be praying for what role you will take on as together we grow.
Feedback. We may be trying some new things in the near future. While I don’t have details just yet, I do know that some of those things will go very well and others not so well. We will need you to let us know both the things you like and the things you didn’t like and how we might do them better for best effect. As we follow God’s lead, He’s going to stretch us. There may be some things that will pull you out of your comfort zone. Give it a chance, yet challenge us as well so that we’re able to properly evaluate our efforts. Through it all, remember we’re in this together.
Involvement. As Christians, we belong to a priesthood of all believers. Each of us have been given different gifts and talents and we need different people to fill different roles. I invite you to try out some new areas of ministry and suggest ministries you’d like to be part of. We’re taught the 80/20 principle in college- 80% of the work in church is done by 20% of the people. You can help change that be getting involved.
Here is the crux of the matter- the world is watching. At times of conflict, our church will go through some growing pains. We have two options- let the conflict overwhelm us, fall on our collective faces, and the world will move on or we can shine for God and those who are watching will be drawn. Always remember, some of us will plant seeds, others will water the plants, God will bring the growth.
Invitation
