Preaching the gospel from Acts 6:1-7

There are many true, useful and interesting things on could say from Acts 6:1-7.

For example, one might say:

• The church can grow despite persecution when the good news of Jesus is proclaimed. 
• Growth can bring problems.
• The early church had problems which threatened the growth of the church.
• It is important to address issues which might impede the spread of God’s word.
• Prayer and ministry of the word are priorities for the church.
• Practical acts of caring and good administration are important too.
• Practical jobs should ideally be done by those who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
• Leadership and service are shared with people having different responsibilities and roles.
• The Apostles led the church but everyone was involved in making / agreeing decisions.

But what is the burden and thrust of the passage that will not only inform the mind but move the heart and activate the will?

And in particular how does it proclaim the biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for that is surely the purpose of Scripture and of all faithful preaching?

Yes, we need teaching about church life and how we might organise things and so on, but we need each Sunday to hear good news which will be life and joy to us as we trust in Christ.

So how would you do that from Acts 6:1-7. Oh, and one of the services is an all age too!

One of the issues with reading this and other passages in Acts might be expressed as the narrative / normative dilemma: when is Luke telling us what happened and when is he telling us what should happen? Or perhaps more accurately, how and in what respects is this narrative normative? Acts is not first of all a handbook for church government. Granted, for example, that the early church took a decision by casting lots, and even that it was right to do so, does not mean that all church decisions should be taken in this way in the future. Or to relate it to this passage, the seven were all men with Greek names. Does that mean that all deacons should (a) be men and / or (b) have Greek names? Thinking about this can alert us to our own assumptions. The whole of Scripture will help to inform our reading and applying of this passage. And we must do that with the good news of Jesus front and centre.

The spirit formed community of the church serving one another in love is one fruit and expression of that gospel. She is the New Israel experiencing new covenant blessings in which all are invited to partake.

Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13) All Age Game / Intro.

Look away now if you are coming on Sunday!

I am planning to have a weed or not quiz, and then to go on to mention Jesus and the gospel!

I've got images of these plants on the screen and the idea is that everyone will have a red card to hold up for weed and a green card to hold up for not weed:


Weed or not quiz!



What is a weed?



A plant in the wrong place



OED: “a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants”



Aggressive, invasive, hard to get rid of, likely to take over



Stinging nettles - Urtica dioica



Daffodills – Narcissus - variety called King Alfred – deer resistant! / deter deer



Sticky weed - Galium aparine – goosegrass - The small, hairy seeds are produced in large quantities, of between 300-400 seeds per plant, are easily distributed and can persist in the soil for 6 years.



Sunflowers – Helianthus - some discussion online of whether or not they are weeds! – perennial sunflowers can grow wild, spread rapidly and be invasive causing problems for farmers



Mock strawberries - Duchesnea indica – not edible, yellow flowers



Aster – daisy like – come in white purple and red – often mistaken for a weed



Japanese knotweed - Reynoutria japonica – many common names: fleeceflower, Himalayan fleece vine, billyweed, monkeyweed, monkey fungus, elephant ears, pea shooters, donkey rhubarb, American bamboo, and Mexican bamboo



Orange hackweed - Pilosella aurantiaca - fox-and-cubs, orange hawk bit,[3]:208 devil's paintbrush, grim-the-collier – can be v invasive – notifiable in some parts of the world, eradication programmes



Mountain mint - Pycnanthemum muticum – often mistaken for a weed – leaves look like they’ve been dusted with icing sugar

Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor - book group jottings

Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor:

Discovering Joy in Our Limitations Through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

 (Crossway, 2015)

(Updated shorter re-write of Sensing Jesus)

Some jottings for a pastors' book group

Did you find the American / anecdotal / personal aspects a help or a barrier?



Did you find it interesting / striking / usual?



Did you enjoy the somewhat poetic style?



Was it a useful reminder of Jesus the Perfect Shepherd as the model for under-shepherds?



