Saturday
Saturday
A Vital Principle
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Ephesians 4:11–12
A vital principle is illustrated in the appointment of the Seven. It is this. Although God calls all his people to ministry, he calls different people to different ministries, and those who are called to the ministry of the Word and prayer must on no account allow themselves to be distracted from these priorities. It is surely deliberate that the work of the Twelve and the work of the Seven are both called diakonia, meaning “ministry” or “service.” The former is “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4) or pastoral work, while the latter is the ministry of tables (v. 2, literally “to serve tables”) or social work. Both are Christian ministries. Both require spiritual people to exercise them, and both can be full-time ministries. The only difference between them lies in the form their ministry takes, requiring different gifts and different callings. We do a great disservice to the church when we refer to the pastorate as “the ministry.” The use of the definite article implies that we think the ordained pastorate is the only ministry there is. But diakonia is a generic word for service; it lacks specificity until a descriptive adjective is added—pastoral, social, political, medical, educational, and many others. We need to recover this vision of the wide diversity of ministries to which God calls his people.
In particular, it is vital for the health and growth of the church that pastors and people in the local congregation learn this lesson. The apostles were not too busy for ministry, but were preoccupied with the wrong ministry. So are many pastors today. Instead of concentrating on the ministry of the Word, they have become overwhelmed with administration. Sometimes it is the pastor’s fault (he wants to keep all the reins in his own hands), and sometimes the people’s (they want him to be a general factotum). In either case, the consequences are disastrous. The standards of preaching and teaching decline, and the laypeople cannot exercise their God-given roles. As a direct result of the action of the apostles, “the word of God spread” and “the number of disciples … increased rapidly” (v. 7). But of course! The spread of the Word and the growth of the church go hand in hand.
For further reading, see Luke’s six summaries of growth: Acts 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20; 28:30–31