Lechem Panim #147 "Learning To Delegate” (Acts 6:2-7) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome again to Lechem Panim.

The 1st Organizational Crisis— In chapter 6 of the book of Acts we have been taking a look at the beginning stages of the Early Church, which in this passage we see is  facing its first serious organizational crisis, as it is brought to the attention of the apostles that the needs of the Hellenist Jewish widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution. Due to the rapid growth of the Church, it was becoming harder and harder for the apostles to do all the work themselves; and so we see people beginning to slip through the cracks. And what is so admirable about the apostles is that they are smart enough to recognize that this way of doing ministry is simply not sustainable. They simply cannot handle the full weight of the ministry by themselves. And if the Church was going to remain stable and able to move on to the next stage of the Great Commission, moving out into Samaria and then beyond into the world and to the very ends of the earth, further planning and structuring would become necessary. And so it says in…

Acts 6:2 (ESV)— 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Table— Now the word here for tables is “trapeza”, which is a Greek word that can mean the kind of table you eat at. But it can also mean “a table or counter of a money changer” or “money matters” (as we see in Matt. 21:12 when Jesus overturns the tables (the “trapeza”) of the moneychangers. But whether we are talking about serving food or dealing with the finances, the apostles recognized that performing these additional ministries themselves would take them away from their central calling, which was to devote themselves to prayer, preaching, teaching, and studying the Word of God. And so they demonstrate one of the rare gifts that any pastor of any successful church has mastered; and that is the ability to say “no”.

A Black Hole Man— You know, that is a word that I wish I had learned much earlier in my life; it would have save me and and my family a lot of pain. In fact, looking back, I wish that my college or seminary had offered a class called something like “100 Ways to Politely and Lovingly say ‘No’”; because when I first entered ministry, let me tell you, I was was like a black hole. I absorbed so many responsibilities, it was borderline insane. In fact, I don’t know how I survived into my 2nd year of ministry. Fresh out of seminary, I found myself preaching/teaching a bare minimum of three messages a week, each of which required a lot of sermon prep. And added onto that were preparations for our monthly men’s breakfast (during which I would share a devotional I had prepared) and also helping to lead worship at a monthly worship service at the local veterans home, during which I would also share another devotional. I was also leading a weekly prayer meeting, teaching the occasional Sunday school class, and (because our Church had no secretary) I absorbed all the secretarial responsibilities as well. And I remember one night at a board meeting the person doing our Church bulletins announced they no longer wanted to do them (it had become too much of a burden), and so I willingly stepped in on what I thought would be a temporary basis to take over that responsibility, but unfortunately never stopped. Now naturally, because it was a small church, I was also responsible for the pastoral home visitations and hospital visitations. But since most of our people wanted to go to the city for medical care (and hour and 15 minutes away), that meant 2 and 1/2 hrs travel time alone plus whatever time I spent there with the person. And what made matters worse is I did not even communicate with my leadership what I was doing and so they had no idea the tremendous load that I was carrying.
    Now thankfully I eventually did learn how to delegate, but it wasn’t natural for me at first because I thought it was wrong for me to say “no”. But it wasn’t. But there are many pastors (and people in general) whose lives and ministries are a constant burden to them simply because they haven’t experienced the liberation of that two-letter word “no”.

The Best “Yes”— And the reasons the apostles were restrictive of their time wasn’t because they were mean or because they didn’t want to help. It was because they recognized that in order for them to say their best “yes” to the things God had appointed them to do, they had to say “no” to a lot of other things that were not God’s will for them do to themselves. They knew where their priorities lay and decided (together) that they were not going to allow anything, however pressing, to distract them from those duties. And so they propose a solution. They say in…

Acts 6:3-4 (ESV)— 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Did The Apostles Err?— Now there’s a mighty man of God I look up to in so many ways. And the insights he draws from the text are both very good and very applicable. But he has made the point on a number of occasions, saying that this decision of the apostles was not a good one because in their devotion to the Word they were neglecting to live out the Word in people’s lives in and through compassionate ministry. They had turned away from a key element of what it means to be a Christian and passed it off to somebody else, wrongly elevating the ministry of the Word over tasks that they thought were beneath them. But that viewpoint is wrong for a number of reasons. First, there is no evidence to suggest that the apostles were completely giving up the meeting of people’s physical needs themselves. They no doubt continued to wait on the occasional table (whatever that might look like) now and again. No, what we are are talking about here comes down to the nature of our specific callings. I agree with my friend that we are all to be involved in compassionate ministry. However, while we are all called to help to meet the physical needs of people to some degree, what we are talking about here is the importance of defining what a person’s central role in the Church is to be. Because the person who tries to do everything, will do none of it very well. That is why Paul says in…

