If you want your church to grow, and if you want the Kingdom to grow,
you’re going to need to develop many more leaders. In the early church,
an interesting turn of events happens when the apostles shift from
simply preaching to releasing leaders.
The Bible says in the early chapters of Acts that God was “adding” to
the church daily. Shortly into the life of the Jerusalem church, there
arose a conflict between Hellenistic Jews and Hebraic Jews over the care
of orphans and widows. The apostles asked for leaders from the church
to be pointed out and then they released seven men to oversee a new area
of ministry. Suddenly, the terminology changes from God “adding” to the
church to the church “multiplying.”
Out of Acts, chapter 6, we can take away at least seven lessons for
churches that want to grow by empowering and releasing more leaders.
1. A growing church is a Biblical idea.
It says, “In those days the number of disciples were increasing.” If a
church is not growing, it is often because something is unhealthy.
Healthy things grow. Unless the community is already saturated and
everyone reachable has been reached, a church must diagnose what is
breaking down in the leadership development process. We’ve said that if
there is one person who doesn’t know Christ, we’re going to keep
growing. A growing church is biblical.
2. Church growth causes problems.
Acts 6 says that there were “rumblings of discontent.” That’s true in
any church. Sometimes people come to me and say, “Pastor Rick, we’ve
really got a problem in this church.” I want to say, “Which one? I’m
aware of about a couple hundred. Which one are you talking about?” They
say, “You may not recognize this but there’s this need.” Of course we
recognize it. We live with it day and night. But leadership development
takes time, so there are always holes to be filled in any growing
ministry.
3. Problems are always unmet needs.
It says “The Greek speaking Jews claimed their widows were being
neglected in the daily distribution of food.” We would like to think
that everyone in our church’s membership is together in the priority of
seeing more people come to Jesus, but even Christians get distracted
when there are unmet needs in their lives – real or imagined. When you
experience a leadership problem in your church, it almost always flows
out of someone’s unmet need.
4. Pastors cannot do it all.
Their response to this need was, “It wouldn’t be right for us to
neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.”
It’s a legitimate need but it’s not one that God called us to meet.
Spiritual leaders cannot remain spiritual leaders long if they aren’t
spending adequate time at the feet of Jesus seeking wisdom, direction,
and vision.
5. Spirit-filled believers assist the pastoral staff.
They said, “choose seven men, full of the Holy Spirit and we’ll turn
the responsibility over to them.” It’s interesting that if you read
these names in Acts 6 – Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon,
Parmenas, and Nicolaus – you find that they are all Greek names. And
these men cared deeply about the needs of the Greek believers in the
early church.
6. The pastors are to focus on praying and teaching.
He said, “We will give our attention to prayer and teaching of the
word.” I once had to make a covenant with Saddleback Church. If the
people would take on the work of the ministry, I would make sure they
were well fed. That’s been my goal since that time. The ministry of
Saddleback outgrew me a long time ago. Obviously I can’t do all the
ministry. I can’t even do a fraction of the ministry. But I can make
sure that you’re well fed.
7. The result of lay ministry was more growth.
It says, “This proposal pleased the whole group so the word of God increased rapidly (multiplied).” There was
mobilization.
In many churches, all you’re expected to do is attend and give. But
those are really two minor issues related to what God really wants to do
in your life. We have allowed our spectator-oriented culture to
influence the church.
But God teaches us to mobilize every person for ministry – pastors
and staff are to equip all believers for the work of the ministry. We
have to mobilize every member for ministry. This is leadership
development. And this is essential to fulfilling the Great Commission.
October 7, 2013 
