"the Seven" Acts 5: 12-16; Acts 6: 1-6

We continue through "Significant Moments in Acts."

I am not sure yet how the passage from Chapter 5 will fit into the sermon.  It seemed fitting to me to give some sense of what the disciples were doing at the time of this story.  Any thoughts on how the passage from Chapter 5 fits with the passage from Chapter 6?

If you have served on a Nominating Committee at FPC, Troy since I have served here, there is a good chance you have heard me reflect on this passage. Although the word for "deacon" is not used here, we recognize in this story (perhaps Luke tells this story to confirm the purpose of deacons) the development of deacons, who are called on to do pastoral care.  It seems to me that the church had a choice -- we can either split up those who are evangelizing, or we can do the pastoral care thing, or we can do both.  I think it's a powerful statement that the leaders decide that the task of sharing the good news is too important to not do, but that they also recognize the need to add pastoral care to their repertoire.

I also find it interesting that the early church learns from the critique of the secular world.  Sometimes we think that the world ought to learn from the church, but the church can't learn from the world.  In this case, the early church takes its cue from how the world views them.

I also marvel at the willingness of the early leaders to try a new thing, instead of insisting that everything fit into the idea of twelve leaders who do evangelism.  Can you think of examples when the church leadership/structure were very flexible?  I am reminded of how the Building committee worked to switch worship from the Sanctuary to the outdoors when the threat of asbestos was discovered.  I also remember how quickly the church I attended in college created a College age group when they discovered seven freshmen attending their church.  Generally, we think about the church as being difficult to change and inflexible.