Romans 12:4-8 (ESV)— 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

So while we may wear the occasion extra hat when needed (as is typical and needed in a small church), the goal must always be not to try to be the whole body of Christ yourself, but to be the best ear; the best toe; or the best mouth you can be. Because you try to be a toe AND a mouth; that’s just nasty. It tastes funny, if you know what I mean. But you know, it’s interesting…

No Mowing— I have a friend who, when he was being interviewed for a pastoral position at a church, was asked whether or not he would help keep up the Church grounds. And he said, “No.” And the board was shocked at first. And he said, “First of all, let me tell you. I can do that. But YOU don’t want me doing that. There are other areas you are going to want me to focus on.” And he was right. There were plenty of people in that church who could do it and (after the church hired him) those people did step up and found their place in the ministry of the Church. Now I admire his courage to help lead that church into a better way of doing things. Delegation is key; because my pastor friend was not the one God had called to do that job. And he didn’t want to rob someone else of their opportunity to follow God in serving in that capacity, which would also result in my friend having less time to devote himself to prayer and the ministry of the Word, which is a pastor’s central role. And that is why one of the key roles of a pastor is to recognize the gifts and abilities of others and help them to use them for God’s glory; and that includes connecting their gifts with the Church. Because if you don’t, you hurt the Church and you hurt the people who are receiving your services; because you’re not the one whom God has chosen for that. You may not be the best-equipped person in your Church for that or (as is often the case) you may be wearing too many hats to do all these services as well as they could be done by individuals who can make them their primary focus. But worst of all, you may be hurting the other Church members because you are denying them a means through which they can use and express the gifts that God has given them. And those churches that don’t delegate well simply do not grow. It’s as simple as that. And while a church may survive for some time like that, it (and the pastor) will be severely unhealthy and crippled. This is what Moses himself had to discover after leading God’s people out of Egypt. He quickly felt the weight of trying to do everything himself. And thankfully, he had a father-in-law who had the courage to confront him about it and say, “what you are doing is wrong.” And then he taught him how to delegate. And being the humble, teachable man that he was, Moses listened to his father-in-law and delegated; and the problem was fixed. But this is the Biblical pattern (Ex. 18:17-23). And what’s significant is that the early Church recognized this and accepted it unanimously. It says in…

Acts 6:5-6 (ESV)— 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

All Greek— Now notice two things. First, how many were there? Seven. And seven is God’s number; it symbolizes completeness and perfection. But notice something else; something about the names themselves. Does anything stand out to you about those names? Which of those names are Jewish? None. None of them are Jewish. All seven bore Greek names. So what group of people were these men most likely a part of? The Hellenists. Now that is important because in that we see demonstrated the love and unity of the Church. Because remember it was the Hellenists who felt they were feeling neglected. And so the Church appointed seven of the Hellenists themselves to oversee them. They chose people who would be the most in tune with their needs and who were most qualified to be a voice on their behalf. And it was that loving act that probably held the Church together when it so easily could have split apart. And so Satan’s 3rd strategy (his strategy of dissension) failed, because the Church was willing to come together rather than be driven apart; to restructure around what God was doing, and to (following the Holy Spirit) choose those best equipped for that ministry.

The Closing: God’s Confirmation Blessing— Now up until this point Luke has closed each major section of the book of Acts with a description of the growth of the Church. And this has been a way of Luke’s highlighting God’s backing and approval of the way the apostles were leading. God had no problems confronting sin in the Church and bringing it to light, as He did with Ananias and Sapphira. And if the apostles sinned or erred on this matter, God would no doubt have confronted them about it as well. Yet instead we find again a description of the blessing of God. It says…

Acts 6:7 (ESV)— 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Converted Priests— Now don’t miss this. It says a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. [These were, of course, not the chief priests or members of the Sanhedrin, but a very large number of the rank and file priests who ministered in the temple.] In fact [It has been estimated that there were eight thousand Jewish priests attached to the temple ministry in Jerusalem, and {so it is more than just some nice little bit of icing on the cake; this is a big piece of the cake. According to this} “a great company” of them trusted Jesus Christ as Savior!] It’s amazing what God can do through a Church that is flexible and malleable in His hands; a Church that knows how to delegate. And remember, flexible churches are always filled with flexible people; with moldable, shapeable individuals. And so I want to challenge you today to be shapeable in the hands of God. Be willing to adjust to the needs of those around you. And if you have a gift that God is calling you to use, give that gift to Him today. Let’s commit to do so. Amen.