Part 1: The Calling We Pursue



What are your desires (in / through ministry)? (Chapter 1, p17ff)

What do you want Jesus to do for you? (p29ff)

Do you want to do large things famously and fast if possible?

Would you be content to be an unnamed mountain – with faithful obscurity? (p20)



Are you worried that you might e.g. receive praise for a sermon but know little about how to follow Jesus in your living room? (p26)



Did it challenge your ideas of success / what the pastor’s vocation ideally is?



Do you agree our constituency has issues with celebrity pastors and success culture?



Are you tempted to be hasty and neglect mattering things? (p26)



What does it mean to be a pastor and a human being? (Chapter 2, p33ff)

Is there a risk of sacrificing our humanity to the pastor role / persona / identity?

Do you agree that “Christian life and ministry are an apprenticeship with Jesus towards recovering our humanity and, through his Spirit, helping others do the same” for, through, with in Jesus to the glory of God? (p35)

Do you need to recover your humanity? In what senses?

What about the bodily / physical and local?

How might you do that?



What in your background / home life has shaped you? (Chapter 3, p45ff)

How do you tend to relate to men and women?

What are your fears? Are you tempted to use your fists or to run?



Do you embrace the mundane, invisible, uncontrollable, unfinished work of the pastor? (p58f)

How are your private prayers?

Do you agree this seems ineffective?

Are you trusting Jesus or appearances or sub-Jesus methods?



Part 2: The Temptations We Face?



Do you feel the temptations to be:

Everywhere for all? (Chapter 5, p73ff)

Fix it all? (Chapter 6, p89ff)

Know it all? (Chapter 7, p103ff)

Immediacy? (Chapter 8, p117ff)

(In a way these are temptations to be God!)



Are you too quick to throw lots of Bible words at stuff? (p91ff)



Are you in a hurry? Would anyone ever think of you as patient?!



Augustine (p103): you only really understand any Scripture when it tends towards you loving God / your neighbour



Do you need the mantra “I am not the Christ!”? (p35)



Part 3: Reshaping Our Inner Life



How is your inner life?

Do you give attention to it?

How?



How are you with solitude / silence / quiet?



What are your main ambitions? (cf. Chapter 9, p135ff)

Are you seeking wisdom?



How is your walk with God?

Do you long above all things to behold the face of God in Christ from the Scriptures? (Chapter 10, p151ff)



Do you think your pace is healthy? (Chapter 11, p169ff)

How could it be better?

Do you normally manage to live in an appropriate day at a time kind of way? Does the past or the future press in unhelpfully?



How do you feel about emotions?!

Do you think about the emotional toll of different aspects of your work? What drains / energises you?



What are you most burdened from / for? (p170)



Portions of the Day (p169ff) – persuasive? Useful?



Do you “strategically rest in order to vigorously keen going?” (p183)



Part 4: Reshaping the Work We Do



Did you value what he said about:

Visiting the sick (chapter 12, p187ff)

Touch (p188ff)

Calling the elders to pray for the sick / James 5:14 (p194ff)

The care of sinners / church discipline (Chapter 13, p199) – was any of this applicable to the C of E?!

Local knowledge (Chapter 14, p213ff)

Slowing down

Leadership (Chapter 15, p229ff)

Ways of training other leaders

Do you think of these as important parts of your work?

Was what he said helpful?



Do we cause unintended harms which should be red flags to us? (p211)



Do you agree that “pastoral care is mostly presence, being with someone in the midst of what troubles them”? (p191) How are you at that?



What areas do you neglect / decisions do you leave to others / things you don’t sweat?

Are you good at really giving permission and living with the consequences?

Do you micromanage everything / some things?



Is leadership “mostly about trying to embody what we invite others to follow”? (p229) So what?



Useful to ask: is this the right thing? In the right way? At the right time? (p236ff)



Romantic realism – neither defeatist empiricist resignation nor total romanticism (Chapter 16, p245ff)



* * *



Did you find the Bible handling persuasive?



Might the book change how you carry on at all?!