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Dealing With Church Problems (Acts 6:1-7) Acts 6 shows the church dealing with one of its first great problems and gives us some guidelines for dealing with problems today. |
Dealing With Church Problems (Acts 6:1-7)
The beginning of Acts is a record of the church growing: when it preached the truth (Acts 2), when it gave credit to God (Acts 3), when it exhibited conviction during persecution (Acts 4, 5), when there was accountability/discipline (Acts 5), and when it dealt with the problems it faced (Acts 6).
Acts 6 shows the church dealing with one of its first great problems and gives us some guidelines for dealing with problems:
- Define the Problem—they did not let the problem fester, but promptly came together to deal with it (v1-2; cf. 1 Cor. 3:3; Phil. 2:3, 14; James 3:13-18).
- Proclaim the Word of God—apostles prescribed a solution that handled the problem and kept the work going (v2-4). We should always be ready to seek God’s will and Christ’s exam-ple (Col. 3:17; Phil. 2:5; 1 Pet. 2:21). We also see in this the understanding that our problems must not prevent us from doing our work of spreading the gospel—they did not minimize the problem but dealt with it AND kept on working.
- Plead with One Another—encourage one another to do the will of God and work together (v5-6). Consider Paul’s con-stant exhortations to unity (Eph. 4:1-6; etc.) and his humble pleading (I beseech you, 1 Thess. 2).
- Pray—don’t let God out of our processes, rather put Him first (v6). Jesus and early Christians both did this (Lk 6:12; Acts 1:24-25, 4:24ff, 12:12; etc.; James 4:13-15; Col. 4:2)
- Meet with Prosperity—when they dealt with problems, the church kept growing (v7; cf. Phil. 2:14-16).
